The first Emirati landscape designer to participate in the acclaimed RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Kamelia Bin Zaal’s award-winning entry is an ode to the spirit of Islam.
Established in 1913, the annual gardening show held in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea, London, is one of the most important events for the horticultural design community. Over the years, many a landscape designer has cemented their industry stature at the hospital grounds. Diarmuid Gavin’s May 2011 award-winning design — the mid-air suspended “Irish Sky Garden” — is still considered by many regulars the judging standard for the Chelsea Flower Show awards.
This year, Dubai-based Kamelia decided to test herself professionally alongside the world’s best horticulture designers, some of them her mentors. “I wanted to see where I stood in the industry and what people thought about landscape from our arid region,” she says.
“The Silver Gilt Award is my greatest personal achievement to date, other than my beautiful son. Ever since I started my career in landscape design, it has been my life’s ambition to participate at the Chelsea Flower Show. I was elated when the RHS approved my design.”
Winning the Silver Medal for her garden “Beauty of Islam” was not only a personal validation; it also allowed her to showcase her culture in new light.
“With so much going on in the world, it comes down to us as a community to send out a positive message and image about Islam,” she says of her ancient Arabic Spice Route-inspired design concept brought to life by scents emanating from the ginger, rosemary and cardamom plants Kamelia selected for the project, and anointed by a breath-taking stainless steel sculpture that read “Ullah”.
Born to green-thumbed parents — her father, Zaal Mohammad Zaal, is the pioneer behind Dubai’s green oasis, Al Barari, and her mother, Leslie Zaal, one of the region’s leading designers and a proponent of suitability in interiors — Kamelia’s career path almost seems determined since her birth. Yet it wasn’t until her father was conceptualising the Al Barari project in the early 2000s did she seriously consider a career in landscape.
“Through a series of conversations with him, I realised I shared his passion for nature at a deeper level. Soon I enrolled at the Inchbald School of Design in London to study garden design in 2003.”
In spirit, Kamelia dedicates the garden to Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the late President of the UAE, a man whose vision for the region and love for his people has inspired her.
“His Highness Shaikh Zayed understood the importance of protecting our environment and that it was key to sustaining our community and to the growth of the country,” she says.
The poem Flock of Meanings, by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, penned in honour of Shaikh Zayed, is carved on to marble that is set against an olive hedge running the length of the garden concept.
Soothing in its matte marble accents and set to the tones of lush Arabic flora such as Nannorrhops Arabica and Bismarckia nobilis palms, Kamelia’s garden is a crossroads of sorts for traditional design elements and contemporary explorations — the intent underscored by the layout based on a traditional Islamic pattern set at a 45-degree angle that breaks away from the traditional courtyard set-out.
Created by four walls acting as dividers within the garden, the contemporary courtyard design enhances a sense of discovery around the space as a water feature runs through it like a thread.
Punctuating the water feature is the eight-point star — Khatim. Widely used in Islamic art, it is considered the seal of the prophets. “The design used both modern and classic materials originating from countries touched by Arab culture and Islam,” says the designer of the use of steel and faux mother-of-pearl accents that dot the garden as well as the diverse flora that includes figs and the most intense of citrus plants.
Playing on the concepts of light and shade found classically through regional architecture, Kamelia designed a refuge within the garden — a cantilevered stainless steel domed shade structure featuring a traditional Arabic Mashrabiya pattern.
Painted by Emirati calligraphist Hamda Abdulla Al Hashmi and carved into stone by skilled local craftsmen, words from the Quran, Surah Sad: Verse 50 — “The gates of the Garden of Eden will open up to them” — keep guard.
Pratyush Sarup edits the design site designcarrot.net. You can follow the site on twitter @DesignCarrot.