“Grounded; Growing Conversations in Mental Illness”
Bloom in the Park
With the aim of starting a national conversation around mental illness, Realise Landscapes was commissioned by Janssen in partnership with mental health organisations Aware and See Change to design a show garden at Bloom in The Park.
The concept stemmed from the theory of grounding; how walking barefoot in nature can have a stabilising effect, reconnecting us with the natural charge of the planet. Water, weathered steel, and granite contrast with the large glacial limestone boulders that define the pedestrian area. Strong defined continuous lines ground themselves to the plot edge emphasizing the need to understand our own boundaries.
The success of the garden was in part due to the collaboration between Realise Landscapes and ambassadors from See Change and Aware. The final show garden accommodated two key concepts developed collectively in a series of workshops.
Awards:
Winner of the Irish Landscape Institute Design Award for Private Gardens 2020
Gold medal - Bloom in the Park
Best Planting Award - Bloom in the Park
Irish Landscape Institute judging panel citation:
'Beautiful curation of materials and forming of outdoor rooms and passages to create a soothing tranquil meditative space for people most in need. Thoughtful concept of ‘grounding’ gives a logical and poetic rationale for every design choice from materials to details to spatial sequence. We like that the project doesn’t try to downplay or neutralise the difficulties of mental illness, but includes some uncomfortable angles and sharp words, meeting the challenge of addressing people in potential anguish. Great project. Very contemporary garden in its design and very aesthetic rendering with floral mixtures. The interesting starting objective is a pretext for a project, even if it is treated in a more intellectual way than a therapeutic garden.'
Client testimonial
Richard Kennedy
Product Manager, Janssen
”When selecting a designer to work with we were not only looking for a fabulous design but someone who could work collaboratively with numerous partners to add real meaning to our vision.
From the initial proposal it was clear that Maeve understood the key concepts of what Janssen, Aware and See Change wanted to achieve in the Show Garden. Her additional willingness to share and demonstrate her design approach paid dividends, as it opened up the floor to the group's response and feedback. One of the key concepts at the core of this initiative was the stigma and language used to discuss mental illness. Maeve was instrumental in facilitating participant workshops around this difficult topic. She then interpreted the individual and collective response by integrating a weathered steel walkway and personal oak engravings in the show garden. The final result was loved by the participants, partners and judges alike but perhaps most importantly opened up conversations around the illness both at Bloom and throughout our wider campaign. I enjoyed every minute working with Maeve and would highly recommend her for any project.”
