Sheffield company Weddle Landscape Design has beaten fierce competition to receive a £3 million budget, which will improve the environment of Ningbo International Airport.

Mr Mike Browell, chief designer and manager at Weddle Landscape Design, said the company is happy and proud to win the project.

About the project

Ningbo is a coastal city near Shanghai, at the end of the historic Silk Road. It is a city of ‘Peace Wave’. The design will be built according to the characteristics of this city.

Mr Browell said: “Chinese people like a design with a meaning.

“[We are going to build] green walls to frame the gateway, to focus views and to give a peaceful wave character, and a rainbow for the airport. Our green wall for Ningbo is 500 metres long and 6 metres high.

“Rainbows links distant places by a bridge in the sky. The airport is a starting point to a ‘sky-bridge’.”

Fierce competition

Mr Browell admitted that he was so confident about his skills, he thought he had won the bid after the presentation rounds.

He said, delightfully: “We left the meeting and later got a telephone call off the record to say we had won.”

There were three firms, altogether, who had entered the final shortlist: one was a Dutch company in Ningbo and the other was from a large local company.

Mr Browell said that good preparation and excellent skills were key factors in Weddle Landscape Design’s successful bid.

“We provided stacks of information about our firm, our people, previous awards and types of projects. All our documents were bound into books and provided. The stack was 600mm high,” he said.

Mr Browell has worked in the industry for 38 years. He said that the company stood out because of their high tech horticulture.

“They see me as competent, a safe pair of hands,” he said.

“There will be a new terminal, a new business park, a clubhouse and an international hotel.  I hope they will see us as their natural partner for future projects.”

It is not the first time Mr Browell has worked with a Chinese company, as he has worked for Zhen Jiang Lake View design before.

He, meanwhile, has a team in China that helps with marketing, arranges meetings and assists with projects.