Growing Together

GROWING TOGETHER engages local residents to share stewardship of the Dame Sylvia Crowe garden at the Design Museum. The garden was named in memory of the pioneering landscape architect who designed the landscaping for the Commonwealth Institute in 1962.

The project provides an inclusive learning and research space, raises awareness of sustainable design and horticulture practices, and facilitates collective action committed to the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Biodiversity Action Plan 2022 – 2027, which you can download via the link below.

The Growing Together project seeks to reduce inequalities in access to creative learning opportunities and green spaces, and benefit health and wellbeing. It brings together creatives and horticulturists to facilitate design thinking and knowledge exchange, and establish new social contracts.

From June 2021 to January 2022, designer Georgia Cottingham led creative consultation work to expose the interests and needs of older adults (50+ years). They attended four local community groups who did not engage with the museum: The Dalgarno Trust, Open Age, Kensington and Chelsea over 50s Forum, and The Octavia Foundation. Sharing their ideas about a green space at the Design Museum, participants were integral in shaping the project vision and design brief.

Horticultural educator George Hudson and design studio public works were appointed in March 2022 to oversee the co-design of the garden, as an accessible space for the museum to explore its ecological agenda. They held a series of workshops with local residents, aged 50 years+, with limited or no access to green spaces at home, and students from Hammersmith Academy. Participants made cyanotype prints, sowed seeds, planted bulbs, propagated plants, and tested natural dyes. They also explored principles of biodiversity, habitat provision and stewardship. Through this process, participants gained skills and insight whilst contributing their own ideas towards the co-design.

In October 2022, 15 of the older adults formed a volunteer cohort to share the stewardship of the garden with the museum. Their learning was facilitated by ecologist, educator and author, Michael Holland.

Social enterprise community interest company Renew:EL joined the project in February 2023, designing and installing a set of steps and handrail to make the upper level accessible. They also helped plant the lower embankments.

In March 2023, public works installed a set of garden planters on the upper level to absorb waste from the museum’s exhibitions and shops. The planters include two storage units for tools, which can unfold into seating and work surfaces.

The Growing Together project hosts seasonal Garden Assemblies where participants/visitors can enjoy inspiring talks and engage in workshops led by experts from the worlds of gardening, horticulture and design.

In these events, project volunteers share their learning and progress in the garden, and visitors can try their hand at horticultural and creative activities, swap gardening tips and tricks, connect and network.

Previous speakers and facilitators include:
Susanna Grant
Hackney Herbal
Oliver Haden
Sue Stuart-Smith
Danny Hubbard
Sui Searle
Maymana Arefin
Marchelle Farrell
Claire Takacs
Johanna Tagada Hoffbeck
Renata Fernandez
Ashley Edwards
Errol Ruben Fernandes
Lola Lely
Studio Kuhu

The project is enriched with insights and ideas from many contributors. We are grateful to each person who has challenged and expanded our thinking and practice – thanks for helping us to grow.

To the Growing Together project Critical Friends group – Noordeen Fahmy, Alice Laughton, Robert Halbert-Pereno and Pak Ling Wan for advising and supporting the project.

To contributors of the Growing Together project learning syllabus, including designer Isabel Leah, artist JC Candanedo, researcher Carly Dickson, Design Museum Director Assistant Madeline Penn and designer Eliza Collin.

Hybridising Scentscapes.

To partners Design Age Institute and Opportunity Kensington Business Improvement District, for your guidance and energy.

To this project's funders Lightbulb Trust and Kusama Trust for your generosity, conviction and patience.

As part of Future Observatory’s 2023/24 'Design Researchers in Residence' Programme, design researcher Eliza Collin and artist/farmer duo Aterraterra developed a planting scheme in a plot of the Dame Sylvia Crowe Garden, with the support of the Growing Together volunteers.

The plot features a selected group of plant species, some of which change their scent when they are exposed to air pollution and dramatic changes in seasonal weather patterns. When a plant changes its scent, this can have a negative impact on its relationship with pollinators and put it at risk of extension.

By planting these flowers together with plants that do not change their scent, the plot was designed to encourage hybridization. This is a process where two different species mix to produce a new hybrid plant which may be more resilient to changing climates.

Background image by Matthew Kaltenborn