Ivy by EMU Group

The IVY collection designed by Paola Navone for Emu is inspired by the ancient “topiary” art, the trimming of trees ad shrubs in order to give them ornamental shapes. This art derived from the attempt to “model” nature, as in the words of Shirley Hibberd, the person responsible for the revival of topiary in England in the late 1800s: “It may be true, as I believe it is, that the natural form of a tree is the most beautiful possible for that tree, but it may happen that we do not want the most beautiful form, but one of our own designing, and expressive of our ingenuity."

Finding inspiration in this art, Paola Navone has designed sculpture-furniture created for living in and beautifying outdoor areas, structures created using the natural material par excellence — metal — bent to the will of the human mind.

The meeting between the designer and Emu made it possible to mold an apparently “hard” material such as metal, obtaining three-dimensional shapes so light that they give the impression that they could float in the air.

The structures of sofas, armchairs and table, empty inside, incorporate nature and become an integral part of it thanks to their noninvasive character, which harmonizes with the surrounding landscape.

They are objects created to be left outdoors nonchalantly, furniture that will allow itself to be “eaten up” by ivy like statues, and those who sit on it will fully experience the feeling of being immersed in nature.

Research and curiosity about places, origins and materials have always been characteristic of Paola Navone, leading her to seek and find in Emu the ideal partner for the realization of such an important and ambitious project. This designer found herself dealing with a metal manufacturer for the first time, discovering it to be an industrial concern using advanced technology, but at the same time with strong local roots. Emu’s decades of experience and know-how in metalworking allowed Paola Navone to “bring outdoors” the traditional living room set, with its ample size and comfortableness, harmonizing classical design with technology that is ahead of its time: chairs with built-in cushions that do not hold in water, tables made with ceramic tops of Deruta majolica, are just an example of the merging of past and future, unique both in design and functionality.