Hull York Medical School breathlessness research inspires RHS Chelsea Flower Show garden

Groundbreaking research from Hull York Medical School into the experience of breathlessness is inspiring the ‘Breathing Space’ garden at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026 – highlighting how mind and body approaches can help people manage distress and reclaim control over their breathing. 

The garden, designed by Angus Thompson for Asthma + Lung UK and sponsored by Project Giving Back, draws directly on research led by Hull York PhD student – and Angus’s partner –  Kate Binnie. Her work explores how and why mind-body interventions, such as yoga, mindfulness and other meditative practices, can reduce the distress associated with breathlessness by regulating the nervous system and reshaping how the body and brain respond to breathing difficulties. Breathlessness is an often-overlooked symptom affecting many people living with lung and heart conditions, and is linked to poorer physical and mental health outcomes. 

This research builds on the influential Breathing Space concept, pioneered by Hull York Medical School’s Dr Ann Hutchinson, which reframes breathlessness not just as a physical symptom, but as an experience shaped by emotional, cognitive and sensory factors, and which outlines ways that patients living with breathlessness can be supported to live well.  

The Breathing Space garden translates these ideas into an immersive environment that brings the research into lived, sensory experience. Designed as a calming, predominantly green, woodland-edge garden, it encourages visitors to slow down, feel safe, and reconnect with their breathing – mirroring the principles of nervous system down-regulation at the heart of Kate’s research. Through considered planting, layout and sensory design, the garden aims to evoke a sense of protection and pause – a literal and metaphorical ‘breathing space’. It demonstrates how carefully designed environments can support holistic rehabilitation, and help reduce the negative cycle of anxiety and breathlessness. 

The project forms part of a wider movement at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2026, where gardens are increasingly exploring how nature can support health, resilience and wellbeing.  

By bringing cutting-edge research into one of the world’s most high-profile horticultural events, the garden offers a powerful new way to communicate the science of breathlessness – and to show how design, nature, meditative movement and psychosocial interventions can come together to improve lives. 

Kate said: “I’m delighted to be bringing together my research – based on 20 years in clinical practice as a music and meditative movement therapist – with my partner Angus’s design skills - to deliver the Asthma + Lung UK Breathing Space Garden at RHS Chelsea. My research explores how people living with the physical, social and emotional restrictions of breathlessness can be supported to find ‘space’, which in our garden is conceptualised through the Japanese concept of Yohaki No Bi (the beauty of empty space) and Ma (the beauty of empty time). The human nervous system responds exquisitely to this kind of space – within which people can begin to explore breath and movement, with the potential to reduce the vicious cycle of anxiety and breathlessness that limits so many people’s lives. The garden Angus has designed is a physical embodiment of these empirically grounded ideas.”  

Garden designer Angus Thompson said: “We want this garden to raise awareness of the invisible impact of breathlessness. One in five people in the UK will develop a lung condition in their lifetime. I hope visitors to RHS Chelsea will view our garden and pause, notice their breathing, and experience a moment of calm and clarity.” 

Following RHS Chelsea, the garden will be permanently relocated to the specialist Breathing Space lung rehabilitation centre in Rotherham – one of the UK’s worst-affected areas for lung-related hospital admissions – supported by Asthma + Lung UK. There, it will offer therapeutic support for people living with lung conditions, as well as a place of respite for the staff and caregivers who support them. 

Visit the Hull York Medical School website to discover more about breathlessness research. 

Visit the Asthma + Lung UK website to read more about the Breathing Space Garden project.