Exhibitors
Show gardens
Chetwoods
Urban Oasis
Designers: Laurie Chetwood and Patrick Collins
Sponsor: Chetwoods
Contractor: Willerby Landscapes
Click here to view a panorama of this garden.
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Urban Oasis is an imaginary concept for an open space in an urban setting. It has been designed to showcase the latest environmental technologies and how they can be used to sustain and enhance a garden.
The main focus is the Urban Oasis installation - a 12m (40ft) high exciting sculpture that uses the latest technologies to harness energy and recycle water. The kinetic feature mimics the design of a flower and its photovoltaic ‘petals’ open and close in response to the sun and moon. It uses daylight to generate power.
The Urban Oasis structure is both interactive and educational; it has been designed as a serious civic installation to promote an understanding of sustainability, conservation and use of natural energies and resources.
The garden is elevated to create a ‘stage’, from where the Oasis performs and interacts with its surroundings. The planting within the garden becomes increasingly intense towards the sculpture, building to a crescendo of colour and texture at its base. This is to emphasise the ‘life-bringing qualities’ of the Urban Oasis and the ‘greening’ of the city that it promotes.
As the petals of the structure open daylight is turned into electricity. This electricity pumps water from the ground to five water channels, which are at the base of the installation and permeate throughout the garden.
The planting has been selected to survive in a contrasting, yet sheltered urban environment. It is designed to give the impression of natural planting, but more ornamental varieties create an attractive, yet slightly unconventional garden setting.