Luciano Giubbilei’s Morocco Project – International Garden Designer

Fresh from graduating as a Landscape Architect in Melbourne, our newest edition to the Ian Barker family, Dave Forge recently shared with the team who he looks to for garden design inspiration: Luciano Giubbilei.
Luciano Giubbilei is known for the understated elegance and serenity of his garden design, defined by light and influenced by the classical Italian design heritage of proportion and balance. His garden designs are developed through the exploration of spacing, rhythm and the repetition of single elements. His motivation is to create timeless spaces and multi-layered environments where culture and nature are in close communication.
Giubbilei’s approach is constantly evolving, both in response to individual clients and to the unique site characteristics, forging an emotional connection between the place and the people, valuing local materials and expressing his desire to connect people to nature – not merely through plants and flowers but through the spatial arrangement and its beauty.
In 2001 and 2006 he won the British Association of Landscape Industries Principal Award for Best Domestic Garden Scheme in the UK and has since won thirteen major industry awards, including gold medals at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show in 2009, 2011 and 2014, for the Laurent-Perrier Garden. His 2014 garden design for Laurent-Perrier was also named Best in Show, the event’s most prestigious accolade.
One of Dave’s favourite Giubbilei gardens is set deep in the Atlas Mountains – ‘The Moroccan’, a tranquil oasis where Luciano was keen to embrace the singular north African light and incorporate vernacular experiences.

Combining the history of the landscape and overlaying his own design interest in spatial arrangement, ancient groves of olives are under planted with a modern parterre of Penniseteum grasses and warmly-coloured Moroccan Roses – filling the night air with spectacular perfume.

True to his style, hedges and topiary feature, but instead pomegranate and plumbago are selected rather than Yew or Box. Around the house, an intimate courtyard of orange trees is planted, and throughout local materials – such as the smooth plaster Tadelakt – feature.




It is a magical place, especially in the warm red light of the setting evening sun.
To be inspired by more of Luciano’s garden landscaping magic click here.