- The Subaru Cocoon Garden wins Best Show Garden at prestigious event
- Produced with designers Mike McMahon and Jewlsy Mathews of Mike McMahon Studio and constructed by Big Fish Landscapes
- Show Garden also awarded Environmental Innovation, Best Construction, RHS Gold Medal and the highly-coveted Tudor Rose Award
- Multi-award-winning show garden highlights the UK’s critically endangered temperate rainforests, with only 1% remaining from what once covered 20% of the UK & Ireland
- Show Garden features sustainable materials made from 9.5 tonnes of building waste, saving nearly 2,000 kg of CO₂ emissions
Subaru UK & Ireland is delighted to announce that ‘The Subaru Cocoon’ garden has won a host of top awards at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival, the world’s largest annual flower show. The innovative Show Garden was awarded ‘Best Show Garden’ and the highly coveted Tudor Rose Award, a prestigious accolade that recognises exceptional show gardens. The ‘Subaru Cocoon’ show garden also took home the ‘Best Construction (Show Garden)’ award and the RHS Environmental Innovation Award.
Once covering 20% of Britain, these lush, biodiverse Rainforest ecosystems have now dwindled to less than 1%, making them one of the UK’s most threatened habitats. The Subaru Cocoon’s powerful conservation message, combined with its innovative sustainable design, captivated judges, leading to this remarkable recognition, placing it among the most successful gardens in the festival’s history.
The show garden is a collaboration between Subaru UK & Ireland and the Mike McMahon Studio, and was inspired by the UK and Ireland’s rapidly vanishing temperate rainforests. The resulting space is a sculptural sensory refuge that creates a calming environment, drawing attention to this quiet, yet vital crisis.
Lorraine Bishton, Managing Director at Subaru UK & Ireland, said: “We are thrilled The Subaru Cocoon garden has received outstanding levels of recognition, as it supports our aim of showcasing both the beauty and fragility of our native rainforests, and the need to safeguard these ecologically rich, but threatened habitats.
We would like to thank our partner, Mike McMahon Studio, whose vision and commitment to excellence has proved instrumental to this activation. They have created a garden which beautifully articulates Subaru’s commitment to protection and sustainability, along with a profound appreciation of the natural world – values we know our customers share.
Following the festival, I’m looking forward to seeing the Subaru Cocoon further evolve as it is repurposed to provide an enduring legacy with the inspirational charity Horatio’s Garden.”
Mike McMahon and Jewsly Mathews of Mike McMahon Studio, added: “We are overjoyed and humbled to receive a Gold Medal, Best Show Garden, Environmental Innovation Award, Best Construction Award and the coveted Tudor Rose Award at the 2025 RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival. With our Subaru Cocoon, we sought to capture the quiet majesty of the temperate rainforest and illuminate the urgent need to protect these precious, life-giving ecosystems. This recognition is a testament to the power of gardens to stir hearts, spark change, and celebrate the profound beauty of our living world.”
Award-Winning Sustainable Innovation
The show garden features a striking curved Jali wall – a perforated architectural screen that honours co-designer Jewlsy Mathews’ South Indian heritage – made from 4,500 innovative Kenoteq K-Briqs manufactured from over 95% recycled construction waste. The revolutionary building materials emit 95% less carbon than traditional fired bricks, with the Jali wall doubling as a super-sized ‘insect hotel’ supporting microhabitats across the site.
By using sustainable bricks, the garden project diverted 9.45 tonnes of construction waste from landfill and saved 1,972 kg of CO₂ emissions – equivalent to the amount of CO₂ 80 mature trees would absorb over a full year. This innovative approach to biodiversity follows Mike McMahon Studio’s RHS Chelsea Gold Medal-winning garden in 2024.
In lieu of a traditional walled garden door, a reflective water threshold leads into a cool, immersive landscape of texture and shadow, with cantilevered fallen tree trunks planted with native epiphytes. The planting scheme features exclusively native species from the UK and Ireland, including thirteen species of fern, Silver Birch, and Scots Pine, structured in forest-like layers to celebrate the rich biodiversity of Britain’s temperate rainforests.
The Cocoon garden reflects Subaru’s commitment to sustainability, care, and considered movement – values shared across both brand and show garden. Just as Subaru supports responsible exploration through electric innovation with the zero-tailpipe emission, all-wheel-drive Subaru Solterra, the garden offers a place of refuge that treads lightly on the land.
As part of Subaru’s commitment to sustainability, the award-winning garden will be given a second life after the festival, with plans to repurpose it with the Horatio’s Garden charity, ensuring the installation continues to inspire and provide a place to nurture the wellbeing of people beyond the event.
For more information on the Subaru range, including the all-electric Solterra, visit www.subaru.co.uk