RHS FLOWER SHOW GARDEN PROPOSAL

The Challenge

The Grow Forward category invites designers to confront one of the most urgent questions of our time: how can horticulture meaningfully respond to climate change while improving the quality of everyday life? As evidence mounts on the role of green space in cooling cities, restoring biodiversity, and supporting mental wellbeing, the need for practical, scalable design innovation has never been greater.

This new category seeks to turn research into action. It champions cross-sector collaboration, bringing together design teams and industry partners whose products and values push the sustainability agenda forward. The challenge is to demonstrate—not in theory, but in built form—how progressive horticultural thinking can reshape the places where we live and work, and inspire visitors to imagine greener futures for urban environments.

The Design Solution

Woodland in the Sky creates an elevated, open-to-sky micro-forest that offers visitors a moment of calm above ground level. A layered canopy, biodiverse understory, and sensory elements—cooling mist and a soft forest soundscape—blend horticulture with architectural structure to form an immersive biophilic retreat.

Designed to sit at the intersection of ecology and workplace wellbeing, the garden shows how compact, climate-responsive green spaces can enhance urban environments, increase biodiversity, and support restorative everyday experiences. It presents a clear, scalable vision of how high-rise landscapes can positively transform the modern built environment.