Explore the latest garden concepts that have earned a place on the shortlist for the 2027 Society of Garden and Environment Designers Awards, and cast your vote for the preferred entry. A total of 25 sites qualify for the People’s Choice Award, with the online ballot remaining open until 31 October.
Among them, a project nestled in the Spessart hills close to Frankfurt features a newly built chalet that links seamlessly to its surroundings via dry-stone walls and rugged stone steps, entirely free of concrete. The scheme relies heavily on pines, which anchor the design and reinforce its bond with the adjacent forest. An eclectic mix of perennials, grasses, ferns and slow-growing trees threads through the environment, while carefully placed plantings accentuate the expansive valley panoramas. Ultimately, the garden is wholly integrated into its alpine environment.
Woodland retreats and urban sanctuaries
Winners of the 2026 SGLD Awards were recently announced, and this year’s shortlist features a range of projects. A woodland glade sanctuary by Stefano Marinaz Environment Architecture transforms a once mostly lawned plot into an immersive environment that encourages exploration and closer connection with its woodland setting. Meandering paths lead through layered, naturalistic planting, creating spaces for dining, contemplation and relaxation, while carefully framed views connect the house with the environment. Concrete paving has been replaced with gravel to improve rainwater infiltration, and diverse planting supports pollinators and invertebrates. Log piles and seating provide additional wildlife habitat, while bulbs add biodiversity where the lawn has been retained.
High in the Toledo mountains, El Quejigal by Gonzalo Morillo Holguin transforms a former cattle stable into a quiet retreat within a 250-acre estate. The design blurs boundaries between house and wilderness, using restored dry-stone walls, framing porches and curving gravel paths to ease the transition across a rugged hillside toward the Gredos mountains. To endure extreme weather—spanning 40°C summer highs, -7°C winter lows and just 400mm of annual rainfall—the scheme uses a drought-tolerant planting palette. Turf is restricted to the pool zone, allowing the environment to shine.
Area has reimagined London’s oldest public park, Finsbury Circus Gardens, as an urban sanctuary, featuring an expansive central lawn, broadened accessible routes, and varied ecological habitats, with a focus on climate resilience and biodiversity, including the use of tree ferns, shade-tolerant perennials, and pollinator-friendly herbaceous borders, as well as sustainable drainage swathes inspired by historic marshlands and rain gardens.
Future Plants Environment in the Netherlands operates as a botanical innovation hub, nursery, living laboratory and exhibition garden. The flexible masterplan features gently mounded planting beds that improve visibility, enhance local drainage and create diverse microclimates. The design relies on perennial communities selected for climate adaptability, biodiversity and long-term low maintenance. Evergreen grasses provide a stable foundation that protects soil and minimises irrigation needs, while resilient, drought-tolerant and pollinator-friendly species such as Crambe maritima, Echinacea pallida ‘Hula Dancer’ and Eryngium yuccifolium are layered throughout.
Public spaces and educational environments
At the National Trust’s Beningbrough Hall, near York, the Mediterranean Garden reinterprets the estate’s historical connection to Italy through a climate-resilient, contemporary design. Designed as a public area environment, it transforms 4,500 square metres of underused amenity grass into a biodiverse gravel garden. Low, linear York-stone walls emerge from the sloping ground to define spaces, provide integrated seating and frame views of the hall. Water flows into the space through rills, reflective pools and sculptural bowls, creating movement, sound and varied habitats. The planting features over 4,000 species – including more than 3,500 pollinator-friendly plants sourced from Mediterranean climate zones. The planting requires minimal irrigation once established and is adapted to hot, dry summers and wet winters.
White concrete accents, clay pavers, integrated seating and learning gardens complete the space. At the heart of this public area transformation in London’s White City is the Green Spine boulevard, a central corridor designed to restore pedestrian movement and establish connected wildlife habitats. SuDS rain gardens feature climate-resilient species designed to filter surface runoff while adapting to wet and dry conditions. More than 2,500 plants, including Astrantia major, Dryopteris affinis and Pennisetum alopecuroides, weave through the boulevard and green walls, providing key pollinator habitats.
Designed for patients, families and healthcare staff, the fully accessible environment at Musgrave Park Hospital’s Spinal Injuries Unit in Belfast features smooth, level, resin-bound gravel paths, automated doors and threshold-free entrances that comfortably accommodate wheelchairs and hospital beds. Sensory planting, woodland-edge communities, specimen trees and mixed native hedging form a rich, biodiverse framework that supports local wildlife. Built around integrated timber structures and stone features, the layout includes a dedicated garden room, therapeutic greenhouse, raised growing beds, private garden pods and a multi-use boccia court. Flowing curvilinear paths connect these social spaces, quiet seating nooks and a stone water feature.
