One of the things that inspired us to craft a hippopotamus garden sculpture, was the way the mighty hippo occupies space without apology. Low, grounded, almost geological. It doesn’t impose itself through movement or speed, but through certainty. Which is exactly what we wanted to capture here.

When we began sketching the hippo, with its thick limbs revealing bulk and a lumbering heaviness, we knew cast aluminium was the material choice to use, as it contradicts that idea with its inherent lightness. 

The surface became everything. A hippopotamus isn’t defined by sharp edges or obvious structure, but by subtle shifts such as skin that stretches, folds, and carries tension. We avoided over-detailing, instead allowing the brushed gold finish to describe what we chose not to carve. When the sun moves across it, you slowly see the contours emerge.

Placed in a garden, our hippo garden sculpture behaves differently than you might expect. It doesn’t dominate the space; it settles into it. Among grass, stone, and water, it feels less like an object and more like a presence that has always been there. Almost as if the land shaped itself around it.