The Dixter Border played a formative role in Luciano’s ongoing development as a designer.

In 2012, Head Gardener Fergus Garrett welcomed Luciano to Great Dixter, one of England’s most celebrated gardens, and offered him a ‘residency’ – a dedicated space in which to work directly with the soil. The place and its people provided him the opportunity to root himself in the fundamental values of gardening, shaping both the direction of his practice and his life. It helped him to see things in a different way.

The experience cemented Luciano’s belief that all forms of creativity are interconnected, and relate as parts of a wider whole. Much of the work at Great Dixter is done in isolation, silently, with appreciation for making of things slowly and properly. This experience transformed his way of working. The constant exchange with his two collaborators, Rachael Dodd and James Horner, under Fergus’s guidance, gave Luciano an intuitive understanding of how plant communities relate to one another and to their surroundings.