Interview with Arch. Zenoni: the future of our parks

Intervention at the Quintino Park in Bergamo.

Interview with Arch. Zenoni: the sustainable future of our parks

Arch. Simone Zenoni, President of AIAPP Lombardia
Arch. Simone Zenoni, President of AIAPP Lombardia – “I like to think that my work is an act of care towards nature.”

In the heart of Lombardy, Arch. Simone Zenoni, President of AIAPP Lombardia, takes us on a journey between nature and sustainable design. In this exclusive interview for the Almanacco di Terra Solida, entitled “The path in the garden”, Zenoni shares his passion for landscape architecture. Through his stories, we discover the deep connection between the natural context, the culture of the place and the sustainable solutions adopted in urban redevelopment projects. With a gentle and thoughtful tone, Zenoni invites us to consider the beauty and importance of healthy green spaces, harmoniously integrated into the territory. A conversation that stimulates reflections on how we can build a future more respectful of nature and our cultural heritage

Can you tell us about your experience with site analysis?

I knew the site before I even tackled the project that was commissioned by the Municipality of Bergamo. I am lucky enough to live nearby and to have known the places since I was a boy. The Quintino park, where I first experimented with solid earth, is a small but precious neighborhood park, frequented by families and children from the nearby primary and nursery schools. Not only that, the park hosts a complex of urban gardens that I designed in previous years, so I knew the pedological and environmental characteristics of the site well, strongly influenced by the poor permeability of the clayey soil that caused rainwater to stagnate on the surface.

Can you describe your design process from concept to completion?

The redevelopment project of the Quintino park had, among its main objectives, that of completely redeveloping the usable areas, implementing the existing tree supply, redefining the overall quality of the paths, which were made of limestone. The main problem was the stagnation of rainwater, especially along the valley sections where the water stagnated due to compacted soil. The design choice immediately fell on the use of a permeable pavement that had a sustainable and ecologically compatible character, characteristics respected by Terra Solida.

Intervention at the Quintino Park in Bergamo.
Intervention at the Quintino Park in Bergamo.

How do you approach incorporating cultural and historical context into your design?

As an architect and landscape designer I have been trained through cultures and principles of deep reading of the context. Reading and understanding a place should always be the preliminary condition of every project, of architecture and landscape. I do not know of any other methods that I consider simply design errors. In fact, I do not like many contemporary architectures, the result of hyper-technological and abstract choices with respect to the places in which they are located. In this regard, without wanting to argue, I find the term design in landscape design wrong, because it implies a dangerous abstraction of the design with respect to the place.

What is your direct experience with designing natural and permeable pavements?

Since I design parks and gardens I always try to use paved surfaces that are as natural and environmentally friendly as possible. I don't think it's useful to design a garden with dangerous or toxic materials such as resins or other petroleum-derived materials such as plastic. I firmly believe that a garden, a park, must be healthy and beautiful places, where nature can express its own qualities. Why should we use plastic in a garden? Using natural and permeable materials means respecting the living conditions of plants, which is why I found it very useful and interesting to experiment with Terra Solida.

Intervention at the Quintino Park in Bergamo.
Intervention at the Quintino Park in Bergamo.

How does the landscape look like, redeveloped in greenery and in mobility and parking areas, years after its construction? What harmony and integration does design find in the use of spaces?

The concept of time is inherent in landscape design. When I design a park or a garden, I start a process whose evolution I can hardly control. This represents both the difficulty and the beauty of our work. The planting of trees, shrubs and lawns is equivalent to the creation of a small landscape, a piece of nature that will evolve over time through autonomous laws and principles, independent of our will. We can control the evolution through maintenance actions, but natural processes are independent of us and so are those of the aging of the artificial materials that we will use. In the historic gardens that we can still visit today in Italy, most of the pavements are made of gravel. They are pavements with a very low construction cost, partially permeable, managed over time with constant maintenance actions. Today, however, we chase perfection with increasingly expensive and fragile materials, it would be appropriate to learn from the past to look to the future.

Intervention at the Quintino Park in Bergamo.
Intervention at the Quintino Park in Bergamo.

We are honored to have had the opportunity to listen to the reflections of Arch. Simone Zenoni, a professional who shares our vision of sustainable landscape architecture in harmony with the environment. His sensitive and respectful approach to the natural context is a source of inspiration for anyone who believes that our green spaces must be healthy, beautiful and long-lasting. Terra Solida is proud to contribute to projects that, like those of Zenoni, aim at a future where nature and architecture coexist in perfect balance.

Intervention at the Quintino Park in Bergamo.
Intervention at the Quintino Park in Bergamo.

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