Planters, an interior landscaping company based in the UAE, has won its second British Association of Landscape Industries (Bali) award for its interior landscaping project at the JW Marriott Hotel in Deira, Dubai.

It received its first award for its interior landscaping work at the UAE Armed Forces Officers Club.
'We are very pleased to have won this award again. This award is in recognition of our continued efforts to be the best interior landscape company in the UAE,' says David McBryde, managing director of Planters.

The forest walk at the JW Marriott has been designed by local landscape architects, Al Khatib Cracknell, and Planters imported the plants as specified in the design. Explains McBryde: 'We used 60 different varieties of live plants to achieve the forest floor planting, together with replica Ficus and Black Olive trees ranging from 3 m to 6 m in height. This formed the canopy of the Forest Walk.'

'Approximately 75 per cent of the plant material is natural and 25 per cent consists of replica trees. These replica trees are made up of artificial foliage on real trunks and branches,' he explained.
'The most challenging part of the project,' says McBryde, 'was creating the contours to make the landscape more interesting. To do this we used polystyrene blocks and carved slopes and hills into them. We then covered all this with hessian and a 35-cm layer of potting soil for the real plants to grow in. The best part of the project was to see the finished product, which has the feel of a real 'rain forest', just as in the original concept.'

Ibrahim Barghout, general manager of JW Marriott in Dubai says they were delighted with the Forest Walk created and managed by Planters. 'The area reflects the refined elegance appropriate within a JW Marriott Hotel,' he says.

'The Forest Walk is a haven of peace and quiet in the midst of such a hectic city and enjoyed by our conference and meeting planners. The town square and forest walk are an excellent venue for lunches and provide the opportunity for conference delegates to re-energise themselves,' adds Barghout.
'It is very normal for us to find our guests relaxing in the pagoda and enjoying the bubbling streams and fountains. We are sure that after a hectic day's work, the tranquility of the forest walk is just the tonic to relax,' he says.

Barghout adds: 'It is important to create the correct atmosphere within a hotel. The feeling of home and comforts of home are particularly important and plants of course can be found in nearly everyone's home. JW Marriott in Dubai has excellent spacious areas throughout the hotel and plants provide the most natural form of decoration and refinement.'

Barghout is delighted that Planters won the award for the Forest Walk. 'The recognition is particularly valid as the Forest Walk is situated below the largest skylight in the Middle East and within an area which is very heavily air conditioned. This means that there are various pressures in maintaining the plants and the forest walk. Recreating the 'outside, inside' cannot be easy and we admire the tremendous amount of work and effort put in by Planters.'

The first Bali award presented to Planters was for the forest walk it designed and installed at the UAE Armed Forces Officers Club in Abu Dhabi, which included a one 1-km walkway which passes through a tropical paradise in the central atrium running through the Officers' Club and around 100,000 plants.

'These two awards in as many years are an affirmation of our efforts to be the best interior landscape company in the UAE. We are continually trying to improve the level of service we can offer to our customers by training our staff, monitoring our quality and providing our clients with value for money and peace of mind' says McBryde.