One flower, one colour and enough of both to completely transform the building.
Hundreds of soft, dusty pink roses used repeatedly rather than mixed with other varieties.
Sweeping branchwork created the structure before the roses were added across the façade.
From pavement level to the roofline, the flowers had to work across the entire building.
Before deciding where a single rose was going, we looked at what was already there.
The salon has a white façade, a black entrance and that enormous black bicycle mounted above the first floor. It was already a strong piece of architecture, so there was no reason to fight it.
The pink roses became the contrast.
We wanted the installation to travel around the building rather than simply sit around the doorway. That meant taking the flowers upwards, across the shopfront and along the roofline, while allowing parts of the original façade to remain visible.
The salon signage also runs straight through the middle of the installation, so that had to remain readable.
The flowers needed to transform the building without making the building disappear.
Sometimes one flower really is enough. You just have to use rather a lot of it.
When you’re working with hundreds of the same flower, the obvious thing is to distribute them evenly.
We usually find that does exactly the opposite of what you want.
Some areas of this installation are incredibly dense. Elsewhere, individual roses travel almost on their own across the white façade.
That change in density gives your eye somewhere to stop and makes the whole thing feel much more natural.
From across the street you see this enormous sweep of pink.
When you get closer, you start seeing individual roses.
That’s the balance we were trying to create.
When you get closer, there’s much more going on.”
The finished photographs make floral façades look rather more effortless than they are.
Before the roses arrived, we needed the shape.
Branches and foliage created the framework around the entrance and gave us those long sweeping lines that travel across the frontage. Once that structure was working, the flowers could begin.
And then came the roses.
And more roses.
And then quite a lot more roses.
Scale is deceptive when you’re working on a building. Something that looks enormous while you’re holding it can suddenly look surprisingly polite once it is several metres above your head.
So every so often you have to stop working close-up, walk away and look at the building from the other side of the street.
That is usually when you discover whether you need another ten roses or another hundred.
SCALE CHANGES EVERYTHING
What looks enormous at ground level can disappear once it reaches the first floor. Large façades need far more material than you initially imagine.
WORK WITH WHAT’S ALREADY THERE
The bicycle, black doorway and white façade gave us the contrast. The flowers didn’t need to compete with them.
KNOW WHEN TO STOP
The aim wasn’t to hide every centimetre of the building. Leaving areas of white between the roses is part of what makes the pink work.
A few more stories, projects and things we've learned along the way.
Hundreds of flowers, every colour we could get our hands on and an old-fashioned English tea party. A look behind one of our most colourful London floral installations.
Read Article →
Large floral installations rarely look straightforward halfway through. A little look at the planning, problem-solving and practical work behind making them happen.
Read Article →
Sometimes one colour is enough. A look at what happens when you stop treating pink as an accent and let it take over properly.
Read Article →JOURNAL ENQUIRIES
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