25 November 2019
When Urban’s design team received the brief that a local client wanted their garden space to reflect their Mediterranean-inspired villa in Jumeirah, we knew instantly that the project would take us further afield than our local suppliers for authentic details and materials. What we didn’t expect was for it to take us to the birthplace of terracotta itself.
Urban is passionate about using the best, most authentic quality possible. This often means travelling to sometimes unheard of places to prove the lengths Urban will go to ensure longevity and excellence in the delivery of projects. Impruneta, a commuter town only 20 minutes south of the beautiful city of Florence, is famously known as the birthplace of terracotta. Throughout the centuries, Impruneta terracotta has been renowned within Italy as second to none, and it’s not unusual to visit centuries-old structures, which still stand strong having being made from Impruneta bricks and tiles.
The Urban team went to meet with the men behind the craft. Brothers Franco, Luigi and Enrico are third-generation artisans that have inherited the business from their forefathers before them and still hold the torch for creating beautiful handmade garden pottery. Their skill is acknowledged by the Italian government, having literally provided the brothers with a rare stamp of approval that is imprinted into each piece as declaration of authenticity and quality.
Despite the unquestionable workmanship of the Italian artisans, Urban’s requirement was no easy feat. Over 140 planters and pots measuring up to 1.5 meters in height and weighing up to 520kg each needed to be handmade from scratch within a 3 month period in order to meet Urban’s deadline. Ordinarily, the brothers and their team would need close to a full year to deliver this sort of order, not including shipping time. So another local workshop owned by the Masini family was sub-contracted (and other orders put on hold) in order to make it happen.
Urban’s Managing Partner David Harper flew out to Italy in March of 2019 to meet the craftsmen in Impruneta and their fantastic international agent, Seiburt & Rice. It was important the first batch of planters was inspected before the first shipment, firstly to ensure quality, but also so that the project team back in Dubai knew what to expect when delivered. David had no need to be dubious about quality. In fact, he was blown away by the level of skill of the potters and how this terracotta was unlike any other mass-produced planter we would ordinarily find in garden centres across the world. This terracotta was steadfast and strong, and exceptionally robust to the elements. The finished pots were things of ornamental beauty, whilst simultaneously capturing the rustic charm of Tuscany.
By going in person, David was lucky enough to witness the planters being made at every stage of the process. From the raw natural clay being made, to hand-moulding and shaping, right through to pots being wheeled into the kiln before their week-long firing.
The result is one quite unlike many of Urban’s other projects. This villa has a number of outdoor spaces which were originally all quite hard in character. Courtyards and balconies now are softened as the pots create luxurious opportunities to soften the spaces once they were filled with olives, lemons and bougainvillea, to name a few.
