There is a particular style of elevated simplicity that is anything but simple. You will find it in the cut of a cashmere sweater from Loro Piana, in the glaze of Edmund de Waal’s porcelain pots and in the gardens designed by Luciano Giubbilei, our Garden Designer of the year for 2024. Although born in Siena, Luciano has been based in London for 30 years and these days mainly works on large-scale projects in rural settings. But he retains an Italianate emphasis on proportion and balance that is especially evident within the confines of his smaller city garden designs.
Three years ago, Luciano created this tiny green jewel of a garden in west London that perfectly illustrates his skills. ‘It was a simple space adjoining a communal garden,’ he explains. ‘But it required harmony in every element – the height of the tree canopy, the placing of the sculpture, the tapestry of foliage and the relationship between the garden and the interior of the house.’
The project was a collaboration with interior designer Steven Volpe, whose San Francisco studio is known for producing quietly sleek, sensuous schemes and who, like Luciano, has a reputation for furnishing spaces with art. A sculpture by Barbara Hepworth entitled Youth (from her The Family of Man series) provides a distinctive anchor at the heart of the planting in this garden, as well as an eye-catcher from inside the house.
‘We thought as carefully about how that vignette is framed when you are looking at it from the house as we did about the experience of walking round the garden,’ says Luciano. ‘The sculpture is the key element, but it is the setting that really makes it shine. This garden is all about the plants – their foliage and their form, and that magical moment in spring when foxgloves are everywhere.
‘In a city garden especially,’ he continues, ‘I believe it is important to be surrounded by plants. Here, they blur the boundaries, so that there is a sense of discovery as you explore.’ Luciano worked with plant specialists Chris and Toby Marchant to curate the planting scheme, and together they have given this small space an extraordinary sense of depth. There is a balance between height and volume, and the airy and the solid, which has the effect of stimulating the senses and confusing the eye. And somehow there is room for three separate seating areas and an outdoor kitchen.
One vast hornbeam (which had to be craned in over the house) links the private garden with the communal green space beyond, and Luciano has carefully positioned a quirky yew topiary piece to conceal the small gateway that links the two. A second organic yew mound sits close to the house, and there is also a fine Cornus kousa, which is covered in a mass of creamy bracts in early summer, and an elegantly matched pair of multi-stemmed acers – regularly groomed to ensure their proportions are never less than optimum. Generous mounds of honey-scented Euphorbia mellifera and masses of oak-leaved Hydrangea quercifolia provide a permanent dense, shrubby framework, below which the understorey planting weaves an ephemeral tapestry of dainty shade-tolerant plants. Selected primarily for their foliage, most offer seasonal highlights as well.
The finely dissected foliage of Helleborus foetidus is brightened in the dark days of January by clusters of lime-green bells delicately tipped with maroon. Then, with the spring, come tiny white-horned violets, a haze of cow parsley and Gillenia trifoliata, which has starry flowers from May to August. Eurybia divaricata and white Anemone x hybrida ‘Honorine Jobert’ then pick up the baton in late summer and the ornamental grass Hakonechloa macra turns from fresh green to soft russet as autumn settles in.
Every cultivar has been carefully selected. Epimedium x warleyense ‘Ellen Willmott’ has peachy orange flowers that reflect the golden hairs on the choice tassel fern Polystichum polyblepharum. These, in turn, echo the warm tones of the brick pavers that run from inside the house out into the garden. In fact, the more you look, the more you notice how every element in this garden has been thoughtfully considered, from the discreet downlighting of the Hepworth sculpture to the chamfered edges on the three oak planks that make up the garden tabletop. The result is a serene retreat in the heart of the city. ‘The atmosphere is calm,’ says Luciano. ‘It is a breath of fresh air.’
Luciano Giubbilei: lucianogiubbilei.com
