Urquhart & Hunt is a landscape design studio which specialises in garden design as well as ecological restoration. Their practice is dedicated to horticulture, plants, people and ecology, with a carefully considered design and fulfilment process that attempts to hold these things in balance. Based in Bruton, Somerset, and Cork, Ireland, the practice has worked on a wide range of projects both locally and internationally. As first-time exhibitors at RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022, they won a gold medal and Best in Show for their ‘A Rewilding Britain Landscape’, which featured only native or naturalising plants and depicted a landscape inhabited by beavers - a keystone species - as well as the resulting diversity of habitats they create.
The practice also specialises in contemporary restorations of historic gardens and their wider landscapes, introducing vibrancy and biodiversity by means of carefully considered planting strategies that aim to create joy for people while sustaining and sheltering wildlife. Their vision is that gardens are a part of ecological restoration and their practice strives towards a more nuanced and reciprocal relationship with the land. Focusing on organic principles, they use native plants wherever possible to increase biodiversity and bolster natural habitats. Local materials and craftsmanship are brought into projects as far as possible, owing to sensitivity to cultural history and interest in vernacular design and land management traditions.
Along with Suzi Martineau, they are co-founders of The Tree Conference – an annual event encompassing climate science and deep ecology to understand our relationship with and dependence on trees and forests.
Garden and landscape design, ecological restoration guidance and implementation, project management.
"Our style is naturalistic, romantic and site-specific, with special consideration given to plant associations and careful use of natural materials appropriate to the local vernacular and landscape culture of the area."
"We recently participated at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2022, earning a Gold Medal and winning Best in Show for our garden ‘A Rewilding Britain Landscape’. The garden featured only native or naturalising plants and depicted a landscape inhabited by beavers, as well as the resulting diversity of habitats they create. The garden sought to demonstrate the ecological benefits of a wilder landscape, where species once present in the UK have been re-introduced and allowed to thrive. This garden thoroughly embodies our ethos as a practice and ripples through the work that we continue to do."
Photography: www.magnusdennis.com
