The design brief and theme for this years Chelsea garden is ‘Active and Healthy Gateshead’, highlighting the benefits of green exercise, healthy and self sufficient living. The theme is incorporated into the design by concentrating on two main components which celebrate the different natures of the Borough.
The garden has been designed by Alan J Smith OBE of redboxdesigngroup and sponsored by the Bupa Great North Run Cultural Programme which is celebrating its 30th Anniversary this year. The focus of our exhibit is the iconic image of 55,000 runners pounding across the Tyne Bridge into Gateshead together with a representation of the Great North Forest, which in 2010 is celebrating its 20th Anniversary.
As with our 2009 garden we have included some interactivity in the design which will allow the public to engage with the exhibit on exercise equipment designed to be installed in an external environment.
Rowing machines will be installed in a green gym located along the banks of the ‘River Tyne’. Activity on the machines will generate low voltage electricity to power lighting under the bridge and fountains demonstrating the obvious relationship between exercise and energy. All of the associated technical equipment will be housed in the bridge towers.
In the design Alan has been careful to ensure that exhibit avoids too literal a translation of the ‘Active and Healthy’ theme. He’s also been careful to ensure that it works as a garden without the need for any of the green gym equipment to be in use – and that each of the four sides of the exhibit will be of interest to the viewer.
The Tyne Bridge
A prime component of the design is a replica of part of The Tyne Bridge, which is being constructed in steel and stone, and stands 14m long and 4m high. The scale of the bridge is designed to provide a significant spectacle in the hall, just as the race provides spectacular viewing on the day. The bridge forms a strong diagonal in the design allowing clear expression of the urban and rural aspects.
The Rural
The rural component of the design is embodied in the ‘Great North Forest’ which will be mounded to a height of one metre to conceal the semi mature tree containers. Species will represent those indigenous to the forest - oak, ash, birch and beech will be densely planted with alder, birch, rowan, elder, dogwood, hazel, hawthorn, blackthorn and dog rose, as woodland edge species to replicate the feel. The floor beneath the canopy will be planted with wild flowers, bluebells, miniature narcissi, muscari scilla, campion, foxgloves and fritillaria, primulas and periwinkle to symbolise the biodiversity experienced on woodland walks. This treatment will flow beneath the bridge to the opposite edge of the exhibit.
The outer raised edge around this part of the exhibit will be retained with block work walls and faced in stone, finely cut in horizontal courses representing the compacted sedimentary nature of the riverside but with a subtle reminder of the region’s mining and coal industry, now so long gone but not forgotten, represented by a thin strip of blue slate as if a ‘seam of coal’.
The mounding will fall away to become a turfed grassy bank as it meets the ‘River Tyne’. The river represented by a shallow water course energised by activity on the green gym sports apparatus to create rippling and movement. As the ‘river’ meets the opposite bank the language changes, expressing a harder more urban iteration within the design. Corten (naturally rusted) sheet steel piles 300mm high not only represent the actual revetment and engineering of the banks of the Tyne but also remind us of the material used for the Angel of the North sculpture, and the cladding used on parts of the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art.
The Urban
The urban nature of the Borough is simply portrayed in an orthogonal grid of white 70mm Blanc de Bierges setts (used also for the steps onto the bridge) stitched together with 100mm strips of grey slate evoking the treatment of BALTIC Square. The hard surface provides the location for the ‘Green Gym’ as another active component within the exhibit. An external quality rowing machine and disabled running machine signalling the installation of similar facilities within the Borough during 2010. Pockets of babies’ tears and camomile with panels of herbs will be interspersed within this urban framework signifying the ability to ‘green’ and soften even the smallest of urban areas and the opportunity to grow healthy supplementary foods in urban locations. Once again this treatment flows under the bridge, where it will be lit from a panel inset into the soffit and energised by the running machines on the bridge. The deck of the bridge is a continuous carpet of multi coloured violas evoking the colourful image of the runners in the Great North Run. The species which originates from Australasia and South America represents the diverse cultural and ethnic nature of participants in the run. The intention is to have 55,000 open flowers on the deck representing the number of runners in the Great North Run.
A box parterre is used to stitch together the hard and soft, urban and rural components of the design, advocating the virtues of healthy, seasonal and sustainable food production in a self sufficient environment. The three parts to the parterre are symbolic of the natural rotation of brassicas, legumes, and other crops in a traditional domestic vegetable garden or allotment. Colourful, seasonal specimens including green lettuce, radicchio, beetroot, radish, Swiss chard, purple spring cabbage, miniature cauliflower, carrot and parsnip, all being deployed to endorse the sustainability message, and the opportunity to crop healthy food in even the smallest of urban environments. In the after use of the exhibit the parterre will be seasonally replanted with collections of iris reticulate, peonies, alliums, daffodils, snowdrops and crocus to ensure year-round colour coupled with a minimum maintenance regime.
|