Since 2005 we have been working and posting on this project. Once it was completed, our clients announced they were not interested in publishing on magazines and expressed big concern about their privacy. The gardens we designed and the farmhouse (refurbished by Vudafieri Saverino Partners) host numerous artworks from the collection of the owners, so we were asked to maintain our absolute discretion.
We understood and even learned to appreciate this attitude… In the end it dismissed us from those usual efforts to document and photograph properly our work.
Later we realized that a project – to a certain extent – always belongs to the designer and decided that, as long as we wouldn’t have crossed ‘that boundary’, we could still be free to disclose our work. So we made an attempt…

1. Rammed earth

Taking inspiration from the nearby mountain pathways we used rammed earth to pave two long stripes that provide occasional access to cars and tractors around the house.

2. Larch wood

The main access to the house is a small area paved with larch wood bricks of standard size laid directly on the soil according to a simple geometrical pattern.

Larch wood planks were used for this small deck connected with the kitchen of the guest house.

To retain the slightly sloping terrain with steps and to define edges between different areas we used thicker larch wood planks and wooden pegs.

3. Resin-bound gravel

The road that leads from the entrance to the underground garage was paved with a layer of resin-bound gravel adapt to endure the cold winters of the area.

4. Porphyry stones

An area adjacent to the house and the garage has been conceived as a small piazza and paved with local porphyry stones laid according to the tradition by expert hands.

5. Reinforced soil

We borrowed this system of reinforcing the soil on the sloping edges of highways and railways to mould the terrain and define a small living area near the house.

6. Weathering steel

Numerous elements like kerbs, steps, poles and profiles have been realized in weathering steel to match the color and the feel of other natural materials.

The main gate to the property has been designed as a solid and massive element that provides privacy and embeds the entry phone, the counter and the gas meters.

7. Steel wire mesh

To blend into the surrounding landscape of apple tree rows, the boundary fences of the property have been realized in steel wire mesh and concrete poles.

Few vegetable gardens have been inserted into the terrain and enclosed, according to the local tradition, with rusted hexagonal wire mesh and T profile vertical elements.

A Lace Fence Pergola has been designed by Joep Verhoeven from  Demakersvan, built in Bangalore, transported on site and previously described here.

8. Exposed concrete

To host an artwork by Danish artist Jeppe Hein we have built a concrete pavillion with a concrete door that provides access to a supporting engine room.

9. Chestnut wood

Together with the wise local peasant we designed a chestnut wood Pergola to support a beautiful old vine that survived the site works and flanks the main entrance to the house.

When the Pergola was completed, the eperienced team could undertake the challenge to design Green Monsters…

Previous posts about this project:

Gardens between apple trees

Gardens between apple trees – 2

Gardens between apple trees – 3

How to ‘build’ Green Monsters

We have always been fascinated by the way ivy is capable of climbing on tree trunks until they are completely wrapped up and by the way these deadly hugs transform trees into curious, dark and grottesque figures. Some years ago we started to work on a project for a private terrain in the North of Italy – published on this blog as Garden between apple trees – and one day, while we were driving home from a site visit, we bumped into one of these figures. We decided that ‘Green Monsters’ was a proper name for the phenomenon, and we fantasized of having some of them in the gardens we were about to design. But since we hate to kill trees, we started to think of a way to… ‘build’ them.

This is a very simple manual that we publish to explain everyone who loves Green Monsters how to build them. Although Green Monsters are a studiometrico invention, they are not covered by any copyright, so everyone can build one in his own garden or use them in his own projects!

Step 1

Observe natural green monsters anywhere you have the chance to find them, photograph them and show them to your receptive (or sceptical) clients as one of those reference images architects always use.

Step 2

Work hard on Photoshop to produce images that prove to your clients that Green Monsters are beautiful and can be inserted in a corner of their gardens to create a very special atmosphere.

Step 3

Full around with SketchUp a little bit to convince your sceptical clients and contractors that is possible to ‘build’ Green Monsters with little effort and maximum result.

Step 4

Find a joiner who’s good enough to nail logs together and trustful enough to accept that you’re not insane because you like askew and cranky structures. Use very good, long lasting wood, chestnut is the best.

Step 5

Don’t listen to people that ask you the meaning of ‘those odd western totems’, find a gardener that can provide ivy plants and that is patient enough to plant them and arrange them nicely around the trunks.

Step 6

Wait patiently, remember that good things need time. Go and visit your Green Monsters from time to time, observe them and shoot pictures to record their growth.

to be continued…

After a long trip from Bangalore, India to the North-East of Italy, the Lace Fence Pergola has reached its final destination! Designed by Joep Verhoeven from Demakersvan, is the very first lace fence that is 100% made in India. Few days ago the structure has been delivered and installed on the site it has been conceived for. The Pergola is now part of a 7.500 sqm terrain that studiometrico is transforming step by step into a very special landscape with many features to discover… See more pictures of the mountage of the Pergola here.

Other posts about this project:

Gardens between apple trees

Gardens between apple trees | 2

Around the house there will be few hortus for vegetables enclosed by low fences in rusted metal network.

The Taxus baccata evergreen hedge on the Western boundary of the property.

The fence and the Carpinus betulus hedge on the Northern boundary of the property.

The old Vine pergola and the soil and netal stripes along the Southern side of the house.

Detail of the paved area under the pergola.

The row of Fraxinus excelsior trees along the Western boundary of the property.

The stone paved ‘piazza’ on the Western side of the house.

The ‘underground garden’

Overal view toward the Western boundary.

The ‘terraced’ garden on the Eastern side of the house.

Joep Verhoeven from Demakersvan has spent a long time in India to manage the construction of a beautiful ‘Lace Fence Pergola’ that he has specially designed for our gardens. The Pergola has been already shipped to Italy and should be installed on site before the end of the year!