We are continuing our celebration of the award--winning designs over 20 years. In 2021, the judges chose two designs to give the acolade of Best Project. Here is the Design & Installation project of 2021 at the Royal College of Physicians in Liverpool which was installed by Urban Planters and given the attribute of 'Best in Show'.

The Royal College of Physicians – Best Project Award 2021

The Royal College of Physicians in Liverpool with impressive living walls and superbly designed and executed planters with seating around them was the judges’ choice for the Design & Installation Project of 2021.

The scheme has superb living walls in the reception, where the plant selection is fabulous and everything looks healthy. Replica plants above the café are practical and functional. Good to know the café will be open to the public, who will also be able to view living walls in the entrance. On floors 10 and 12 there are cleverly designed and planted seating areas around pillars. Impressive specimen plants such as Alocasia and huge Veitchia merilli palms give a tropical feel, with lush underplanting. Nice to see the use of different plants to those normally used for the interior environment.

This amazing truly biophilic scheme was designed by Ed Gant at Oobe Architects. The whole design was to fill the space with tropical planting to create a forest-like look and the planters have seating so you feel like you are sat under a forest canopy.
The design of the planting on the living wall is to reflect the geometric shape of cells and to replicate those on the building itself.

The whole design was to fill the space with tropical planting to create a forest-like look and the planters have seating giving those who use the space, the feeling that they are sat under a forest canopy. The planters were huge and this created a challenge ensuring the GRP liners were made in the correct sections to get the very different plant species with large rootballs in the right area of the planters. Some problems were encountered with extra things being added to the planters without being told, meaning the liners had to be adjusted on site. This meant the planting spaces changed, with smaller plants this was not a problem but with the rootball size of 4.3m trees, it was a challenge to ensure we still set the planting as close to Ed Gants’ layout as possible.

We also had the logistics of having to get the very large trees up to the 10th & 12th floors - not an easy feat for the team with trees of 4.3m. RCP are aiming to achieve a WELL Standard Certification (Platinum).

What an amazing scheme to work on from the original design to the finished article it is planting at it’s best. The whole design was to fill the space with tropical planting to create a forest-like look and the planters have seating so you feel like you are sat under a forest canopy.