Bronze planters for Embassy Gardens landscaping

Looking at how the material design developed for the landscaping project adjacent to the new American Embassy in Nine Elms, Wandsworth, London with its inspiration taken from the High Line Park in New York, USA.

Bronze PVD stainless steel planters

Anthony Thompson is the Managing Director of In-Ex Landscapes who were appointed by the landscape architects, Camlins. In-Ex Landscapes constructed the connecting paved spaces from New Union Square through to the Linear Park which included the specification and installation of the planters.

Anthony says “We wanted to complement the green planting and the coloration of the buildings which include ochres and golds and the pavement which is a natural pea gravel. The colours were tending towards autumn colours in browns, golds and yellows so we knew we wanted a bronze colour for the planters. The original specification was for powder coated steel but we discounted this option as it damaged too easily – it could be scratched by people passing by or during maintenance especially being at a low level. Our role is always to Value-Engineer and advise so we looked at various options for the planters.

We put forward coloured stainless steel as a product being no different in price to powder coating but being far superior in aesthetic and quality. The design detail was a big challenge for us on this project as the ground work varied from the drawings which meant we could not fabricate as originally planned. In the end we made fifty prototypes of corner sections from timber and these were exactly copied by John Desmond Ltd”.