Gardens and Landscapes open 2020 – September

OPEN GARDENS & LANDSCAPES STARTED

MORE THAN 40 APPOINTMENTS TO UNDERSTAND HOW LANDSCAPE CARE SAVES US FROM THE CLIMATE CRISIS
In Rome, “Piazza Tevere”: a kilometer of well-being along the river

Rome, 2 September 2020. From the ‘Saracen gardens’ of Tricarico in Basilicata where forgotten food essences are grown, to the urban ones that in many Italian cities have recovered degraded land and made them become places of community agriculture and beekeeping, as happens in Power. From historic parks that are being transformed into shelters for cities subjected to the pounding of the changing climate (among others Villa Sassi in Turin and the park of the Castle of Moncalieri), to the ‘rain gardens’ that serve to ensure the resilience of the center inhabited area of ​​Ravenna against floods. From the ecovillage of Castelnuovo Rangone, in Emilia Romagna, completely built with the criteria of bio-architecture, to the environmental restoration of the Terme di Levico Park in the province of Trento, severely damaged by the Vaia storm of October 2018. There are 45, in all the Italian regions, the appointments to show firsthand what landscape architecture, the landscape designed and thought for sustainability can do to combat the effects of climate change and provide a real network of environmental resistance.

The event proposes them “Open Gardens & Landscapes 2020“, organized by the Italian Association of Landscape Architecture – AIAPP, in a marathon that takes place from 4 September until the end of October and which involves thousands of people in guided tours. They aim to demonstrate that another territory – more resistant to environmental stress – is possible, and that this fits perfectly with the management of the artistic and cultural heritage of our country, which also consists of green spaces of the highest value (a this link https://www.aiapp.net/giardini-paesaggi-aperti-2020/ all the appointments). Precisely on the seventieth anniversary of its foundation, AIAPP has put the “Climate Challenges – Climate Challenges” at the center of its planning and awareness raising activities.

“Giardini & Paesaggi Aperti 2020 is an opportunity to show the benefits that landscape architecture interventions can determine, compared to the challenges that the changes underway impose on us, in terms of overcoming and mitigating many environmental and social criticalities”, he explains Maria Cristina Tullio, president of AIAPP. “Through guided tours, public meetings, training and demonstration moments, workshops and conferences, interventions capable of mitigating these criticalities will be illustrated, intervening from large to small scale. From environmental design to territorial planning; from urban ecology to the restoration project of historic gardens; from the design of public spaces to the arrangement of private gardens “.

Particularly significant is the appointment in Bergamo, which has become a symbol of the pandemic in spite of itself. The Parco dei Colli is in fact a successful example of a resilient landscape capable of responding positively to the demands of a territory, such as the Po Valley, which is strongly threatened by pollution and increasing soil consumption. The close relationship between landscape and agriculture is at the center of the study trip to Pantelleria. A land with particular climatic and geological conditions, a landscape strongly characterized by agricultural practices handed down from generation to generation. Among these: the use of terraces and dry stone walls called “gardens” that enclose a single orange or the particular local cultivation technique of the sapling vine.

In Rome, on the other hand, it will be a temporary installation – the design of which AIAPP participated in – which will be inaugurated on 5 September in Piazza Tevere to highlight a way to face the Climate Challenges. The challenge in this case directly concerns urban areas in the Covid 19 era: the goal is to make the spaces of the city healthier, more welcoming and functional, proof of social distancing, but which at the same time allow social interactions.
The installation in Piazza Tevere – which is part of the “Strategie Green2020” program promoted by ASSOVERDE and AIAPP and created together with associations and institutional subjects (Tiber Special Office of Roma Capitale, team of sponsors coordinated by Agenda Tevere onlus – ITALGAS, ACEA, TERNA and companies such as Rainbird, plasticWOOD.it and associations such as TeverEterno) provides for the arrangement of 4,600 square meters of lawn and 40 trees to offer an “unexpected” landscape between the Sisto and Mazzini bridges. One kilometer of well-being, landscape quality and history created by ideally joining the two banks of the river through an equipped green lawn, lying on the river banks. A place of climatic comfort where you can experiment with methods of socialization, proximity in distancing suitable for the time we are living, enjoying the combination of water, nature and art.
A project that also has demonstration purposes on the benefits that lawns and trees can bring, in terms of reducing the heat island and absorbing pollutants, but also on the performance capacity of nature.

“It is necessary to move from statements to facts “, explains architect Tullio. “With Strategie Green 2020 we want to demonstrate how, with small targeted interventions, permanent or temporary, it is possible to offer a place for citizens where city and water, nature and art, past and present coexist and feed each other, creating a square of meeting and discussion on the benefits that ‘nature’ can generate in the city to combat the climate and health emergency we are experiencing ”.

AIAPP, the Italian Association of Landscape Architecture, brings together more than 700 members, including professionals, scholars and students committed to protecting, conserving and enhancing the landscape, through design, research, training and scientific-cultural activities of information and professional updating. He represents professionals active in the field of landscape architecture, and is a member of IFLA (International Federation of Landscape Architects) and IFLA Europe (International Federation of Landscape Architecture Europe).

Ufficio Stampa AIAPP Silverback – Greening the Communication
Maria Pia Terrosi – Cell. 331 2635141
mp.terrosi@silverback.it