The Carbon Garden & Pavilion

2025

Royal Botanic Gardens of Kew, London, UK

This summer, Kew Gardens in London will unveil one of its most ambitious garden projects in recent years: the Carbon Garden, featuring a permanent pavilion designed by Maltese architect Jonathan Mizzi. Opening in July 2025, this innovative new garden will showcase the essential role plants and fungi play in tackling climate change, positioning Mizzi Studio as leading advocates for regenerative design on an international stage.

The pavilion is a symbolic fruiting body and an extension of the Carbon Garden’s planting scheme, celebrating the symbiotic relationship between plants and fungi. Born from the belief that our future must be grown from renewable natural materials, it is shaped by the beauty and intelligence of nature, grounded in science. I hope it stands as a living expression of Kew’s mission to imagine and build a more harmonious world.

Jonathan Mizzi

Director of Mizzi Studio

Rooted within this Carbon Garden of nature-based solutions, the Pavilion, designed by Mizzi Studio, aims to inspire visitors to reimagine our relationship with the natural world. Symbolising the magical symbiotic relationship between plants and fungi, the structure appears to grow organically out of the garden—like a fungal fruiting body—enveloping visitors under its sweeping, forward-tilted ‘carnivorous-plant’ canopy. This elegant form is supported by a central timber trunk and a delicate, vein-like structural system.

Kew’s brief called for a pavilion to sit within the new, permanent Carbon Garden, forming a landscape of education and exploration focused on carbon’s role in our environment and its deep links to the climate crisis.

Nature-inspired solutions

Mizzi has designed a pavilion that wholly embodies the principles it champions. Using a palette of sustainably sourced materials, low-carbon stone foundations, and an innovative natural fibre composite canopy inspired by the pitcher plant, the structure even captures rainwater to feed the surrounding rain garden. Working closely with Atelier One on the structural engineering, the Pavilion is designed as an open, organic structure, welcoming school visits and community activities while serving as an immersive learning environment. The Carbon Garden is designed to inspire action, inviting visitors to become advocates for nature and empowering them with everyday solutions to support the health of our planet.

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