Former students’ garden plans finally bear fruit

Former students’ garden plans finally bear fruit

Landscape Architect Carolyn Ramsbottom has graduated from Lincoln University but a special piece of design work she did while studying there two years ago will be coming to fruition on Labour Day.

While at the School Of Landscape Architecture (SoLA) in 2012 she and fellow student Gerrard Thomson won a competition to design reflective, cultural-based gardens for the Places of Tranquillity project.

These will being publicly unveiled next week at 3pm by project partners Lincoln University, Healthy Christchurch and Greening the Rubble. It has taken time to find suitable land, but they have finally been built on the corner of Manchester Street and Cambridge Terrace.

Both former students have gone on to careers as landscape architects but the design was their first public project and they are excited to see it come to reality.

Ms Ramsbottom’s garden has a South East Asia theme and she has been involved in the layout right down to digging holes and putting in the plants.

“It had to be (at the time) a 'temporary garden', able to be done by hand where possible and to be transferable to a permanent site later down the line. Working within these constraints as well as trying to create a tranquil space, and a great design was a challenge,” she said.

“It's amazing really and I still can't quite believe it. The prospect of seeing a design placed in the city centre is a real privilege and I can't wait to see it completed.”

“I just hope that it does what it says on the tin and gives a feeling of tranquillity, whatever that may be for an individual. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so time will tell whether it's a success,” Ms Ramsbottom said.

She now works as a landscape architect and nursery assistant at a tree nursery and has free rein to design projects.

Mr Thomson said his design was for a South Pacific Garden ‘’with a brief to create a tranquil place for both native and immigrant Maori and Pacifica people to relax and reflect’’.

“My involvement has extended as far as providing the design with input from Pacific Island community groups. I also attended the blessing and opening of the site and initial marking out of the garden.”

A tight budget has meant the full extent of the design is not being realised, he said, but “ultimately I still feel that Pacifica peoples will find this a relaxing environment in which to share memories and moments - this was my design motivation.”

“Though I have designed several residential properties which have been realised, the tranquillity garden for Pacifica peoples was my first public space design which has come to fruition,” Mr Thomson said.

He was grateful and delighted to see it built on a central site as it would attract many passers-by who could “reflect on events past, while also looking forward to the positive future of the region”.

He is now contracting to an architectural firm “alongside talented and creative designers whose energies are directed towards further greening and regenerating Christchurch”.

Don Royds, the SoLA tutor who led the students through the project, said it was invigorating to see their work, and the community’s visions, come to life, and he believed something had been created for Christchurch it had not seen before.

Community engagement was an important part of the programme for SoLA and it had been great to collaborate with culturally and linguistically diverse groups within the community, he said.

‘’This long-term project aims to help restore the well-being of visitors to the site, and it also has provided our students with a real-world experience of engaging with the community and designing a buildable public space,’’ Mr Royds added.

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