Saturday
After eight years of intention, this was the weekend to cycle the Peddar’s Way. This lovingly preserved ex-Roman road starts four miles from our house and ends 46 miles later on the Norfolk coast, where Roman soldiers used to hop on a ferry to go invade more parts of Scandanavia. It’s very straight but, we now know, not be confused with very easy.

We set off at 10am, (over-)confident of teatime on the coast. The route is riven with tumuli, abandoned settlements and – most impressively – Brecks wildlife.

The wet summer has prolonged the flowering period, and the wildflowers were in full and glorious swing. Poppies, yarrow, knapweeds, foxgloves, St John’s wort and the very beautiful harebell (Campanula rotundifolia) flanked our route, which mutated from sand to mud to pebbles to grass and even at one point, into a plastic walkway. Vast expanses of grasses (possibly Festuca?) glowed alongside us as though dyed red.

Punctures, mud, deep sand and possibly a combined age of over 100 meant we arrived at the Gin Trap Inn, Ringstead at a very weary 8.30pm. But after a couple of pints of Woodfordes Wherry and some wonderful food, we felt we may possibly be able to walk again, one day.

Sunday
Cycled from the coast down to King’s Lynn on lovely smooth paved roads exploring some wonderful villages such as Castle Rising on the River Nar. Stopped at the Norfolk Lavender Farm catching all the lavenders at their very best. It was great to see all of them side by side for comparison. Notables included Lavandula angustifolia ‘Blue Ice’ and ‘Imperial Gem’; great forms of this fine species which I’ll definitely feature in future projects. The most dominant, though certainly not the most elegant, was Lavandula x intermedia ‘Grosso’.

From King’s Lynn, we took the train to Thetford and then cycled home to lie in the bath and will the pain to subside.

Monday
Dawn, our new landscape architect, started today. Although we’re a design company, I feel more comfortable having an all-singing and dancing landscape architect in our fold. Our industry contains as much, if not more red tape, form filling, guidelines, health and safety and general arse-covering as any other. Ros, our senior designer, has just completed her Masters of Landscape Architecture, and seeing them both tackle and decipher a Schedule of Fees and Memorandum of Agreement for a new contract in minutes almost brought a tear to the eye (if only of gratitude that I didn’t have to do it).

Tuesday
I went to Aldeburgh in Suffolk to see a project we completed last year. The property had a stunning view across the River Alde but a rather flat and unassuming garden. To connect the garden to the landscape and add drama, we sculpted the terrain to mimic the spits of land within the estuary. The impoverished sandy soil made a perfect medium for a wildflower meadow and now I could see it pay off.

The show was spectacular, in particular, viper’s bugloss (Echium vulgare) punching through the carpet as though imitating the trees on the horizon. There had been a good show of bee orchid (Ophrys apifera), a coloniser of recently disturbed terrain, but it may not hang around once things settle down.

Wednesday
Inspected my own wildflower meadow. As mentioned in previous posts, our field is wetland meadow and introduction of flowers is difficult as the rank grasses outcompete. My biggest ally has been yellow rattle (Rhinanthus minor); initially slow to colonise, it has now reached plague proportions in parts and is winning over the grasses.

However, the thistles are also in abundance. Having hacked them down a few weeks ago to prevent them going to seed, they simply sprouted stunted flowers and were now ready to burst into seed. My precious wildflowers are still a way off that stage. Bad timing. Normally I can mow before the thistles go to seed and thereby prevent potential offspring. I re-hacked the thistles and will risk another week before mowing.

Thursday
First morning of blue sky and the forecasters predict summer at last. It may be odd to be writing about wildflowers this late in the year but this new sunshine means they’ll be gone in a flash, as nature does its amazing job of catching up on itself. I’m off to Europe for a couple of days to select trees for clients to plant this autumn (it’s 35C in Italy). Will return all ready to mow.

Thomas Hoblyn is a Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winning landscape and garden designer. This is the latest in a series of posts on the ups and downs of a life spent creating beautiful gardens.

25 July 2012: 9:41am

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Jul 25 2012
by Rhiannon Cooke, Crewe Chronicle

WILDLIFE detection dogs proved you don’t have to sacrifice beauty for the bees by checking out Reaseheath College’s show garden at the RHS Flower Show Tatton Park.

Specially trained dogs Twister and Luna, along with handler Louise Wilson, joined garden design and horticulture students from the Nantwich college to test whether their wildlife friendly garden was as attractive to nature as it was to people.

Louise, 30, a former Reaseheath animal behaviour and welfare student, has trained seven-year-old springer spaniel Twister and two-year-old Labrador Luna to seek out endangered species.

The dogs gave their nose of approval to the college’s ‘Nature Squared’ garden, designed by students to make a positive contribution to bio diversity despite its domestic setting.

The garden, which won a silver-gilt medal, contained ‘habitat areas’ planted with widely available, cultivated plant varieties which are similar to native species. It was much admired by TV gardening guru Monty Don, who presented BBC Two coverage of the event from the garden and chatted to student Angela Fearon.

Other members of the team who designed and managed the project were Jane Houghton, Robert Frost, Lee McDermott and Jenny Edmonstone, who are all studying for their foundation degree in garden and landscape design.

The garden was built by a team of student volunteers from a range of horticulture courses.

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Surrounded by 3,000 acres of spectacular rolling Kentish parkland, the gardens
cover 14 acres. Visitors can promenade along the Walnut Walk, past the pets’
graveyard, to a small flint folly: Prospect Tower, which the Lord Harris of
the time called his “whim”. Available to rent through the Landmark Trust, it
was originally used as a summerhouse for family teas, and later as a
pavilion by the fourth baron, George Harris, who captained England in 1878
and laid a cricket pitch here to rival Lord’s and the Oval. Now available
to wandering teams, I note from the fixtures list that the Shepway
Stragglers recently played the Grannies.

The rolling park layout was influenced by Repton’s natural landscape movement,
which swept away previous formal gardens, and the later picturesque school
of design led by John Claudius Loudon, awash with romantic follies and
dripping shell grottoes. The travels of intrepid 18th-century plant hunters
like Sir Joseph Banks, David Douglas (of Douglas fir fame) and Francis
Masson, who, like Sir Joseph Banks, also travelled with the explorer Captain
James Cook, had widened the variety of species available to gardeners .
Venerable trees populate the estate including a 100- year-old tulip tree
(Liriodendron tulipifera), ginkgo bilobas and handkerchief trees (Davidia
involucrata). The gardens are separated from the parkland by a ha-ha, a
surprising concealed ditch to exclude animals from cultivated areas, devised
by Queen Anne’s gardener Charles Bridgeman so views were uninterrupted by
fences.

The pinetum holds specimens planted by the family to record important events
and features a large blue atlas cedar, a Mexican white pine and coast
redwood, and follows the fashion for arboreta popularised by Loudon. Nearby
Bedgebury National Pinetum has one of the world’s most complete collections
of more than 1,000 species of conifers.

The intimate walled pleasure gardens behind the house and clock tower are
bordered by formal perennial beds on three sides, full of sweet-smelling
flowering plants, a decorative pond, rockery and rose garden. The old walls
shelter climbers: venerable wisteria, spreading climbing Hydrangea
petiolaris and Actinidia kolomikta. A perfect central lawn completes this
typical English garden, probably laid out originally as a result of the
invention of the lawnmower in 1830.

Meander through the nuttery planted with Kentish cobnuts and you reach the
kitchen garden, set up in the mid-19th century between high walls to keep
out the winds on this elevated site. Originally it was packed with all the
fashionable vegetables and fruit of the era (melons, grapes, pineapples and
peaches grown in heated pits, sunken greenhouses and lean-to glasshouses)
necessary to trumpet the status of a wealthy country gentleman. The kitchen
garden was restored from a derelict state to a design by Arabella
Lennox-Boyd in 2001, and sports an equally desirable modern productive
garden based on historic plans, including hop arbours, fruit arches and a
reflecting pool.

We all need a little history to anchor our own plots, and this garden is full
of inspiration. I now hanker after a small shell grotto with a fernery to
cheer up an unlovely corridor along the side of my house.

The gardens at Belmont Park, Throwley, Faversham, Kent, ME13 0HH, are open
to the public daily, 10am-6pm (or dusk if earlier). For details, see belmont-house.org
or call 01795 890202

Yhonnie Scarce, Burial Ground (left), and Kathy Temin, Memorial Gardens.

Memorial Gardens
Kathy Temin
Anna Schwartz Gallery, 185 Flinders Lane
Until August 25

Temoin Oculaire: Paris Gardens
Julie Davies
Place Gallery, 20 Tennyson Street, Richmond
Until July 28

Picture This
Counihan Gallery, 233 Sydney Road, Brunswick
Until August 15

GARDENS, like people, struggle with their personality. On the one hand, they’re soft and boofy, bringing the random growth of organic nature into the built environment. On the other hand, they mustn’t be too wayward and submit to control and design, sometimes becoming stiff and pompous. Like people, they always feel hemmed in and risk being shunted and demoted in favour of something new. They wilfully assert themselves but have to conform to their parent architecture.

With lots of fluffy synthetic fur, Kathy Temin creates a garden at Anna Schwartz Gallery that neurotically represents this split personality. A temple greets you when you enter, though not a garden folly but a kind of wall, with a bench on the other side. Answering this screen, a clump of topiary – also in furette – sits apart, keeping a respectful distance. The space between is tense and dead, without an intervening feeling of horticultural rhapsody.

In a fascinating essay, Luke Morgan explains how gardens frequently have a memorialising function. For years, Temin has tried to find a memorial garden in Budapest that her mother recalls recorded the names of family members who perished in the Holocaust. For Temin, no doubt, this recollection is fuzzy but nevertheless reflects a concrete truth that survives even if the garden is lost or since demolished.

Temin, whose name has connotations of darkness in some languages, is a witness to something that cannot be found; and it seems uncanny that her family name also looks a bit like witness in French (temoin), the word that Julie Davies uses for her Temoin oculaire: Paris Gardens at Place Gallery, which also explores the melancholy sacred quality of certain gardens with a memorial purpose.

The Parisian gardens are built in a more boastful and luxurious spirit, and often they’re maintained with a proud rigour that keeps the original authoritarian intentions in pristine condition. Paradoxically, for most visitors, the remaining statues and names are only prized for formalist purposes. Davies somehow acknowledges the redundancy of their memory: her photography juxtaposes the severe with the casual, indicating how bombast defaults to nature.

In the same gallery, Alex Rizkalla also finds death in the garden but for him it forms part of a beautifully logical cycle. His shrines with skulls inside look macabre but are an attempt to wrest ageing and death from the way that we imagine them, ”as pathologies, and not as natural processes”.

In essence, a memorial garden is a cemetery for an absent corpse. The garden acts as a haven for pious reflection.

In a thoughtful exhibition of urban indigenous artists at Counihan Gallery called Picture this, Yhonnie Scarce has created a graveyard in neat ranks, which she calls Burial site. Instead of tombstones to mark each person’s spot, there are native fruits made of black glass. Because of this lustrous material, the presence of the deceased is anonymous but imperishable.

Answering the installation on the floor is another on the wall. It’s a collection of old bottles for alcoholic spirits. Inside each bottle is a black stick-figure, presumed dead and mere tatters of a living soul. Called Family portrait, the work communicates the grief of generations of people in Scarce’s lineage who have succumbed to grog.

As with Temin’s family, we know where these unfortunate people ended up; but when we want to evoke their presence, the marker is inadequate and testifies to nothing.

So through these empty bottles, she erects another memorial, along the lines of Giorgio Agamben’s What remains of Auschwitz. The true witness who experiences the ultimate horror can never testify what it was like.

robert.nelson@monash.edu

In keeping with its motto, ‘the best of the old and the new’, the gardens at Fitzwilliam College combine traditional and contemporary planting to striking effect. Head gardener Steve Kidger gives Alice Ryan a guided tour

From the outside, Fitzwilliam College doesn’t appear the friendliest of places. Approach from Cambridge’s busy Huntingdon Road and there’s a distinct

air of fortification: the walls, built of shadowy dark brick, loom tall and impenetrable – save for windows so narrow, they call to mind castle arrow-slits.

The brainchild of modernist architect Denys Lasdun, whose work is a famously acquired taste (he designed London’s National Theatre, a building lauded by poet John Betjeman and compared to ’a nuclear power station’ by Prince Charles), the Sixties edifice seems to shout ’keep out’.

But step inside the college walls and you’re welcomed into another world: a leafy oasis filled with grand old trees, immaculate striped lawns, flower-filled borders, and even patches of wild meadow, abuzz with bees and butterflies.

“I have to admit, the first time I walked in through that Huntingdon Road entrance I really didn’t know what I’d find inside: that style of brutalist architecture is very imposing,“ says head gardener Steve Kidger. “But then I came into Tree Court and got a real surprise. I saw the trees and the lawns and the big borders running away – so much greenery. It was a brilliant contrast.“

Despite its austere exterior, Fitzwilliam has a reputation for being one of Cambridge University’s friendliest colleges. “I like to think the gardens play a part in that,“ adds Steve. “Everything interlinks and nothing is closed off, not even the Fellows’ Garden. It’s got a very open, sociable feel.“

In line with this hospitable ethos, Fitzwilliam welcomed 150 members of the public this spring when the gardens made their debut with the National Gardens Scheme, opening alongside Churchill College. A charitable enterprise, the scheme raises cash for nursing and caring organisations; between them, Fitzwilliam and Churchill raised £1,000 in a single day.

Led by Steve, the public tour began at the college’s main entrance (which relocated from Lasdun’s monolith on Huntingdon Road to a far more approachable new-build on Storey’s Way in 2003). Retracing his footsteps, Steve leads the way through the Porter’s Lodge and out into Gatehouse Court, where the focal points are a number of age-old copper beech trees, set in verdant lawn; the wettest May for decades has, concedes Steve, offered some benefits.

College lawns are usually mown with painstaking precision; elsewhere on the 10-acre Fitzwilliam site, grass sports those signature stripes and checks. But in Gatehouse Court, segments have been left to grow wild, a concession to Mother Nature which, refreshingly informal, creates a pleasing contrast with the college’s plentiful stern architecture.

“This area used to be a meadow and on the other side was a woodland, which ran right down to the roadside,“ explains Steve. “There was a lovely collection of trees, about 30 of which had to be culled to make way for the 2003 redevelopment. We were able to preserve the copper beeches and a gorgeous avenue of lime trees just beyond.

“The old trees give the new buildings a sense of permanence, I think. The college motto is ’The best of the old and the new’, and we try to create that balance between history and progress in the gardens too.“

Fitzwilliam is, by Cambridge standards, a relatively recent addition to the university: its origins can be traced back to 1869 and it only moved to its current site in 1963, receiving its Royal Charter three years later.

The entire college is built in the grounds of The Grove: dating from the time of the Napoleonic Wars, it’s a delightful yellow-brick house boasting curved bays, generous windows and an inviting covered terrace, bordered by a squat stone balustrade. Built in 1813, by architect William Custance, the house was once home to Emma Darwin, who lived there after the death of her husband Charles.

The period property stands at the heart of Fitzwilliam’s plot; wherever you wander, vistas lead your eye back to The Grove.

“It is the most lovely building,“ says Steve. “I came across a photograph of a portion of the house the other day, taken around 1910. It struck me how little it has changed since then – and reminded me how radically the surrounding area has altered.“

The architecture within the college spans 200 years, with The Grove the oldest building and the library, with its curvy towers and angular wood-finished front, the youngest, completed only three years ago.

“That’s one of the greatest challenges of gardening here,“ admits Steve, “creating schemes that suit the old buildings and the new, and also lead naturally from one into the other.“

Among the most ingenious planting schemes surrounds the auditorium, on the far side of Gatehouse Court. When it was constructed, in the early Noughties, Steve and his team – two full-time gardeners and one part-time – were tasked with creating a companion garden. The result is an eye-catching ’moat’ built out of sunken beds: like the building beside them, the beds are sharply angular – but they’re filled with ethereal plants, chosen to mimic the appearance of water.

There’s flowing fountain grass to provide movement, blue Agapanthus ’Midnight Star’ to give colour, and even plum-hued Pittosporum to ’reflect’ the purple beech hanging overhead.

Standing on a small bridge, which spans the ’moat’, Steve admits the display is not yet at its best. “It looked totally different this time last year because we’d

had such warm weather; this year we’ve had a drought followed by a deluge, so everything’s running late.

“But you can’t predict the weather, you just have to roll with whatever comes. And I like to think there’s something worth seeing here all year round: it’s intended to be a garden for all seasons.“

Steve, who has been head gardener at Fitzwilliam for 10 years, inherited his green fingers from his grandfather. “He was a ship builder on Tyneside, as was my

father. He’d come home from work in his flat cap and boiler suit and head straight out into his veg garden. I would be roped in as assistant.

“He was strictly a veg man: he grew a few little marigolds, but he always said ’They’re for your nanna’. He had a very large corner plot divided into raised beds; I had my own little raised bed where I grew my first radishes and lettuces. . .“

A love of the outdoor life inspired Steve to embark on a career with the meteorological office. “I was a weather observer. But I didn’t see myself going on to become a forecaster, so I decided to take some time out and went backpacking. While I was travelling I met a girl, she came from Cambridge – and that’s what brought me here.

“When I first arrived, having come from Tyneside, I was just astounded by how green the city was. In particular, I loved the colleges – and I managed to get a job at Trinity, as an under-gardener.“

That led on to a job at Fitzwilliam, where Steve quickly worked his way up to head gardener. “We’re only a small team and we’re pretty busy: the college owns quite a number of student houses elsewhere in the city, and we have to look after those gardens too.

“But I do really enjoy my job, especially having the freedom to create my own style of planting. I lean towards the naturalistic style; it’s not just about making the garden look pretty any more: it’s about being aware of ecological issues, of climate change and the impact of using pesticides. . . It’s a challenge, but that’s all part of the appeal.“

From the bridge over the planted ’moat’ there’s a charming view of The Grove, its pale bricks lit up by a sudden burst of early summer sun.

Traversing the avenue of limes, it’s into Nineties-built Wilson Court. Behind a neat laurel hedge appears a secluded woodland: gnarly trees arc overhead and wild flowers – hedgerow varieties like campion and honesty – bloom underfoot. It’s both beautiful and magically silent here: a little haven.

Steve explains this area used to be completely overgrown; careful thinning was undertaken to showcase some magnificent oaks. “Look at that bark: it’s beautiful,“ enthuses Steve. “People often think gardening is all about flowers, but it’s not: structure and texture are very important.“

Follow the path onward and you emerge beside a diminutive statue. Titled The First Undergraduate, it was created by local sculptor Christopher Marvell to mark the college’s 125th anniversary. “A superstition seems to have built up around him. During exam term we’re always finding little offerings the students have left at his feet; they say presenting him with a gift brings you luck. Usually it’s flowers, but we have found a few very odd things: once it was a pile of sugar, which I cleared away pretty sharpish before the ants moved in. . .“

The pathway leads on direct to The Grove. The beds around the house are, Steve says, some of his favourites: containing numerous cottage garden favourites – blowsy peonies, delicate aquilegias, spiky verbascums – it’s an absolute picture.

A box-hedged parterre, with a sundial in the centre, comes next. Planted with tulips and hyacinths, Steve says it comes into its own in springtime.

Then there’s a wee wild flower meadow. When the library was constructed in 2009, the builders set up camp here: “When they left I decided to give it back to nature. We sowed various wild varieties; last year the cornflowers were amazing – the bees absolutely loved them. We also put up bird boxes, which are already in occupation.“

The Grove backs on to the ultra-modern library. Developing the ground between the two, in collaboration with landscape architects, was, says Steve, quite a task: “The buildings have such different characters, and the space is an awkward shape. But I think what we ended up with – more traditional borders by the house, then a series of geometric beds in front of the library – works well.“

The geometric beds are planted with impressive architectural plants: elegant veronicastrum and fleeceflower, a towering, giant form of knotweed. Prince Philip opened the library in the springtime, so an adjacent border also boasts an abundance of spring-flowering bulbs: “I wanted there to be plenty of colour to coincide with his visit, so it’s become our ’spring garden’.“

A large border, planted in concentric circles, curves round the library tower. Daisy-like rudbekias grow beside globe-topped alliums; it’s a striking combination.

Next up is the aforementioned Tree Court, which made such an impression on Steve’s first visit. Some of the planting here dates back decades; other sections are new. “Where possible I’ve been trying to replace old shrubs with herbaceous planting: it’s higher maintenance, but it looks lovely.“

Steve and his team have put a lot of time and energy into improving the soil quality in this area: “You don’t have to go down very far before you strike solid ground: when these buildings were constructed, I think a lot of the hardcore ended up here.“ Composted green waste has been key.

Beyond the Central Building – another Lasdun, famed for its raised scalloped roof – Fellows’ Court opens up; finally, New Court brings you full circle, back to the front of the college. The New Court buildings, dating from the Eighties, feature built-in flowerbeds which, filled with ericaceous soil, are home to acid-loving azaleas and rhododendrons.

The Fitzwilliam gardens are incredibly varied; there is even a dinky kitchen garden, which keeps the Master’s Lodge in veg. Steve clearly has his hands full. So can he face tending his own garden, at home in Girton? “It’s not big but yes, I do look after it,“ he laughs. “I just love plants: I never tire of them.“

Steve lives with wife Jacquie, daughters Ellora, 11, and Sasha, 9, and Lottie, the family’s Dalmatian. “Neither of the girls are showing signs of green fingers, but Sasha went on a field trip to a garden centre the other day – and came back with a packet of seeds for me, which was very sweet.“

“There is a great sense of reward in gardening,“ he adds. “When visitors come to Fitzwilliam, take a tour of the gardens and say ‘That’s beautiful’ or ‘I love that idea’, it’s lovely. When people are appreciative of your work, it makes it all worthwhile.“

Members of the public are welcome to visit the gardens of Fitzwilliam College. To find out more, visit www.fitz.cam.ac.uk or call 01223 330784. You can take a virtual tour of the individual courts at www.fitz.cam.ac.uk/

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Originally published: July 23, 2012 12:49 PM
Updated: July 23, 2012 12:50 PM

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Photo credit: AP | A “Basic Checks” floorcloth, measuring 9-by-12 feet, created by Lisa Mair in her 200-year-old Vermont farmhouse.

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Perched on an elevated plateau adjoined with soaring limestone cliffs, Alila Villas Uluwatu, a stunning eco-chic boutique resort with picturesque views of the cerulean Indian ocean, is an exquisite model of eco-modern design. Located on the parched savannah landscape of the Bukit Peninsula, the resort integrates dramatic design elements of the surrounding natural environment using locally-sourced materials.

Inspired by Bali’s rocky terrace fields and lush gulleys, the buildings’ low-pitched terraced roofs create an open atmosphere which gives way to spectacular views of gardens, cool reflecting pools and miles of deep blue ocean. The 86 villas and other buildings on the property were constructed using bamboo, hand-cut stone and volcanic batu candi rock to purposefully blend with the natural environment. (The volcanic rock was used in building the roofs due to its natural insulating properties and ability to support local ferns and succulents.)

The most striking feature about the villas is the seamless integration of wood, water, flora, stone and air — rather than indoor living quarters, the rooms were designed to be inhabited garden sanctuaries. Walkways and bridges connect relaxation pavilions and pools to spacious living areas creating a sense of freedom and fluidity that wafts throughout the property — from the one bedroom villas to the expansive pool and cabana area.

Craftsmen from Java and Bali designed the villas’ minimalist interior furniture and lighting fixtures using local materials, which eliminated the environmental impact of importing and transporting foreign materials while supporting local communities and artisan trades.

The eco-resort offers several “journey” experiences so guests can explore the surrounding villages and natural landscapes. An adventure trek through the alleys and gangs of the Pecatu region showcases pastures, local farming, houses and food stalls, and continues on to a steep hike down a narrow path leading to a beach with torrent waves and miles of deserted coastline. A traditional Balinese lunch of nasi jinggo is provided as you soak in the mesmerizing contrast of verdant limestone cliffs and deep blue ocean. The trek ends with a climb (nearly vertical at times) back up the cliff and an optional walk to the sacred Uluwatu Temple.

Other excursions include half-day or a full-day cooking classes, which introduce organic gardening, local ingredients and cooking methods used in preparing basic recipes, or a guided tour through the hotel grounds, which explores the operations of maintaining environmental and social sustainability for the resort along with an educational session on how guests can become more conscious about the environment.

Alila Villas Uluwatu is the first resort in Indonesia to receive the highest level of certification from EarthCheck for Best Practice Building Planning and Design development. The certification was achieved through the application of environmentally sustainable design (ESD) measures including water conservation with soaks and rain gardens, and a waste water management system using local plants from the savannah ecosystem; the deliberate use of sustainable/recycled, local materials; protection of the natural environment; and measured work practices throughout construction.

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• An Eco-Modern Balinese Sanctuary

• An Eco-Modern Balinese Sanctuary

• An Eco-Modern Balinese Sanctuary

• An Eco-Modern Balinese Sanctuary

• An Eco-Modern Balinese Sanctuary

• An Eco-Modern Balinese Sanctuary

• An Eco-Modern Balinese Sanctuary

• An Eco-Modern Balinese Sanctuary

• An Eco-Modern Balinese Sanctuary

• An Eco-Modern Balinese Sanctuary

• An Eco-Modern Balinese Sanctuary

• An Eco-Modern Balinese Sanctuary

• An Eco-Modern Balinese Sanctuary

• An Eco-Modern Balinese Sanctuary

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Mr. Sottsass dismantled the group in 1988, and the brand was then acquired by Ernesto Gismondi, owner of Artemide, and later Alberto Bianchi Albrici, who bought it in 1996 because, he said, “I was young and stupid and an incurable optimist.”

This May, Mr. Albrici put Memphis back in the spotlight, by creating an online store to sell about 100 of the pieces, including Michele De Lucchi’s tubular steel First chair ($1,147), right. All the pieces have been in continuous production.

The designers will all receive royalties, and Mr. Albrici said that he has their enthusiastic support. “They are satisfied,” he said. “Not for the royalties, but because Memphis is still alive.” Information: memphis-milano.it.