Rosewood London

Lead planters were commissioned for Rosewood London, newly-opened following an £85m refurbishment of the landmark Pearl Assurance headquarters on High Holborn.

The project was conducted jointly with Outdoor Design and Redfields.

The original design intent was for the planters to be manufactured in solid lead, but this created two key problems:

• 4 nr. imposing conical planters [W 1190 x H 1196mm] were too large to be made in solid lead, as the planters would collapse under their own weight,
• 10 nr. large trough planters were too heavy in solid lead to be safely installed on top of a wall surrounding an outdoor seating area.

The solution was to design and manufacture galvanised steel planter liners, which were then clad in 3mm thick lead sheeting. The resulting composite planters deliver the aesthetic of lead desired by the architect, whilst relying on the superior strength and strength-to-weight ratio of steel for the planters’ technical performance.

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