Little Italy: Porta Romana

British lighting and furniture brand Porta Romana relishes preserving ancient crafts, while discovering new ones to form an eclectic collection of distinctive pieces. Forever stretching the limits of craft, technique and materials, Porta Romana is characterised by its original and whimsical approach. Its Italianate name derives from the Porta Romana neighbourhood of Florence, where its co-founders Andrew and Sarah Hills lived in the 1980s, enchanted by the sights and smells of local artisanal workshops. On returning to the UK, they founded their company dedicated to offering such unique and exquisite craftsmanship to British consumers. ‘It was simple – we wanted to make beautiful things,’ recalls Sarah in the company’s movie, 25, which tells the brand’s story.

Porta Romana is based in Farnham, Surrey and collaborates with highly skilled metalworkers, glassblowers, ceramicists, sculptors and artists across the UK. The majority of its pieces are produced locally, and over the course of its 30-year history, Porta Romana has nurtured long-standing relationships with its network of makers.

Porta Romana offers a unique range of lighting – chandeliers, table and floor lights, pendants lights and wall sconces – as well as furniture, including consoles, chairs and mirrors. Its spontaneous yet considered approach yields original, compelling and long-lasting products. They range from the sculptural and organic, with tactile surfaces made from textured plaster and pitted gypsum, to sleek designs fashioned from brass, glass, wood and cane. The malleable quality of these materials allows Porta Romana to explore their potential.

Porta Romana’s characterful products are a boon to architects and interior designers on the hunt for lighting and furniture that ensure their projects stand out. The company has undertaken numerous bespoke designs for homes, hotels, museums and yachts worldwide. In celebration of the Royal Academy’s 250th anniversary in 2018, Porta Romana donated five of its iconic Urchin chandeliers to be hung in the gallery’s grand Shaw Staircase.

Despite the restrictions imposed on businesses during lockdown, it wasn’t long before Porta Romana’s kilns and forges fired up again. The makers in its workshop resumed their hammering, sculpting, casting, weaving and painting as the team threw themselves with renewed energy into producing the new Autumn 2020 collection – unveiled at Focus/20 at Design Centre, Chelsea Harbour in September.

Imaginative and sophisticated influences drawn from nature, art and fashion enhance the subtlety of Porta Romana’s products, as this collection demonstrates. The Baobab lamp is inspired by a Barbadian seedpod; the Moons lamp alludes to Picasso’s Cubist period, while the Marley pendant ceiling light, with its woven water-hyacinth shade, nods to a flamboyant Christian Dior hat.

For the past five years, Porta Romana has collaborated with designers whose ideas broaden the brand’s repertoire of styles. Take Viola Lanari’s Fountain lamp from the new collection. With its pristine white, sculptural plaster base that playfully mimics splashing water, this contrasts with, yet, complements, Porta Romana’s characteristically patinated products.

Other designers Porta Romana has worked with include Tord Boontje, whose otherworldly Ivy Shadow chandelier scatters shadows across a room; Martin Brudnizki and Nicholas Jeanes of & Objects, whose Tier lamp has a unique mottled pattern formed by dripping glaze, and Gareth Devonald Smith, creator of the idiosyncratic Crawford chandelier with a pistachio, white, bronze or terracotta metal finish and rustic wicker shades.

Other pieces, such as the Phoebe lamp with its ceramic base and cane-wrapped neck, channel sleek 1960s and 1970s mid-century modern design. This unexpected fusion of materials is a hallmark of Porta Romana’s designs, also typified by the Cocoon pendant, made by blowing molten glass into a spherical metal cage.

Mirroring Porta Romana’s concern for longevity is its commitment to sustainability. Its new Upcycling Club offers a refurbishment or part-exchange service whereby customers can send in existing pieces, which are restored or adapted to suit a new or redecorated room. The part-exchange service involves taking back customers’ pieces and giving them a valuation, used as credit towards a new order.

From its origins hand-crafting exquisite lighting and furniture in a modest London workshop, Porta Romana has fulfilled its early ambition of emulating exquisite Italian craftsmanship for a British audience craving individuality and fine craftsmanship. Yet it’s forward-looking too, simultaneously encouraging self-expression, experimentation and innovation with each collection.

© Architonic