YOUNG DESIGNER REPRESENTS AUSTRALIA IN JAPAN

Ross has an ultra-small business that designs and constructs boutique gardens around the world. Based from a portable office in Melbourne, Australia, Ross completes no more than a handful of gardens in a year for clients who wish to have a considered garden created with love and understanding.

His practice is about people and place. He strives to make a meaningful connection with the client and their land, their past, present and future and create a sustainable, evocative garden that captures the emotions we want to feel in the space.

Ross’s accolades include the Don Fleming Award - Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show, 2012’ Finalist Boutique Competition - Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show, 2014; Final 4 - Victorian Training Awards, 2012.

The Gardening World Cup will be held in Nagasaki from 3-18 October 2015. Ross is one of two Australian representatives, joining Paal Grant in a friendly, green-thumbed rivalry.

Tea Garden, Ross’s entry for the Japan Flower and Garden Show, is the next chapter for this crafty landscape designer. His journey has involved months of hard work, some inspiration from the subcontinent and a fusion of Australian indigenous and Japanese culture to create his masterpiece.

For Ross, the Tea Garden forms a place to stop and recapture the sounds of a slower life more in-tune with nature; producing a landscape made to be enjoyed. It draws on ideas and observations he has picked up on his travels.

“Australia’s ability to connect and work together as one has allowed us to achieve unimaginable advancements, and yet that frenzy has created so much noise that we don’t know the sound of our own heartbeat,” Ross said. “The Tea Garden is envisaged as a place to recapture that sound.”

The design includes a fabricated metal firepit at its centre; a unique element that Ross designed from a CAD drawing folded into 16 wedges and treated using a process Ross picked up on his travels around the world to deliver an industrial charm.

“The design is laden with industrial tones in the built forms that are devoid of colour, which is a real contrast to the rich green shades of the plants that surround them.”

The garden’s built items, including the bespoke firepit built with assistance from Prime Designs Metalwork and stone from Eco Outdoor, will be shipped to Japan, ready for the garden to be assembled. As part of the event, the gardens can be purchased directly from the site; meaning the Tea Garden may live on.

To help give the Tea Garden a final push to Japan, a crowdfunding campaign has been created. Prizes are available to contributors. To find out more or make a contribution CLICK HERE