David Rich, a final year Landscape Architecture and Design student at Leeds Met and his brother Harry, a graduate of the same course in 2008, have been invited to submit a design for a small garden, ‘Un Garreg’ (one stone) for the Chelsea Flower Show after winning the best in show at last year’s Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Flower Show in Cardiff. The duo run their family landscape architecture business, Rich Landscapes, based near Brecon, Wales.
David commented: “We appreciate this opportunity to display our naturalistic design style amongst some of the world’s greatest designers. Leeds Met has provided us with the knowledge and freedom to develop our own individual style, allowing us to draw inspiration from what we see and feel and implement that into our designs. Our course provides a broad range of design-based projects, encouraging team and individual development and all our tutors have a wide variety of skills providing a professional but friendly atmosphere within the studio.”
Harry added: “Our ‘naturalistic’ show garden at Chelsea is inspired by the growing separation between man and nature, reiterating our passion for restoring this innate connection. It is about creating a humble, naturalistic space crafted from one stone.”
Senior Lecturer in Landscape Architecture, Steve Heywood, said: “Working with both Harry and David has been a very enjoyable experience for me; they are both great characters as well as accomplished designers. I think this team of brothers will certainly be a force to be reckoned with and I look forward to seeing their next creation at the Chelsea flower this spring and following their future endeavours.”
In his final year, Harry designed and constructed a shoe garden at the university’s Landscape Resource Centre. Harry’s passion for garden design launched him onto the show garden, circuit and, working alongside his brother he succeeded in clinching two major Garden Design awards for their garden at the Welsh RHS show and the BBC Gardeners’ World live show.
David is following in the footsteps of his brother and has been working on a live design project for a garden at St. Gemma’s Hospice in Leeds which culminates in an exhibition of the work at Broadcasting Place on Thursday 31 January.
Our University is the only university in the country with a Landscape Resource Centre and experimental garden for Landscape Architecture students. The course will be celebrating its 50 year anniversary in 2016.
The brothers’ Chelsea design.
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