Children's hospital garden, Oxfordshire
Children's hospital garden, Oxfordshire
A place of respite and healing within a children’s hospital. SBLD worked in collaboration with Carolyn Willitts Studio to design a garden whose character and layout was inspired by a coastal theme. Moving away from the hospital building, the layout echoes the relationship of a beach to the crashing waves of the sea.
A series of parallel lines reflects the timber sand barriers (groynes) found on beaches. These lines in the landscape vary from timber slatted seating walls and lines of vertical poles, to green paving bands. They create linear spaces giving the garden structure and a unified rhythm. Each space provides different flexible functions, suiting different ages: from a teenage hangout to a throne with an underwater sea world theme and a driftwood seating circle. The planting along the boundary is in silvers, blues and whites, with textures that echo the dynamic nature of the sea and wind.