Supreme Award at Ellerslie Flower Show 2014

April, 2014

Last year you may remember I helped a Polytechnic Landscape Student win the Gold Lighting Award at the Ellerslie Flower Show. I'm pleased to say I've gone one step further this year by personally winning that again, plus the Supreme Award at this year's show. That's the overall award that the winners of each category are eligible for.

This year I worked with Baylee LuuTomes for the second year running. The project was a playground for children with arthritis. This garden told the story of a young 11-year old girl, Alisha, living with arthritis. On a good day she looks like any other child playing in the playground. But when the arthritis kicks in, the simplest things become a major challenge.

One of the unique parts of the project was how we had two playgrounds in one. The first could be used by anyone, while the second was specifically designed for those with arthritis.

With the lighting, the design for the first playground was based around creating a warm ambience around what was already a beautiful space. In contrast, I lit the special playground for those with arthritis to create the opposite effect. This is how they feel on bad days. It was great to be able to bring some awareness to 'kids with arthritis'. They have many challenges that we don't understand or cater for.

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