Bridge For Design Summer 2014 Bridge For Design Summer 2014 Issue | Page 86

OUTDOOR DESIGN | Wilson McWilliam

Small gardens: BIG issues
Andrew Wilson explores solutions to the lack of green spaces in our cities

H

myself as a spaceaholic, I
love designing big gardens, I have
found myself suddenly faced with
a clamour for all things small:
designing small gardens, writing
about small gardens and speaking
about them.
Although we might think about
small gardens as a local phenomenon in our own city
or town, they are in fact a global issue for all urban
dwellers.
Our gardens are getting smaller year by year as
population density in major cities increases. For some
city dwellers their only outdoor space is now a balcony
and with the average UK garden now only 90m², it’s
easy to see how some gardens must be really tiny.
A host of issues come with spatially challenged
plots. High density living compromises privacy, with
neighbours close and sometimes looking in from above.
The more we try to enclose our gardens or create arbors
or pergolas to screen from prying eyes, the more we
contribute to the sense of enclosure and to shade.
Most boundary and screening structures cast shadows into the
garden, sometimes restricting use and always restricting planting
options. We need to plant for prevailing conditions, choosing
shade tolerant species rather than roses or colourful perennials
that need the sun.
Planting will soften and screen boundaries but it needs to be big
and bold; no shrinking violets in small gardens. This will help to
disguise physical boundaries and create a more characterful space.
Think about plants with height too as they will link the garden
with the sky.
I recently visited Singapore and Seattle – the former to prepare
for the Singapore Garden Festival later in the year (August
16th-24th); the latter to speak at a symposium on small gardens.
Common themes were evident such as the increase in urban
density, larger developments at the expense of garden space and
the use of planting on buildings to create a more sustainable
balance in the urban infrastructure. Gardens hold the key to
healthier cities – the spaces may be small but together they create a
critical planting mass that the city desperately needs for clean air,
sustainable drainage and psychological well being.
For Singapore the incredible humidity means that gardens are
often viewed from temperature controlled interiors whereas in
London we try to open up our interiors to the garden space. Both
approaches need strong planting in order to deliver a punch and a
sense of therapeutic nature.
In Seattle, the concept of shared space as opposed to separate

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Andrew Wilson and Gavin McWilliam won a silver gilt medal at
the Chelsea Flower Show for their Cloudy Bay Sensory garden.
They join a handful of British designers chosen to exhibit at the
Singapore Garden Festival in August. Their design, The Sacred
light and shadow, water, light and air

Streissguth have gardened a plot in Seattle for most of their
married life before handing over 95% to the city autho rities and
the wider community. Anyone can come and go, relax in the
garden or help with the gardening. This prevented threatened
development of the site and has become a local treasure.
of small gardens in which we retain space for private use but
green spaces. The garden squares of London did exactly that and
are now considered a great London assets. What goes around
comes around perhaps; what do we have to lose? B

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Andrew Wilson, Wilson McWilliam Studio
The Barley Mow Centre, 10 Barley Mow Passage
Chiswick, London, W4 4PH
T: [phone]
www.wmstudio.co.uk

Bridge for Design Summer 2014

For more information about Andrew Wilson Mc William Studio, CLICK HERE