Alistair Bayford, RHS Chelsea 2019

With thanks to CED Natural Stone today Peter Donegan chats with Alistair Bayford. Alistair is a Chartered Landscape Architect and designer of The Family Monsters Garden at RHS Chelsea 2019. 

Alistair studied at Writtle College achieving a 1st Class Honours degree in Landscape and Garden Design in 2004; later completing his post graduate diploma at the University of Greenwich in 2006; becoming a Chartered Member of the Landscape Institute in 2008. 
His professional career started at Liz Lake Associates in 2004, progressing on to a Project Management role at Lee Valley Regional Park Authority in 2009 overseeing a number of Olympic related projects within Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and the Olympic Fringe. 
Alistair joined idverde in 2012 as Park Manager for Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park responsible for the mobilisation of the 10 year maintenance contract achieving a prestigious BALI Principal Award in 2015.

His current role sees him leading professional services and landscape construction throughout London and the South East, specialising in park improvement and public realm projects winning nine BALI Awards in the past six years.

Alistair is a current Director of The Parks Alliance, the voice of UK Parks, acting as Vice Chair from 2016-2018.
The Family Monsters Garden celebrates 150 years of Family Action supporting families across the country and idverde's 100 years of creating and maintaining landscapes for the benefit of local communities.

The garden shows the pressures faced by every family and the journey families take to face these challenges. From financial problems to health and wellbeing issues, and from lack of time together to problems with communication and resolving disputes, the garden represents the range of pressures faced by families in Britain today. The journey to bringing these hidden issues out of the dark and into the open, so that they don’t become overwhelming, can be one of secrecy, shame and isolation, with pressures and progress obscured and hard to resolve.

Ultimately their journey in this garden leads to a family space, where all come together to reflect, get their pressures out in the open and gather strength to face them together. The pool of clear water offers reflection and perspective.

Through exhibiting this garden Alistair has discussed his own monster, how it impacted him and his young family, and how through sharing his troubles he found ways to overcome them and deal with them.

Idverde is Europe’s largest provider of grounds maintenance services and landscape construction projects, with staff operating throughout the UK and France. We offer a holistic range of services to support the creation, maintenance and management of landscapes throughout the UK, working with both public and private sector clients to deliver bespoke solutions for each project’s unique challenges.

Family Action is a national charity marking its 150th anniversary in 2019 and is committed to building stronger families by delivering innovative and effective services and support that reaches out to many of the UK’s most vulnerable people. We seek to empower people and communities to address their issues and challenges through practical, financial and emotional help.

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