Webinar: Designing the Dialogue - The Chalk Garden with Garden Masterclass

January 2022 | Webinar with Otis Roberts

We are pleased to share our recent participation in a Garden Masterclass webinar, where Yuichi Kodai joined landscape architect Otis Roberts to discuss the philosophy and realization of the Chalk Garden at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

A Cross-Cultural Landscape

The webinar provides an in-depth look at how we navigated the "cross-cultural" challenge of designing a contemporary Japanese-inspired garden within a British UNESCO World Heritage site.

Key themes explored in the session include:

• The "Tangibles of the Intangible": How we used local British chalk—a mineral sediment millions of years old—to ground the project in the geology of the UK while referencing the meditative "white space" of Japanese Zen gardens.

• 400 Years of Heritage: Moving beyond the "cliché" of Japanese garden design to create a temporary installation that respects the 19th-century architecture of the Temperate House.

• The Concept of "Ma": A discussion on the importance of spatial intervals and "voids" in design, and how these gaps are as essential as the physical masses of stone and plant life.

Behind the Scenes at Kew

The webinar also delves into the technical realities of working within a Grade I listed building, from managing weight loads on vaulted ceilings to the logistical precision required to install a full-scale garden in just five days.

→ Watch the Full Presentation on YouTube