Urban Sanctuary: Introducing Our New Modular Garden System
December 2024
We’re excited to share our new Urban Sanctuary collection—a modular garden system inspired by nature’s geometry. Designed to quickly transform any hard-surfaced outdoor area into a garden haven, each component fits together like a jigsaw puzzle; three parallelogram decking tiles tessellate to form the foundation of this modular collection—hexagons. Pair Tesserae Tiles with Pollen Planters and Seat Tops of varying heights to create a garden retreat featuring a gentle sea of honeycomb patterns.
Explore the Urban Sanctuary Collection
(Available at introductory prices for a limited time)
Parallelogram-shaped tiles that effortlessly tessellate to form striking hexagonal honeycomb patterns.
Recycled plastic connectors that secure Tesserae Tiles. Available in 3 and 6 wing styles for different configurations.
Hexagonal planter boxes designed to integrate with Tesserae Tiles. Create interest and depth with four different heights.
Designed to sit on top of a Pollen Planter, this seat top transforms your planter into a rest stop for the weary gardener or handy storage area.
Idea Catalyst
Urban Sanctuary came about when Craft & Design Canberra commissioned Thor (founder and director of Thor’s Hammer) to be the lead designer for an installation for Craft & Design Canberra Festival 2024, collaborating with glass artist Spike Deane (Canberra Glassworks), and horticulturalist David Taylor (Ephemeral Country).
The project culminated in Urban Biome, a modular art installation in Canberra’s CBD, which explored how regenerative design, material reuse and native and endemic plant species can be incorporated into public spaces.
Urban Sanctuary was born from this explorative collaboration.
Urban Biome was a collaborative project between Thor Diesendorf from Thor’s Hammer, glass artist Spike Deane from the Canberra Glassworks, and horticulturalist David Taylor from Ephemeral Country. Photo: Craft & Design Canberra
Concept sketch for the Urban Biome installation at Craft & Design Canberra Festival 2024. Credit: Thor Diesendorf
Design & Features
Thor designed the pieces in the Urban Sanctuary collection to quickly transform any hard-surfaced outdoor area into a garden haven, from urban balconies and patios, to public outdoor areas.
The modular design makes it a highly customisable system with infinite configurations.
Inspired by the efficiency of honeycomb, the hexagonal patterns reduce material waste during production and eliminate awkward gaps in layouts. Honeycomb, made up of hexagon cells, uses the least amount of material to enclose the maximum space, making it a natural inspiration for balancing form, function, and efficiency.
Each piece is crafted from recycled hardwoods, finished with Osmo Decking Oil, and held together with LIGNOLOC® wooden nails, and supported by custom connectors made from 100% recycled plastic.
Concept sketch for the Urban Biome installation at Craft & Design Canberra Festival 2024. Credit: Thor Diesendorf
Urban Biome installation at Craft & Design Canberra Festival, November 2024. Photos: Bianca Knox
Making Process
The Tesserae Tiles and Pollen Planters are made out of short offcuts from an eclectic mix of our blackbutt and ironbark remilled decking. These durability class 1 timbers are docked to length on a 30 degree angle, and then laid out in jigs in the right pattern, ready for marking out and pre-drilling.
We use LIGNOLOC® wooden nails to join the boards together, which need to be driven in with a special nail gun. These are an exciting innovation from Germany which reduce CO₂ emissions by around 66% compared to traditional steel fasteners.
Under the heat and pressure caused as the gun drives the nail, the natural lignins in the timber and the wooden nail are activated, and the wooden nails bond to the timber, and cannot be pulled out.
In softwoods, the nails can be shot straight in with the gun, but in our dense Australian hardwoods a pre-drill is required. It took some experimentation to get the right diameter pre-drill. Too large and the nail won’t bond, and too small and the chance of splitting is high.
Each Pollen Seat and Top requires 168 LIGNOLOC® nails, plus 74 screws. For our first run of Urban Sanctuary pieces, Recycling Manager Matt, hand drilled 242 pilot holes for each planter / seat—and there were quite a few!
Read more about Matt’s work on Urban Sanctuary in our recent blog post: Meet the Team—Meet Matt from Recycling.
Next, the assembled tiles and planter sides are sanded through our big thickness sander, any sharp edges are softened by hand, and two coats of natural Osmo 006 Decking Oil are given to the surfaces facing outwards, and one coat to the underside.
Osmo Decking Oil is a durable finish from Germany, based on natural oils including sunflower and thistle.
Finally to assemble the Pollen Planters, we use corten steel brackets and high quality SPAX stainless steel screws.
Matt hard at work on our newly released Urban Sanctuary range. Photos: Bianca Knox
Create Your Own Urban Sanctuary…
Wondering what to plant in your new planter? The species chosen by David Taylor Ephemeral Country for the Urban Biome display were all Australian indigenous plants. The plants came from Yarralumla Nursery, who sponsored the Urban Biome installation. It featured more than 45 different species with 30 that occur naturally in the local region and 8 rare or threatened species. Here are 10 of those species to give you some inspiration for your own urban sanctuary.
Blue Bush (Acacia covenyi): A rare, fast-growing shrub with blue-grey foliage and fragrant yellow flowers.
Weeping Myall (Acacia pendula): A weeping tree providing habitat for birds and thriving in clay soils.
Candlebark (Eucalyptus rubida): A frost-tolerant local gum tree ideal for revegetation and wildlife corridors.
Spiny-head Mat-rush (Lomandra longifolia): A hardy rush that regenerates well after fire.
Bottle Brush (Callistemon sieberi): A creekside species with vibrant blooms attracting wildlife.
Genoa River Correa (Correa lawrenciana var. genoensis): A nationally endangered shrub limited to the Genoa River.
Tumut Grevillea (Grevillea wilkinsonii): An endangered shrub with mauve to purple flowers that attract birds and insects.
Kangaroo Grass (Themeda triandra): An iconic grass with cultural and culinary significance for Indigenous Australians.
Blue Devil (Eryngium ovinium): A vivid blue, thistle-like grassland species.
Wallaby Grass (Rhytidosperma caespitosum): A grass species supporting local ecosystems.
Please note, the timbers of the Pollen Planters should not be in direct contact with soil. There are a few options for protecting the inside of the timbers, including lining with plastic or using standard plastic pots inside the planter. We are also developing a recycled plastic liner which will be available in early 2025. For more information, see our Installation & Maintenance sheet.