A year after it was first unveiled at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2025, work has begun on the relocation of the Avanade Intelligent Garden to Manchester’s Mayfield district, marking the next phase in the evolution of the award-winning Mayfield Park.
Originally created for the 2025 RHS Chelsea Flower Show by Tom Massey and Studio Weave, the Avanade Intelligent Garden is being reimagined for a permanent new home as part of Mayfield’s emerging threshold development.
Led by landscape architects Studio Egret West — the team behind Mayfield Park — the project will transform a former traffic island into a richly planted, pedestrian-focused gateway linking Manchester city centre with the expanding Mayfield neighbourhood.
Image: the Avanade Intelligent Garden at RHS Chelsea 2025 designed by Tom Massey and Je Ahn - image by Tammy Marlar
With completion anticipated in July, the reimagined garden will selectively reuse elements from the original Chelsea show garden, embedding them within a distinctly Mancunian context and will include public seating and space for people to pause and spend time in nature. The space is a key part of the programme to create a complete green corridor that links the 6.5-acre Mayfield Park, opened in 2022, with Piccadilly Station dissolving the boundary between city and green space and creating a softer, greener arrival into the city.
Speaking about the project, Duncan Paybody, Landscape Director at Studio Egret West, said: “Our reimagining of the Chelsea Garden follows the core principles of the design of Mayfield Park with a powerful ambition to act as a threshold where Mayfield touches the city centre, and where industrial character and emerging urban nature meet.
“It weaves reclaimed materials, local stone, water-sensitive design and ecological planting into a compact space, demonstrating how even the smallest public space can contribute to a resilient and distinctly Mancunian landscape.”
Building on the strong culture of reuse already established throughout Mayfield Park, the new garden will continue this commitment to retaining and reworking the city’s existing fabric.
Historic Manchester cobbles lifted during nearby highway works will be reinstated on site, while Yorkshire-quarried Woodkirk sandstone will form new paving and crevice gardens. Waste stone offcuts will be repurposed into bespoke mosaic surfaces, and recycled concrete slabs from the RHS garden will create informal pathways. Existing vehicle mitigation blocks — complete with graffiti — will also be retained and reimagined as part of an “urban block garden,” reframing infrastructure as landscape.
The relocated garden will also continue to integrate the AI-enabled tree monitoring technology developed with Avanade and first unveiled at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
Moving beyond the showground into everyday practice, the reimagined garden will act as a testbed for the technology within a live urban environment — offering a practical model for how cities can better sustain their green infrastructure. It will enable the park’s horticultural team to assess tree health through data-led insights, pose intuitive questions such as “How are you feeling?” and receive alerts if trees are under stress, supporting more responsive and preventative urban tree care.
Speaking about the relocation Tom Massey said: “The Avanade Intelligent Garden was always conceived as more than a show garden, it was a prototype for how we might better support urban trees in a changing climate. Seeing it take root at Mayfield Park gives the project real longevity and purpose.
By combining resilient planting, reclaimed materials and AI-supported tree monitoring, we’re exploring how technology can work alongside human custodians, enabling resource efficient decisions, deeper understanding, and responsive long-term care.”
Henrietta Nowne, Development Director at Landsec, on behalf of The Mayfield Partnership, said: “The growth of Mayfield Park is key to our plans for the next few years. From the hundreds of thousands of people who have visited our park since it opened in 2022, we have heard loud and clear how much people value green space in Manchester. Our vision is to grow it even more as we build this fantastic new part of the city.
“The combination of heritage, nature and world-class buildings will make Mayfield a very special place to do business, the continued expansion of the park towards Piccadilly and updated proposals for our the next buildings mark another step in delivering a well-connected, green neighbourhood in the heart of Manchester.”
Martin Harper, Innovation Lead, Avanade UK said: "At Avanade, we believe technology should do what matters. AI sits at the heart of the Avanade Intelligent Garden at Mayfield Park, helping urban trees and their custodians respond to the growing pressures of climate change. The AI turns data into action, showing how the power of people and Microsoft technology can create real impact for our cities."
Councillor Bev Craig, Leader of Manchester City Council, said: “I’m so happy to see Mayfield Park growing. We can see how the journey from Picadilly to this new part of the city will be fully green before too long. This fits beautifully with our ambition to connect Manchester’s nature and waterways through the CyanLines project making our city one of the most walkable in the UK.”
