Garden Room for Horatio's Garden

Dedicated to creating and nurturing beautiful, accessible and sustainable gardens in NHS spinal centres for patients who would otherwise have little or no access to nature. Mcmullan Studio designed a pod-like building for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. The project received a Gold Medal and the coveted Best in Show Award. The Show Garden will form the nucleus of a new, permanent space at the Princess Spinal Injuries Centre in Sheffield. The wheelchair accessible Show Garden created a beautiful, immersive, restorative haven – the antithesis of a busy, clinical hospital environment. It was designed to give visitors to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show a sense of the hope and transformative effect that having access to a Horatio’s Garden can have when coming to terms with a devastating and traumatic spinal injury. The garden room provides a cocooning place for physical and emotional shelter that immerses people in nature and can be used all year round. Mcmullan Studio spent many months meeting and listening to the whole Horatio’s Garden community of patients, their loved ones, NHS staff and volunteers, to understand the needs and aspirations of everyone benefiting from time in a Horatio's Garden. Our garden room is designed as a place to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of the garden and be uplifted by them. It is a private secluded shelter where patients and their families can spend time together – where they can laugh or cry – yet they will never feel isolated. The timber structure features a stunning reciprocal roof, designed to address the issue of monotony experienced by patients who are confined to staring at hospital ward ceilings, particularly those who cannot move or lift their heads due to spinal injuries.