Narrative, Craft and Form: Inside the These White Walls Pavilion at Chelsea Flower Show

At the Chelsea Flower Show, gardens become galleries — spaces where landscape, architecture and art intersect. For These White Walls, who were invited to design a pavilion in collaboration with Eden Sculpture, this presented an opportunity to explore how narrative-led design can shape not only interiors, but immersive architectural environments.

At the core of the studio’s approach is a simple but guiding principle: how can we live more beautifully? This question informs every project, from ultra-prime residential interiors to large-scale hospitality environments, and underpinned the design of the pavilion created in collaboration with Eden Sculpture.

The project was conceived as an exploration of the relationship between sculpture, architecture and movement. Rather than treating artworks as objects placed within a space, the design sought to build an environment around them — allowing the architecture to frame, reveal and elevate each piece.

The pavilion evolved into an abstract, undulating ribbon of architecture that wraps around a series of sculptures. Visitors are drawn through the space along a gravel pathway, moving between natural stone, grasses and a central water feature. Carefully positioned apertures and partial sight-lines create moments of anticipation, offering glimpses into the interior before revealing more intimate encounters within.

This choreography of movement was central to the design process. Consideration was given not only to how the space would look, but how it would be experienced — how visitors would pause, reflect and engage with the sculptures at different moments throughout their journey.

Materiality played a key role in supporting this experience. The pavilion’s weather-worn, limewashed surfaces create a calm and restrained architectural language, allowing the sculptures to take visual precedence. Around them, grasses and gravel introduce tactility, sound and variation, creating a layered sensory environment.

This balance between rawness and refinement is a recurring theme in These White Walls’ work. It reflects a broader commitment to craftsmanship and material integrity — values shared with Eden Sculpture. Both studios place importance on working with materials that carry depth and permanence, shaped through skilled making rather than mass production.

Designing around sculpture requires particular sensitivity, especially when working with materials such as marble and bronze. These materials bring weight, permanence and presence, demanding that the surrounding architecture remains disciplined and considered. Rather than competing with the artworks, the design must support them — allowing their form, texture and interaction with light to take centre stage.

Set against the movement and softness of the surrounding garden, these sculptural materials take on greater clarity. The contrast between the organic and the refined, the ephemeral and the enduring, creates a dynamic tension that defines the space.

While the pavilion itself is temporary, designed to be dismantled and reassembled, its intention is not permanence in a physical sense. Instead, the project focuses on creating a meaningful spatial experience — one that lingers in memory and reflects the studio’s belief that thoughtful design can shape how people feel, move and connect within a space.

If you’d like to feature your news or stories on SBID.org, get in touch to find out more. 

If you’d like to become SBID Accredited, click here for more information.

How does your team collaborate on major projects?

Collaboration is fundamental to our approach; we understand that an aesthetic vision needs to be anchored in technical knowhow, and we value the expertise of a diverse range of shareholders on every single project who are essential to its success.

We believe in creating a collaborative environment where partners feel empowered to contribute their unique expertise and work closely with the project managers to ensure workshops are facilitated both on site and remotely, to ensure that communication remains fluid and all parties fully informed. As an interior designer, you are often the connective tissue that binds multiple parts together on a big project.

Creative collaborations are also key to our studio’s approach. We work closely with craftspeople, specialist finishers, makers, and with individual artists on all of our schemes to bring distinction to the interiors. Art is fundamental to our practice: we connect artists with the architecture of our spaces to create site specific commissions that are unique to the space. From bespoke botanical plaster murals to hand painted silk roomscapes, to funghi walls, and more recently working on a data-driven articulated sculpture, artistic collaborations are a key component in our work.

What steps do you take to stay at the forefront of the design industry?

For us this begins by constantly challenging conventional thinking. Internally, I always encourage a culture of exploration and experimentation and am continually asking the team to question why they are making specific choices. For our conceptual ideation, we always reference realms outside of design because that brings a fresh energy to the work we create and we bring in-studio education to the team through our Talk Thursdays programme that introduces alternative approaches.

We do of course actively engage with the design industry through the industry events and biennales, some of which we will be collaborating on next year. Also, given my social sciences background, I am equally interested to attend events that speak to more diverse interests. For example, new technologies or developments in the world of well-being that will eventually impact our industry, and this cross-pollination of ideas helps to encourage innovating thinking in the studio.

How do you incorporate sustainability into your designs?

This is a really tough one for us as we work globally, so the very process of producing and being present across global sites is by definition unsustainable, but we actively take steps to make the process more sustainable from each location. We are very conscious of sourcing materials locally where possible, and to find local craftspeople for the construction of key elements in the scheme to lower the carbon footprint of their production.

We also prioritise the creation of unique, high-quality, durable products that are designed for longevity and timeless appeal, to be treated as future heirlooms, rather than those with a built-in obsolescence. We have learned that creating designs that endure can be a more sustainable strategy than focusing on a lot of recycled or energy-consuming methods; there is a balance to be had.

We are continuing to look at our sustainability practices, and this year hope to do a carbon-footprint audit on our projects to see if we can become more conscious of that imprint and where it is most significant so we can then work together with our clients to provide solutions that will reduce it every time.

What advice would you give to emerging designers?

Always follow the map unfolding within you. Don’t be swayed by the ‘shoulds’ and conventions that get in the way of what continually ignites your passion and makes you feel alive when you create. I took an unconventional path to get here, studying Anthropology rather than design at UCL before forging an unplanned multidisciplinary career working across editorials, television and immersive live events, before I eventually decided to deepen into interior design. I thought at the time that my idiosyncratic story would hold me back when in fact I now recognise it as the reason our studio is so distinctive. I would encourage all emerging designers to follow their curiosity and see where it takes them.

What sets your work apart in the industry?

We are committed to designing spaces that transcend trends, so our work is sometimes difficult to define. There is a bold feminine beauty that runs through all of our designs, grounded by a rational masculinity that creates a beautiful tension and lends our work a timeless quality that has an enduring integrity. There is something profoundly personal about our work and that seems to make it very memorable.

If you’d like to feature your news or stories on SBID.org, get in touch to find out more. 

If you’d like to become SBID Accredited, click here for more information.