The Wave – Sladers Yard

Petter Southall

The Wave Pavillion

The Wave Pavilion was designed and made by Petter Southall for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2019 as part of garden designer Thomas Hoblyn’s Dubai Majlis Show Garden.

After the show it remains Petter’s property and is available now to buy from him. Any enquiries please phone Sladers Yard on 01308 459511 or email gallery@sladersyard.co.uk.

The Wave is made from 11-metre-long planks of solid Douglas Fir steam-bent into a permanent new shape. Steam-bending is an ancient technology used in wooden boatbuilding that uses steam, skill and pressure to bend wood around a former. This is one of the most radical steam-bent forms ever built as far as we know.

Petter and Tom Hoblyn shelter from the heat and crowds.

A truly elegant sculptural form, the Wave is a stunning focus in any space. Place it to give shelter from a prevailing wind as a place of tranquility or as a performance space. It could be indoors or outside. It has now started to turn a beautiful natural grey and has had no trouble surviving the wildest wettest British winter in a long time.

Here it is in the barn where Petter built it, with the floor but without the walls. Another little garden room can be seen behind. This has now become the Pod.

The bending process allows the wood to respond naturally to the pressure and curve in an organic uneven way. This is the beauty of steam-bending.

The Wave has exceptional acoustics.

This is probably the most beautiful side of all. It needs support but does not have to have a wall behind it. At Sladers Yard we have a wooden framework to support the ends. There are all kinds of ways it could be adapted for specific needs.

The Wave Pavilion is 300 cm high at the highest point by 164 cm deep by 488 cm long. It splits in two for transportation by lorry and can be manoeuvred on its strong wooden base.