About the project

As part of the wider youth engagement activities being carried out on behalf of Latimer by Clarion Housing Group on the Garden Community, we have supported a group of young people in north Essex to design their own furniture for a rubble garden in Colchester. The Meanwhile Garden is a joint venture between Beth Chatto’s Plants and Gardens and Darryl Moore Design who together have rejuvenated a derelict plot of land in the city centre – formerly the site of a bus depot – and gifted it back to the city as a meanwhile space.

Over the course of our Summer Studio in August 2023, the group was asked to come up with their own designs for furniture that could be installed in the garden. After a site visit and initial sketching of ideas, they modelled their furniture designs out of cardboard at 1:1 scale. We have since adapted and combined these designs to create two furniture pieces which were professionally fabricated by local makers and installed in the garden as a testament to the power of young people’s voices in the shaping of new places.

The Meanwhile Garden embodies the spirit and values of the future garden community which will be designed on the principles of a 21st century garden city, combining new housing with generous open spaces and parks. Crucially, it is being shaped by young people, through an extensive youth engagement programme that you can read more about here.