The Soft Machine

This landscape design/engineered ecosystem exhibited by Humko Bled Ltd and designed by Tomaz Bavdez, was on a display at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2012 in The Fresh Gardens category.

The Soft Machine garden has been designed to provision ecosystem services, processing and recycling waste within an attractive setting. Inspiration for the garden's title came from the William Burroughs novel of the same name, where “soft machine” is a synonym for a human body. The human body plays its part in the processing, helping to pump waste water to the top of the modular living walls and filtering units, whilst training on the exercise bike – nothing is wasted.  Marsh planting predominates and both the planting and landscape materials serve as additional water filters. The elevated platforms seem to float in the air, farming rainwater processing units in conjunction with the pools below. Planting on top of the platforms is inspired by raised mires plant communities. The garden is calm and serene despite its diverse elements, textures and colours.

This landscape design/engineered ecosystem aspires to bold aesthetic expression and offers opportunities for gardening, exercising, enhancing biodiversity and recycling waste, connecting these elements into one integral and interdependent unit – The Soft Machine.

VIDEO of the garden