“We want to feel like we are not in the city but somewhere else in the country. We would like to feel protected, like in a nest”.  I still remember when, during my first meeting in their apartment, my clients shared with me their requests about the terrace. I was carefully listening while I felt challenged and excited: nothing is more rewarding to me than working for clients who have an aspiration that I can help to achieve.

However, the challenge wasn’t easy: the terrace was indeed a long and narrow space that surrounded the house, an apartment at the 5^th floor in the center of Milan. I had to find a solution for hiding the city as much as possible, growing as many plants as I could and allowing enough space for entertaining.

At that time, the apartment was under renovation so I worked closely with the Architect for making the outdoor space an extension of the house so that both, house and terrace, would look bigger. I used bespoke powder coated steel planters to have the right depth for growing several climbers that would hide the external walls of the building and at the same time unwanted views. I hid the balustrades by using hand made willow panels and pots, and created different layers of vegetation by using from perennials to small trees.

This terrace has been published in several magazines and books, Italian and Internationals, including the Australian ‘Home Beautiful’.