The Living Office at Chelsea Flower Show

19 May 2010

The Living Office, a collaboration between Indoor Garden Design and Vitra,  is the first ever interior garden created at Chelsea and will be located in the Pavilion at the Flower Show.

The Living Office will illustrate the benefits and the effects of integrating plants into an ‘office’ to make for a healthier and sustainable environment in which to work. 

Visitors to the Living Office can see a beautifully designed ‘working’ sanctuary complete with Vitra’s office range that marries ergonomic philosophy with technical brilliance.

The Living Office will feature a resplendent living wall and with a system that will grow a salad for lunch, including strawberries, tomatoes, mint and chives. A fish tank will act as a grey water filtration system to feed the plants and a compost bin recycles waste whilst providing ambient heating to the work space. 

Introducing plants into a working environment offers physical and psychological health benefits; these attributes include removing carbon monoxide from the air, absorbing dust and improving people’s concentration and memory retention and heighten their senses.  With over 3.5 million people working from home (research conducted by the TUC, 2009) it is important to balance the work home life to ensure that home workers function just as well as their office colleagues and plants can be key to that.

Ian Drummond, Creative Director of Indoor Garden Design – ‘I believe that people’s external surroundings contribute to their general well-being and to that of the office interior. Plants make interiors feel much more looked-after and clean.  I’m really pleased to be working with Vitra to encourage visitors to think about plants for the interior and not just the exterior.’

Tony Ash, Managing Director of Vitra comments, ‘The collaboration between Vitra and Indoor Garden Design has been a fascinating journey into how energising and generally more pleasing  we can make the workplace, by integrating the best of horticulture with innovative furniture.’

The Living Office will be located inside the Grand Pavilion, Stand No K7 at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show – 25- 29 May.

Indoor Garden Design will also be working with James Wong on his Malaysian Garden for the Tourism Malaysia Garden and the Green and Black’s Rainforest Garden.