On Saturday 27th April, we delivered our final design session of the year with Gold sponsors Planit-IE and long-term sponsors Buttress. This session focused on creating a new public garden as part of the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral. We kicked off the session by meeting at the cathedral steps, where we were given a rundown on the history of the cathedral and the ambition of the project by Matthew Burl, Director at Buttress and Danny Marsh, Studio Director at Planit-IE. We then split into two groups, one led by Matthew and the other led by Danny.
The young people were taken around the site where they asked questions, made notes, took photographs and better understood the location they’d later be designing for. Once back at Planit-IE’s workspace, the young designers were given the full scope of the brief which tasked them all to redesign the rear entrance of the cathedral, to make the journey to and from the garden space more appealing with more greening, better signage and intuitive wayfinding.
They were then split into three groups and asked to choose one of the following themes: Biodiversity, Health &Wellbeing and Socials & Events. Once their briefs were chosen, they began brainstorming and master planning. Each group had to communicate their design ideas through a 3D model with drawings and collages as embellishments. The social &events team created a beautiful and flexible garden space, where the cathedral, local businesses and the community could host large and small events throughout the year. They imaged trailing green walls to attract attention to the green oasis above as well as outlining a mosaic as a centrepiece that reflects the colours of the cathedral’s stained glass.
The biodiversity team intelligently contrasted the cathedral’s hard lines with soft curved green spaces with wild grasses and a butterfly farm as well as seating areas on the sides of the garden to attract visitors and soften the edges of the garden space.
The health and wellbeing group proposed a wonderfully vibrant garden space with trees, flowers, foliage and grasses reflecting the colours of the cathedral stained glass. They also envisioned community-designated planting areas, tree-lined seating spaces, and a large canopy for a range of classes and workshops to take place from meditation to yoga.
Many of the young people’s ideas were very close to many of the ideas and conversations the teams at Planit-IE and Buttress have had. A huge thank you to Danny Marsh and Shuwen Peng from Planit and Matthew Burl from Buttress for their support and feedback on the young people’s ideas throughout the session.