Two large white giraffe sculptures, each with a crystal chandelier hanging from its neck, on the lawn of the cloister of the Università Statale di Milano, with an arcaded loggia and columns.

Case study · Design and events

Giraffe in Love: screw anchors for securing design artworks

A design installation anchored in the cloister of the Università Statale di Milano during Milan Design Week 2019, with other similar installations in prestigious resorts in Paestum.

Giraffe in Love, designed by Marcantonio for Qeeboo, are sculptures several metres tall: light, slender, with a crystal chandelier hanging from the neck. A shape so exposed to the wind cannot simply stand there — it has to be anchored to the ground.

The first venue is the cloister of the Università Statale di Milano, during Milan Design Week 2019: a lawn inside a monumental courtyard, where nobody digs and nobody pours concrete. The other is the grounds of a resort in Paestum, with different giraffes, owned by the client and installed to stay: an English lawn, paths, well-kept flower beds. There too, the garden could not be spoiled.

The constraint: two places that cannot be touched

The cloister of the Statale and a resort garden share the same problem for different reasons: in the first the ground is protected, in the second it is the client's calling card. In both cases a concrete footing means digging, a mixer, curing time and, at the end, demolition and reinstatement.

Then there is the calendar: a design installation opens on a fixed date and closes on a fixed date. The setting time of concrete does not fit into that calendar.

Wooden shipping crate branded Qeeboo and marked «GIRAFFE IN LOVE by Marcantonio — OUTDOOR», with three T-Block ground screws standing upright in front. — The artwork travels in a crate, and the foundations travel with it: they are part of the installation, not building work to be done on site.

How it was solved: screwed in, not poured

The anchors were screwed straight into the lawn with portable equipment, with no heavy machinery in the garden and no fenced-off work area. Above each point a plate remains flush with the grass, and the sculpture is bolted to it.

The height of each support is adjusted during assembly: on a lawn that is never perfectly level, this is what keeps the sculptures upright without reshaping the ground.

Installation in a resort garden: four T-Block ground screws already driven into the flower bed around a tree, with the electric driver resting on the ground beside them. — Installing in the resort grounds: working in the flower bed with a power driver, no concrete mixers and no need to close the garden.

Two installations, two timescales

In Milan the installation was temporary: the giraffes were set up for Design Week and then taken down by unscrewing the anchors. The cloister lawn went back to how it was, with no trace.

In Paestum the giraffes belong to the client and stay in the resort grounds: a long-term installation, secured with T-Block ground screws and no concrete footings in the lawn.

A Giraffe in Love sculpture lit up at night among the palm trees of a resort in Paestum, with the crystal chandeliers glowing along the avenue. — Paestum: the resort's giraffes, installed to stay in the grounds.

Why this case matters

People who stage exhibitions, fairs and events almost always work on someone else's ground, with an opening date and a clear-out date. That is where a screwed foundation is not a cheaper alternative to concrete: it is the one that keeps to the contract.

Events and installations Street furniture How it works

Other projects

The façade of the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, in white, green and pink marble, seen from below against a blue sky.

Heritage sites and events

Road signs and roadside warning panels, without opening up a work site

Do you have a project with the same constraints?

Send us the project, the type of ground and the loads: we reply with the anchoring layout and the right T-Block^® models. If your case is like one of these, we will tell you — and if it is not, we will tell you that too.

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