FLOW WORKSHOP
with Nigel Dunett, Katy Merrington & Annie Guilfoyle

Followed by talk by Tom Stuart and his garden. 

Award wining gallery plays an homage to the work of Barbara Hepworth, located in her historical mining hometown, the city of Wakefield.  


morning at Wakefield 📷 Cristina Audera morning at Wakefield 📷 Cristina Audera

The gallery built in 2011 by renowned architect David Chipperfield, stands on a small island overlooking the Calder river in Wakefield, Yorkshire. The striking and angular architecture of the building, contrasts hugely with the surrounding buildings and environment, calling attention upon itself. Inside you can find modern British art, “including works by Ben Nicholson, Patrick Heron, L.S. Lowry, Barbara Hepworth and Henry Moore”. Outside, you encounter Tom Stuart Smith’s vibrant garden.

The garden,  connects the more angular gallery and the softer Victorian Rutland Mills buildings.

The workshop ...
Inspired by nature, design for people. Fun, creative, breaking down barrier between gardens, designers. Nurturing nature- Hassell studio-competition..

Wakefield close-up 📷 Cristina Audera
““I have recently been involved in making a public garden, which to me seems to epitomise the idea of a civilised society. … In this relatively deprived part of a relatively poor city, it was very important that the garden be seen as a well cared for space, a space whose main purpose was to bring beauty into people’s lives.” 

Tom reflects on how the garden serves as both a sanctuary and a gesture of civic compassion.   


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wakefield 📷 Cristina Audera wakefield 📷 Cristina Audera wakefield 📷 Cristina Audera wakefield 📷 Cristina Audera wakefield 📷 Cristina Audera morning at Wakefield 📷 Cristina Audera wakefield 📷 Cristina Audera garden view from museum 📷 Cristina Audera wakefield 📷 Cristina Audera sketching 📷 Cristina Audera

The workshop located in Tom Stuart Smith’s Wakefield garden, consisted of brainstorming, imagining and exploring a new concept for the front garden, one that is currently wild and unmantained. The workshop was free, we let our creativity dance. All ideas where welcomed. Working in groups, we came up with a concept that would contrast the existing garden, but that would at the same time celebrate the mining history of Wakefield. A garden that would show all steps of succesion, going back to death and sparking life again, showing the cyclical nature of life. 



flow workshop 📷 Cristina Audera



  1. The workshop was followed by an enriching talk, led by Tom Stuart Smith and Katy Merrington on the Wakefield garden and some of Tom’s proejcts, like the Serge Hill project. For me, it was about breathing life into what was once just an empty patch of grass, turning it into a garden that naturally connects the gallery with the old Rutland Mills by the River Calder. I see it as a brave and uplifting gesture — showing how a cultural space can step beyond its walls to create something beautiful and welcoming for the whole community.