Chris Beardshaw – Chelsea Flower Show, London

Along with our day-to-day structural commissions, we are often approached to manufacture sculptural glulam components to highlight the interiors of restaurants, commercial settings and in this instance for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

To be awarded an RHS Gold Medal for your garden design at Chelsea Flower show you have to be superbly creative, very forward-thinking and plan your design well in advance. For his 2019 Morgan Stanley Show Garden, Chris Beardshaw contacted us way back in 2018 to discuss the viability of glulam.

Whilst his flowers and plants were growing in readiness for their big day, we too were busy. We worked in secret to produce the ‘built’ elements of his garden design, bending and jointing glulam elements to form the framework of his garden structure.

The resulting pair of curved beams were over six meters long and when positioned vertically measure over two and a half metres between the supporting arms.

The Chelsea Flower Show is all about off-site construction, so Buckland’s ability to form, finish and safely wrap the beams in readiness for the show was key in us being awarded the project. Our large-scale workshop affords us the space to form beams of an industrial scale and store them until sites across the country are ready for their collection or delivery.

Specification

• Project: RHS Chelsea Flower Show – 2019
• Commission: Engineering design, manufacture and supply.
• Design: Christopher Beardshaw 
• Timescale: Two weeks engineering design. Four weeks fabrication.
• Timber: Redwood
• Fixings: Resin fixed anchor bolt system.