Chelsea Flower Show 2018: LG Eco-City Garden provides a replicable blueprint for inner-city high rises

 

The garden was designed to replicate the amount of outdoor space available to city living, where apartments might be built on top of each other. So every inch of space is utilised – even including a living wall inside the kitchen area.

The LG Eco-City Garden has won a Silver Gilt award from the Chelsea Flower Show 2018 in the Show Garden category. LG Hausys Solid Surface and LG Electronics partnered with landscape architect Hay Joung Hwang to create the ‘Eco-City’ Show Garden for the 2018 show.

“A modern yet relaxed feel, coupled with a simple, formal layout with its impressive pavilion, makes this beautiful garden by designer Hay Joung Hwang an appealing place to be” enthused the judges at the Chelsea Flower Show 2018.

LG Eco-City Garden represents the green space allocated to one housing unit in a ‘vertical forest’ of residential apartments. It integrates our increased dependency on technology with a requirement to be mindful of the environmental issues posed by contemporary lifestyles, as well as to reduce pollution specifically in areas of high population density.

Each household has its own spacious terraces, accessed from the kitchen and designed to receive plenty of sunlight. The plants and trees play a role in the seasonal control of oxygen generation, humidity control, temperature moderation and the reduction of carbon dioxide. Running water provides a filter for noise pollution.

Trees and a variety of other plant species soften the visual impact of the architecture and the whole showcases a closer interaction between concrete, glass and the greener environment. Addressing serious concern about the decline of pollinators and their habitats, the naturalistic planting scheme shows how to incorporate wildflowers, perennials and a looser meadow-style planting into a garden.

The garden replicates the amount of outdoor space available to city living, where apartments might be built on top of each other. The outside area is a sunken patio, surrounded by box-hedging, with stone steps leading up to the kitchen area. There are also stepping stones leading to the rest of the garden, and water feature, and natural herb area. On each corner of the hedging is a joyous flowerbed, filled with colourful flowers such as yellow and white lupins, white aquilegia vulgaris, Geum in Tangerine and Trollius Lemon Queen. According to a new report, over 50,000 people are dying from pollution in the UK every year, so the LG Eco-City garden aims to reduce pollution through the use of specially selected trees, plants and shrubs, and provides a replicable blueprint for inner-city high rises.