Diarmuid Gavin Designs

Designer: Diarmuid Gavin and Stephen Reilly

This silver-gilt garden is designed for an active and artistic mature couple. It includes a pavilion clad in western red cedar with two wings that intersect, providing two glass studio spaces, each with its own deck overlooking a pond. This is an environment where the couple can express themselves artistically and intellectually, while being surrounded by a green haven in a woodland area.

Tiles laid out in a giant floral pattern express the couple's eclectic taste in art and sculpture. Bubble chairs suspend from metal rafters on an open deck over the pond. It is a place for evening, for books, wildlife, dreaming and gazing. There are slight undulations in the landscape, mounding around a stunning Japanese maple and again towards the back wall, giving movement, which represents the couple's active minds. There is a compost heap, which is used to enrich the soil in the woodland.

Recycled timber boards have been used for the floors in the buildings and plant material is recycled back into the garden through the compost heap. Rain water is collected fro the roof to irrigate and top up the pond.

The planting is green with small interludes of colour. The pavilion appears to emerge from a plantation of Betula utilis.

Diarmuid Gavin, the garden designer, describes Chelsea as both wildly exciting and infuriating. He says it has given him a career, is a place to show off and is about meeting old friends, exhilaration and exasperation.