Reflect: Modernism Is Alive And Well. - A Show Garden For Southport Flower Show

Paul Richards Garden Design is a practice based in West Lancashire. This garden was designed as a show garden for the Southport Flower Show 2011, which had the theme ‘Vintage’. Rather than design a garden to recreate the past, we wanted to demonstrate the kind of work we create for our clients, so we produced a garden which was very much a garden for today, while taking inspiration from the Modernist movement of the early twentieth century.

Our brief for the show stated that the garden was assumed to be attached to a modern urban home inhabited by a design conscious young professional couple without children or pets. The garden is to provide a calm, stylish space in which to relax. It is assumed that the house opens onto the front side of the garden. The boundaries of the garden are constructed of Ivy screening, however, for the purposes of the show some boundaries were removed to allow views into the garden.

A large still pool provides a central feature which reflects the garden’s structures and planting. A path leads into the garden, through a seating area, and then, by way of stepping stones, into the pavilion, inspired by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona Pavilion. It houses two items: a piece of classic Modernist design; a lounger by Le Corbusier, and a piece of contemporary sculpture. The two objects, designed more than 80 years apart, work together well and demonstrate that modernism still has relevance today.

Plants are from a limited colour palette comprising greens, silvers, purples and white, and are all seen at their best in the evening – the time the owners are most likely to use their garden. Trees are Carpinus betulus Fastigiata. A selection of grasses is used to provide an architectural feel to one side of the garden, whilst a mixture of shrubs, herbaceous perennials and grasses provide a softer feel to the opposite side.

We were pleased with the finished garden, and feel it represents the quality of design, build and planting that our clients can expect. The show judges agreed and we were awarded a Large Gold Medal and Best in Show (Trophies appear in Photo 1).