RHS Malvern Diabetes Garden

Urban Street Designs were asked to be a part of Garden designers Karen Tatlow and Katherine Hathaway’s, from Karen Tatlow Garden Designs and Lark Hall Studios, entry into the RHS Malvern Spring Festival with Mike Lote from MJL Garden Design as the Contractor. The Garden was designed in support of Diabetes UK and was showcased in the aim to raise awareness of the illness, in the end winning a Silver Guilt, Best Construction Award and the Peoples Choice Award.

We manufactured the central feature piece, an almost elliptical water feature with 2 differing radiused edges. These were key to the setting out of the gardens sweeping paths that represented the journey of a diabetes sufferer, we were able to capture these exactly using our CAD/CAM software and laser cutting machine. Working alongside Fountains and Features Ltd, who specified the components required and the inner workings, we also drew up and manufactured a suitable cover plate to hide all the internal piping. The fountain was 600mm tall overall allowing it to be buried below ground so that the finished floor levels could be differing on both sides, helping to create a stepped look which was another key design component.

Various lengths of steel tubes were welded along the centre of the water feature in order to depict a graph that referenced actual readings of a diabetics blood sugar levels. We also manufactured separate stand alone graphs which were planted into the top of the hedges surrounding the Garden.

In order to give the Garden a really finished look we manufactured rigid steel edging to surround the perimeter of the Garden and flexible edging to mark out the sweeping pathways and act as a retaining edge. All the metalwork was finished in a Corten inspired powder so they could have orange colour spots throughout the Garden to reference the Diabetes UK colour scheme while still keeping a natural looking environment.

At the back and central to the Garden was a stunning grey flecked porcelain tiled wall, we were asked to make an ultra slim steel edging trim that would finish the perimeter of the tiles off without detracting from them. Using a multi process powder application we achieved a one off stone effect to match the colour of the tiles from a sample section provided.

Finally we manufactured square posts to mark out a boundary with rope around the garden, also finished in the Corten inspired powder to keep the colour a continuous theme.