Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Students' garden unveiled at St Gemma's Hospice
The 'My Pod' recuperation garden, designed specifically for St Gemma's, will be unveiled on Saturday 28 September at 2pm.
Landscape Architecture and Design students, 'The Seven Peas', made up of Sam Buckley, Catheryn Gausden, Sam Maindonald, Kateryna Vasyliushchenko - Vainus, Natalie Graham, Waheeda Kothdiwala and Andrew Brotherton, presented the garden at the prestigious RHS Tatton Flower Show this summer, receiving awards for the most creative large garden, the people's choice garden, and a silver gilt medal.
Student Sam Buckley, explained: "Our design is a very immersive and experiential design for a small garden space; the concept is about escapism from stresses and pressures and about recuperation. We have designed a Pod which sits within the planted garden space in which the user can escape into: it contains LED lighting, soft interior and music in which all the cares and stresses can be quelled.
"The exterior is a mini journey and interpretation of the Yorkshire rugged landscape, using sustainable and localised materials, the user is taken on a mini journey through moorland planting, water rills, and dry stone walls on a curved path that winds downward and into the Pod sanctuary."
The team worked together to raise almost £4,000 to install the project at St Gemma's which provides specialist medical and nursing care to local people with terminal illnesses.
Steve Heywood, Senior Lecturer in Landscape Architecture at Leeds Metropolitan, added: "I am overwhelmed with pride and respect for my team who have juggled the demands of the final year of a degree course, employment and personal life. There is no better feeling than watching my students develop their skills and talents, show casing their work and ultimately launching their careers. We feel very privileged to have the opportunity to work so closely with the incredible and inspirational staff at St Gemma's Hospice and it's an honour to donate and reinstate the garden within the grounds of the hospice."
Gail Chapman at St Gemma's Hospice said: 'It has been lovely working with the students on such an interesting project for the benefit of our patients. We thank them for all their hard work and commitment to the hospice. The new pod really is a talking point at the hospice and it will make a real impact in our gardens.'