Designers Andy Sturgeon from the UK and Jim Fogarty from Australia will collaborate to design a Landscape Garden at the Singapore Garden Festival that runs from July 21 to August 3, 2018.
While the awarded pair are not newcomers to the festival – Jim has exhibited five times and Andy four – it’s the first time they have worked together on a show garden. And both agree it’s been an interesting, challenging and rewarding process.
Designers, Andy Sturgeon & Jim Fogarty
Their story
Jim and Andy have five children between them aged from 8-18. For more than a decade their families have forged a valued friendship as they regularly catch up at garden shows around the world.
Their show garden not only symbolises this bond, but as parents, they also know first-hand the ongoing conflict young people face as they are torn between technology and nature. This is the theme of their 9m x 9m show garden.
“Most kids are addicted to smart phones and tablets and so the garden symbolises the idea of the awkward thing that kids and parents have to navigate,” says Andy, who has twice been voted one of the top 10 garden designers in the UK.
The design features a low black sloping wall, with curved corners that brings subtle references to the body of a smart phone, while the keyboard and apps will be represented by granite pavers that will form a haphazard pathway through the landscape. “This represents the difficult pathway that kids have to negotiate through technology,” explains Andy.
“As you journey into the heart of the garden, you enter a place where nature takes over. A calm and tranquil water-filled space. Here it’s almost as if the natural environment becomes the most important link and the granite pavers recede.”
For Jim and Andy plant selection has been important. At the heart of the design, lush tropical plants with bold foliage dominate the central landscape to help accentuate the idea of the importance of nature to life.
The pair has already travelled to Singapore to select stone and fabricators but will not arrive on site to start the build until July.
Jim Fogarty’s design won a Gold Medal and award for Horticultural Excellence at the 2014 Singapore Garden Festival
Singapore Garden Festival
Designers from 11 countries will exhibit at the biennial Singapore Garden Festival, which is among the top flower and garden shows on the international calendar.
As well as award-winning landscape and garden designers, the show brings together internationally renowned florists and horticulturists.
The festival is located in Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay, a series of waterfront gardens that showcase horticulture and garden artistry.
Both Andy and Jim are looking forward to being immersed in the Singapore Garden Festival, located in the Gardens by the Bay. Each has won gold at the Singapore Garden Festival (see their designs above and below) and are looking forward to the keen competition in 2018. Find out more https://www.singaporegardenfestival.com
Andy Sturgeon’s 2014 Singapore Garden Festival garden won a Gold Medal and Lighting award.
