Horatio’s Garden has announced that award-winning landscape designer Joe Perkins and architect Clementine Blakemore will design its tenth transformative garden: Horatio’s Garden Yorkshire.
The new garden will support people rehabilitating at the Yorkshire Regional Spinal Injuries Centre at Pinderfields General Hospital in Wakefield, as well as their families, friends and NHS staff.
Joe and Clementine recently visited the hospital to meet people with spinal injuries and members of the NHS team, listening carefully to their experiences and hopes for the new garden. Their insights will shape a calm, accessible and restorative space designed around the needs of everyone who will use it.
Joe is a multi-RHS-winning landscape designer with more than 25 years’ experience creating spaces inspired by the restorative impact of the outdoors. He said: “Working with Horatio’s Garden means we’re going to make a real difference to the recovery and rehabilitation of spinal injury patients. To be part of this is such a privilege and something I really value. Listening to staff and patients here has been incredibly valuable, and we’ll incorporate these insights into our design.”
Clementine is the founder of Clementine Blakemore Architects, an award-winning practice creating inventive and inclusive buildings designed to have a positive impact on communities and the environment. She said: “We’re designing the garden room and pods for the new garden, and it’s a dream brief for us. Our ambition is to create a sensitive environment that is an antidote to the clinical feeling of the hospital. We want to make a space where people feel comfortable and relaxed, where they want to linger, and where their families can come and spend proper time with them.”
Katie Tait, CEO of Horatio’s Garden, said: “Patients and staff at Pinderfields have told us they wanted a welcoming, peaceful place to spend meaningful time with family, enjoy fresh air and nature, take part in everyday activities and rebuild confidence and independence during rehabilitation. Joe and Clementine’s skill, creativity and sensitivity will be vital in creating that space through this important new project at Horatio’s Garden Yorkshire.”
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