AT HOME
stakeholder. We always had someone from
the charity present at all our meetings,
which was really interesting.
Volunteer groups like Stroud Valley
were also involved and would help work
on diferent areas within the garden. We
divided the project into two areas so that
diferent areas could be tackled. They
managed to recycle all of the Victorian-
riven slabs, which I think gives the project
its quality.
What were the speciic challenges of
working with a local authority versus
private work?
In every relationship there’s accountability
but in this one it was very front-loaded
STROUD VALLEY’S MUSEUM IN THE PARK
for us - a lot of the pre-qualiication
questionnaires required us to prove more
than is needed for the average private
client. They need to see your track record,
which involves going heavily into your
business background and looking at
accounts. They need to see that you are
able to service the project, not just as
a professional but that you have all the
backup in place. It’s more thorough than
private clients I’ve previously worked
with but it is understandable as they need
to justify where they’re directing public
money. They fund a lot of projects and the
museum has a fundraiser on board in order
to gain money from diferent sources.
What was your design process in
house? Where did you begin concept-
wise?
The client had a brief so we worked with
that to produce the concept. They wanted
to keep their orchard as they wanted to
grow and plant heritage varieties of trees.
I thought they needed an area for people
to sit, so we created a lat area. One of the
constraints was where to put the lawn
- there was a pit of Japanese Knotweed
buried underneath a clay lining, so we were
restricted in some ways there with what we
could do. We couldn’t puncture that lining
so it made complete sense to just tread very
lightly there and make that a lat area for a
lawn.
From there I began to work out the layout
of the levels. You have to work out how
visitors will get from one place to another,
from one landing to another, and where
they will end up. I tried to make them all
tie up with points on the plan which work
like gateways, before then introducing
some more details and trying to throw a
load of exciting ideas out there. They’re
very proud of their textile heritage, they
produce the red cloth that is on the big veil
in the House of Lords. I initially took this
idea of a lovely red thread that ran through
the garden, I thought it would be perfect,
however, they said that they would like
people to be able to use the space and they
would like to encourage artists to come and
do installations. Artists had always been
involved in the garden even before it was
restored, so I was learning about their work
with the client as we went along. That was
interesting, and I think it made me park
some of my designer ego out the door which
was quite useful. It’s lovely to be able to go
to town as a designer but at the end of the
day, it’s not your garden. They have visions
for it too but I basically make that happen
and that’s what our job is.
What sort of budget were they
working with?
The budget wasn’t huge, it was roughly
£145,000 for the construction budget.
Everytime we had something that needed
resolving, such as problems on site, they
didn’t have the usual attitude of ‘take it
out, don’t do it’ but instead that they would
keep it and do it later. Even a year after the
contract had inished, they put in the fruit
tunnel that they’d always wanted and they
did it well.
December 2017 | Landscape Insight
29