The Hug is a sculptural timber shelter created for the Down’s Syndrome Scotland Garden at RHS Chelsea. Designed to represent an embrace, it now serves as a permanent, inclusive space at Watch Us Grow in North Lanarkshire – combining craft, community and care through thoughtful, sensory-led design and meaningful participation.

Designed and built by OSF in collaboration with Burton Hall Garden Design, The Hug is a bespoke, spherical timber structure created as the emotional centrepiece of the Down’s Syndrome Scotland Garden for RHS Chelsea, winning the People’s Choice Award as well as receiving a Silver Gilt medal.
Conceived to represent an embrace, the building embodies qualities of empathy, warmth and playfulness often associated with people with Down’s syndrome. Crafted entirely from homegrown Scottish larch, the form is both comforting and inviting — with eight gently reclined seating spaces nestled between vertical spines, designed to make visitors feel held and at ease.
The cladding forms a ten-sided shelter, constructed from interlocking ‘Tetris blocks’ that allow the structure to curve inward and soften its lines. A circular skylight, inspired by traditional yurts, fills the interior with daylight and frames views of the sky and trees above – encouraging stillness, reflection, and connection to the natural world.
Following the Chelsea Flower Show, The Hug now has a permanent home at Watch Us Grow, a community organisation based in Palacerigg Country Park, North Lanarkshire. There, it will become a lasting resource – offering a quiet, inclusive space for learning, rest and sensory experience within a supported environment.
The project was further shaped by a creative workshop with teenagers from Down’s Syndrome Scotland, who visited our workshop and took part in hands-on making. Each participant crafted a timber coaster from offcuts of larch used in the structure – a small but meaningful act of inclusion, grounding the project in real relationships and shared experience.

Supported by Project Giving Back, The Hug is more than a garden feature – it’s a collaborative act of inclusive design and storytelling. As it transitions from showpiece to community resource, it leaves behind not only a physical structure, but a deeper legacy of care, participation and connection.

dsscotland.org.uk/dss-garden
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cp3qqjgp2ppo
watchusgrow.org.uk/about
burtonhallgardendesign.co.uk/projects/chelse2025

Burtonhall Graden Design, Garden Designers
Down’s Syndrome Scotland, Garden Host
Project Giving Back, Funder