Sound wave patterns from recorded words converted into solid forms. Based on a concept by Michael Daube.

There are numerous weird and wonderful gardens on display at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, however, one that really resonated with the Buenos Aires-born artist and product designer was the Sensory Garden sponsored by pioneering Marlborough winery Cloudy Bay and designed by the award-winning Wilson McWilliam Studio. Having studied fine art and industrial design, and after producing designs for studios in Spain, Italy, and the UK. In 2012 Diego Fortunato returned to his first love of fine art. He initially worked with Lapicida creating a range of highly successful stone wall paneling. Fascinated by Lapicida’s CNC shaping mills’ capabilities in carving an intricate and complex sculpture from natural stone, Diego conceived an idea that really gripped Lapicida’s imagination. His concept was a sculpture entitled ‘Luminarium’ which means ‘light’ or ‘lamp’ in Latin. By recording his spoken word of “light” he created a unique soundwave with an elegantly fluctuating waveform. The Lapicida technical design team then changed the waveform from horizontal to vertical and set to work modeling it into a 3D computer-generated wireframe model. Once Diego was happy with every minute detail, a single block of fine Italian Carrara Marble was carefully selected and Europe’s largest CNC shaping mill – a Breton NC1600 – set to work painstakingly sculpting the two distinctive waveforms of Luminarium using its 5-axis diamond-tipped cutter. Lapicida artisan craftsmen then hand-finished the pair using their considerable experience. The result is a highly arresting yet elegant work of art that is sure to be appreciated in the Cloudy Bay Sensory Garden – a garden designed to be gently immersive. It’s an environment that’s been specially designed to unite layered structures, textures, spaces, scents, visual structures, and sounds. Huge congratulations go to the Wilson McWilliam Studio as their sensory garden won a Silver Gilt Medal from judges.