Flora on the Stand

Flora Design wins award!
Flora Design and Steinworks Sculpture wins award at Hampton Court Show. Flora designed and planted the stand, which was awarded a certificate of commendation. This is the first year that exhibitors at Hampton Court have been awarded commendations. It was lovely to receive so much positive feedback from visitors, so a big thank you to all those who came along to see us.

About the Design
The exhibition stand is in essence a sculpture garden. The colour blue acts as a background, weaving all the elements of the stand together; picking up the grey blue tones in the stainless steel, the colours in the plants and the dark blue-greys of the hard landscaping. We decided that we wanted to achieve a calm space which reflected the qualities of the sculptures and a real garden that people could freely wander into to view and touch them.

The sculpture garden was planned to accommodate a chosen number of sculptures (undecided at this point) and Matt being an artist was constantly evolving new ideas. Therefore the plan had to stay slightly flexible. This meant until the last minute decisions on sculptures were still fairly fluid - which was more difficult in terms of organizing final detailing and the planting plan. Space was needed to show off the larger 2m pieces and also exhibit his colourful wall mounted sculptures.

Boundary walls
A boundary wall was decided for 2 of the 4 sides and was to be translucent, to provide a feeling of enclosure but still allow views through of the sculptures on approach to the stand. Nylon flyscreen panels provided the ideal solution, it was strong yet the black mesh gave unrestricted views and even shimmered when viewed through two layers.

Shelter
Being a stand open to the elements, a shelter needed to be designed in to tie in with the feel of the garden and would ideally protect from sun and rain (for the record - not rain!) The initial plan was a moveable sailcoth and adjacent tree. But it was complicated and busy looking - an antithesis to the simple structural design and simple lines of the sculptures. A roofed structure seemed ideal, forming a strong architectural feel which provided a perfect situation for the wall hangings. A subtle roof curve echoed the line of the sculpture 'Resonance' and would shed rain water away from the back of the stand.

Hard landscaping
Hard landscaping was to be simple neutral colours and the 2 contrasting surfaces of the riven black sandstone and black basalt gravel complimented the stainless steel tones.

Planting
Planting was soft, to offset the strong lines of the sculpture. Grasses and achilleas - a classic combination tied the scheme together. Because the space was so small, plant varieties were kept to a minimum to avoid cluttering, but still needed to compliment the individual pieces. The colour palette was blues and yellows and deeper purple accents. The mirror finished sculptures were the perfect reflective plant partners.

Quite a number of people asked about the plants, and so for those who are interested, I have put together a planting list together with the plant combinations. Just follow the link.

CAD plan showing
revised shelter

CREDITS LIST:
Please click here for list of credits.

PLANT INFO PAGE:
Please click here for list of plants and planting combination