Gibbons Rent

A framework for participating, utilising a strategy of incompleteness. 'Garden beds' are delineated by industrial pavement paint, enabling the local community to complete the garden.

Project team:
Andrew Burns, Thomas Gray, Alan Powell

Architecture AND have converted a network of laneways in Central London into a unique urban park. The proposal overlaid a ‘harlequin’ geometry on the site, narrowing and widening to create complex perceptions of space. A garden bed was delineated by hot melt road marking paint applied to the low cost asphalt base, creating a zone for placement of pots, placed by the local community. A series of key marker pots in concrete pipes initiated the garden, with planting selection by Chelsea gold-medalist garden designer Sarah Eberle.

More a framework for participation than a landscape design, the proposal utilized a strategic ‘incompleteness’ to enable a sense of ownership by the local community. The garden is now an established place of solace and cherished by the local community.

Plan diagram.

Central axis. Photography copyright Max Creasy

Garden beds implied by pavement paint. Photography copyright Max Creasy.