Thomas Hoblyn creates Chelsea Flower Show garden with textured walls and wooden screen

Dezeen promotion: landscape designer Thomas Hoblyn has created a Secret Garden-inspired show garden featuring a hand-carved oak screen and walls textured with Armourcoat limestone render.

Hoblyn designed The Boodles Secret Garden for this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show, which took place in London from 21 to 26 September. It was installed by garden designers The Garden Builders.

The Boodles Secret Garden was presented at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show

The designer's aim was to create an enclosed retreat in the spirit of the secret garden featured in the children's book by Frances Hodgson-Burnett.

To achieve this, he planned a series of walls to divide up the space using materials that have just as natural a texture as the planting areas.

Two walls finished in Armourcoat limestone render provide the backdrop to the garden

The two walls that form the backdrop to the garden are hand-finished with Armourcoat's exterior polished plaster (PPX).

This limestone render is durable, low-maintenance, and offers the appearance of naturally honed stone.

The render offers the look of real plaster, but is durable enough for outdoors

"The garden has a very naturalistic feel about it, using a lot of natural products like timber in its raw form and hand-dressed stone," said Hoblyn, "and I really wanted to create a wall that had the same mood."

"Armourcoat PPX creates this lovely pitted effect, so it looks like it's been there for a long time, which is bang on for the ambience I was trying to create for the sanctuary garden," he explained.

There is an undulating oak screen in the front of the garden

The garden's undulating wooden screen forms the entrance to the enclosed garden.

The screen is made from consecutively cut oak sheets that have been hand carved to create a rippling surface. There are gaps between each sheet, as well as a doorway cutaway, offering visitors a glimpse inside.

On either side of these walls, Hoblyn added ornamental grasses, tree ferns, and flowers in shades of pink and blue.

Hoblyn felt it was important to use materials with a natural texture

This is the seventh garden that Hoblyn has created for the Chelsea Flower Show, which typically takes place in May but was postponed this year as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Here, he hoped to highlight the importance of finding sanctuary and restoring wellbeing at a time of global crisis.

The design takes inspiration from The Secret Garden, a book by Frances Hodgson-Burnett

The designer points out that this is not his first time using Armourcoat PPX in a show garden, as he believes the product is well suited to an outdoor setting.

"It's a perfect exterior product as it looks flawless and is designed to last," he said.

Thomas Hoblyn has exhibited at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show seven times

"I would use it for all my show gardens because it's a great way to get a really good effect, but it's a real product that you can use outside," he added. "This is not a stage set; this is a real garden."

The Boodles Secret Garden was awarded a Silver Gilt medal from the organisers, recognising it as one of the best in show.

For more information about Armourcoat PPX, visit the manufacturer's website.

Photography is by Patrick Kerrigan-Hall.

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Squid Game's violent contests take place in spaces designed "to trigger nostalgia"

The set designs for Netflix's hit show Squid Game, which were informed by everything from MC Escher engravings to real children's playgrounds, were designed "to look cute and sweet" according to the show's director and art director.

Set in modern-day South Korea, Squid Game depicts a contest that pits down-on-their-luck citizens against each other in a series of deadly children's games, which take place in a hidden arena on a forested island.

An animatronic doll plays an important role in the first game

Here, the contestants compete to the death in six classic kids' games – including Tug of War and a version of Red Light, Green Light featuring a giant animatronic doll – to win a final prize of 45.6 billion won (£28.1 million).

Many of the gaming arenas, which were built from scratch with sparing use of CGI, were designed as oversized versions of real playgrounds to make the actors experience the spaces as if they were small children, according to the show's director Hwang Dong-Yuk.

"I tried to simulate the atmosphere of real playgrounds," said Hwang in a Netflix interview. "I thought those kinds of sets can give more of a sense of reality to the actors' performance."

The second game takes place in an oversized playground

A more elaborate set was created for the fourth game, called Marbles, which takes place in a recreation of a traditional Korean neighbourhood.

"We put the most effort into that set," said art director Chae Kyoung-Sun. "It took so much time – our main concern was how to display the sunset. We thought it should be a set on the border of fake and real."

The actors "felt real fear" when crossing a glass bridge

The set design for the show was carefully calculated to evoke feelings in the actors that would translate to their performances, Hwang said.

A glass bridge used for the fifth game was made from real glass and, although it wasn't set above an abyss like in the show, the actors behaved as if it was.

"A mere 1.5 metres can make you frightened," said Hwang. "The glass made them nervous. I think we could express the unnoticed rigidity and fear of the body."

"It felt like really jumping off a high bridge, the game was real and they felt real fear," he added. "We think that set had the power of realism."

Read:

Asylum in Ratched designed to look like "a beautiful person with a really dark secret"

Squid Game's set design is neatly tied together at the end of the show, with the final game taking place on the same set as the very first one. This was a deliberate choice by art director Chae.

"The first and last game are played in the same spot," she said. "We focused on the place's fairytale-like, somewhat uncanny feelings. That's how we finished the last game."

Sets designed "to look cute and sweet"

As well as the elaborate sets used for the gaming arenas themselves, art director Chae also created the areas where the players live while waiting for the games, and a surrealist, maze-like staircase that they travel up and down to get to them, which is painted in playful pastel yellow and pink hues.

The staircase evokes the designs of Spanish architect Ricardo Bofill, as well as the trompe l'oeuil levels in video game Monument Valley, but was actually informed by artist MC Escher's engravings.

The colourful designs of the sets were chosen as a contrast to the way these kinds of games would normally have been depicted.

"Death games commonly take place in terrifying, horrible places," Hwang said in a Q&A.

Instead, he and Chae aimed to make the sets "look cute and sweet, as a place to trigger nostalgia."

Characters presented "like objects on warehouse shelves"

In contrast, the contestants' living area – a vast space filled with bunk beds – was designed to have the feel of a warehouse.

"Since modern society is constant competition to climb the ladder, we thought about portraying that in the bed design," Chae said in an interview with Netflix Korea. "We needed an impactful object so we took the ladder form."

The contestants live in a warehouse-informed room

"Rather than treating them like people, [Chae] suggested the contestants be presented like objects, piled on the warehouse shelves," added director Hwang.

Since it launched in September, Squid Game has become Netflix' biggest-ever hit, and has been screened by 111 million viewers globally.

Other TV series with innovative set design include Netflix' Ratched show, set in an insane asylum, and BBC's adaptation of Sally Rooney's novel Normal People.

Photography is courtesy of Netflix.

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Grafton's Stirling Prize-winning Town House is "the future of education" says Norman Foster

British architect Norman Foster has praised Grafton Architects' Stirling Prize-winning Kingston University London – Town House as a "progressive new model for higher education".

Foster, who was head of the 2021 RIBA Stirling Prize jury, stated that the building sets the benchmark for future university buildings in the UK.

"In this highly original work of architecture, quiet reading, loud performance, research and learning, can delightfully co-exist," said Foster + Partners founder Foster.

"That is no mean feat. Education must be our future – and this must be the future of education."

Top: Kingston University London – Town House has won this year's Stirling Prize. Above: Norman Foster was head of the jury

Kingston University London – Town House was named the winner of this year's Stirling Prize in a ceremony that took place today.

Fronted by a distinctive colonnade, the multi-purpose building contains a library and archive for Kingston University London along with a theatre space, dance studios, cafes and classrooms.

The university has a series of open, communal spaces. Photo is by Ed Reeve

"Kingston University Town House is a theatre for life – a warehouse of ideas," continued Foster.

"It seamlessly brings together student and town communities, creating a progressive new model for higher education, well deserving of international acclaim and attention."

Read:

Kingston University London – Town House by Grafton Architects wins 2021 Stirling Prize

Grafton Architects' Kingston University London – Town House, which is the studio's first building in the UK, won this year's Stirling Prize from a shortlist that contained a mosque and a housing development in Cambridge, a bridge in Cornwall, a museum in the Lake District and a housing block in London.

It is the first time the studio has won the Stirling Prize, although its medical school at the University of Limerick was shortlisted in 2013.

The studio was recently awarded the 2020 RIBA Gold Medal, while its founder Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara won the 2020 Pritzker Architecture Prize.

Photography is by Dennis Gilbert unless stated.

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Kingston University London – Town House by Grafton Architects wins 2021 Stirling Prize

The Kingston University London – Town House designed by RIBA Gold Medal-winning studio Grafton Architects has won this year's Stirling Prize.

Described by the RIBA Award judges as "high quality at every scale", the six-storey Town House in Kingston upon Thames was designed to act as "the university's front door".

The building was a surprise winner of the annual award for the UK's best building, with Marks Barfield's Cambridge Mosque the bookmakers favourite to win.

Top: Kingston University London – Town House has won the 2021 Stirling Prize. Above: a long colonnade runs along the street facade

The building contains the university's main library and archive, as well as a theatre, dance studios, teaching spaces and cafes.

It is fronted by a distinctive, 200-metre-long, multi-level colonnade made from reconstituted stone to recall the facade of the neighbouring Surrey County Council building.

The ground floor contains a theatre. Photo by Ed Reeve

"Conceptually, the building exploits two key devices: the colonnade and the courtyard," said the RIBA Award judges.

"Wrapping the building in a tall colonnade gives it presence on the street, successfully balancing the need to make a landmark statement with the wider need to respond respectfully in size and scale to its context."

The building is arranged around a ceremonial staircase

The 9,400-square-metre building is arranged around a statement staircase that rises to the top of the building and a series of large open communal spaces. Grafton Architects designed the building to be a welcoming, homely space for students.

"We imagined a place where students would feel at home," said Grafton Architects. "This building is about people, interaction, light, possibilities."

"It is about connecting to the community, the passer-by, an invitation to cross the threshold; a three-dimensional framework with layers of silence and layers of sound. Space, volume and light are the organisers," the studio continued.

"The building edges are not boundaries but active gathering spaces, terraces, galleries. Being outside under the big sky is always just a few steps away."

It was designed to make students feel at home

British architect Norman Foster, who was head of the Stirling Prize jury, described the building as "the future of education".

It is Grafton Architects' first Stirling Prize win after the medical school at University of Limerick was shortlisted in 2013. The award is the latest recognition for Grafton founders Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara, who were recently awarded the 2020 RIBA Gold Medal and the 2020 Pritzker Architecture Prize.

RIBA's Stirling Prize has been awarded annually since 1996, with the exception of last year when it was delayed due to coronavirus, to buildings deemed to have made the most significant impact to British architecture.

In 2019, the last year the prize was awarded, Mikhail Riches' Goldsmith Street social housing won, while in 2018 it was awarded to Foster + Partners' Bloomberg HQ.

Photography is by Dennis Gilbert unless stated.

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Frank Gehry's Guggenheim museum features in today's Dezeen Weekly newsletter

The latest edition of our Dezeen Weekly newsletter features architect Frank Gehry's design for the Guggenheim museum in Abu Dhabi.

The Guggenheim museum in Abu Dhabi by Gehry is set to open in 2025, nearly 20 years after plans were unveiled and 14 years after construction began.

Readers are amazed by the design. One commented, "I've got to hand it to Frank, no one does it like him".

Yatofu applies festive hues to post office in Zhejiang

Other stories in this week's newsletter include the interiors of a post office in Zhejiang, China, a report that reveals that 73 per cent of workers in the architecture industry are classed as privileged and a spacious family home in a narrow gap between two buildings in Hanoi in Vietnam.

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