Inside the Subaru Cocoon Garden with Mike McMahon

Award-winning designer Mike McMahon of Mike McMahon Studio shares the inspiration behind the Subaru Cocoon Garden, created for the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival. From wild rainforests to handcrafted furniture, Mike discusses his and co-designer Jewlsy's design philosophy, their passion for sustainability, and how Subaru’s commitment to circular design perfectly complements their immersive garden concept.

Q: Hi Mike, can you introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background?

A: I'm Mike McMahon from Mike McMahon Studio, and I'm currently working on the Subaru Cocoon Garden. I've been involved in both architecture and landscape design for quite a long time. About two and a half years ago, Jewlsy and I set up our own practice. Part of our aim was not only to work in architecture, but also to explore interiors, design furniture – like the piece I'm sitting on now – and then expand into landscape and gardens, wrapping it all together. Some of the core pillars of our practice include sustainability, urban greening, tackling climate change, and weaving nature into design.

Q: That sounds amazing! Have you brought that ethos into your own home as well?

A: Absolutely. Jewlsy and I have lived here for a number of years, and we’ve designed and built pretty much everything in our home – from the sofa and chairs to the dining tables and the cabinet behind me. There really aren’t many things in our home that we haven’t made ourselves! We also have a little “junglette” balcony, which actually inspired our “junglette” garden at the Chelsea Flower Show last year – and we were thrilled to win a gold medal for it.

Q: What inspired the concept behind the Subaru Cocoon Garden?

A: Jewlsy and I have travelled all over the world, spending time in jungles in the Amazon, India, and various African countries. We've always been fascinated and inspired by the feeling of being immersed in those spaces. Then we discovered that there's actually a temperate rainforest in the UK. We felt it was so important to highlight it – especially as it used to cover 20% of the country and now it's down to just 1%. Over time, I began to notice subtle but special differences between a UK rainforest and a regular forest. One of our favourite places to be is in true wilderness – where tree trunks are covered in moss, and you’re climbing over and under things. We wanted to bring that sense of wildness into a garden – to show people that, while there are beautifully manicured forests here in the UK, there are also places that are truly untamed.

Q: How does Subaru’s sustainability approach align with your own values and the garden design?

A: What I find absolutely fascinating about Subaru is that 95% of their vehicles can be recycled. That’s incredible – it’s not just about a product’s first life, but its second life too. That philosophy really resonates with how we work. We’re always thinking about the second life of our designs – what happens after. So for the garden at Hampton, we wanted to minimise waste in the same way. We're using bricks made entirely from recycled material, with a really low embodied carbon. It’s exciting to be part of a project where the sponsor – Subaru – shares that same layered, circular approach. Having an electric vehicle with zero emissions is just one piece of it. Subaru and the garden feel really connected, which is brilliant.

Q: Can you tell us more about the design process for the garden itself?

A: We always start with a pencil sketch – I like to reverse engineer from that initial drawing to work out how it will all come together. One thing I noticed at Hampton Court before is that gardens can sometimes feel quite open – you look across and see someone eating an ice cream, and it takes you out of the moment. I wanted to create something more immersive. So, we started with the idea of a walled garden – something that’s been part of British horticultural tradition for hundreds of years. There's a magic to walking into a space that feels enclosed and mysterious. But we added a twist inspired by Jewlsy's Indian heritage – a jali wall. In India, these patterned screens let in daylight while offering privacy. So, we created a sculptural jali wrap using staggered bricks that you can see through. Plants weave their way through the gaps, and light trickles in.

Q: And what about the planting – how did you decide what to include?

A: We filled the garden with plants from the UK’s temperate rainforest – massive ferns, epiphytes that wrap around the walls, and trees poking through with pops of colour from foxgloves. To create that sense of wildness, we added huge, moss-covered tree trunks for visitors to walk around, under, and through. It adds that final touch of otherness – it really transports you.

Q: How can people bring some of this ethos into their own gardens?

A: It's really about thinking locally. Choose species that are native to your area and can support biodiversity. All the planting we've used supports everything from insects to birds. Trees like oak and silver birch are amazing for sustaining multiple species. Adding water features – like a small pond, can bring frogs and other creatures. Even something as simple as leaving a pile of rotting wood in a quiet corner can support so much life. It’s not about exotic plants – it’s about realising we already have an incredibly rich palette to work with right here. We want the garden to act as a sort of toolkit – to inspire people to take elements home and weave them into their own green spaces.

Q: What message do you hope visitors take away from the garden?

A: If we don't have respect and understanding, how can we protect nature? It’s not about us here and nature over there – we need to be intertwined. We’re part of the same system. That’s the message we want people to take with them.

Q: Where’s your favourite UK road trip destination?

A: Oh, it has to be Devon! Driving down the country lanes there, you’re surrounded by towering ferns and wild foxgloves bursting with colour – it’s like being in a tunnel of nature. It's just breathtaking and feels truly wild and otherworldly.

Q: And finally – any favourite Subaru Solterra colour?

A: I love the midnight black. There’s something about the way it moves through the countryside – the greenery just pops against it. It’s beautiful.