The professional excursion of the European Landscape Contractors Association (ELCA) leaded to Milan from October 5th to 6th 2018. The Italian member association of the ELCA, ASSO.IMPRE.DI.A. (National Association of Companies for the environmental Protection) had prepared an attractive professional experts program for landscape gardeners to Milan. While city park and modern city project were visited on the first day, the participants visited the wonderful historical garden and the old city of Turin on the second day. A marvellous discovery journey through Milan and Turin with gigantic parks, buildings, residences and great environment plans. ELCA president Emmanuel Mony from France and Henrik Bos, chairman of the Elca Committee of Firms from Finland, welcomes a lot of good friends from European countries as well from Japan and Canada.
The ELCA Presidium met in Milan on the 4th October. They especially appreciated the application of the Italian association for the professional organisation. The topics were: the future of ELCA, EU lobby proposals, EU green initiatives, ELCA Trend Award, ELCA new marketing tools, ELCA shared agendas, ELCA exchange of youngers and companies,… The next ELCA meetings will take place in France, Côte d’Azur, 4th-6th April 2019 and in Poland October 2019.
ELCA Committee of Firms professional excursion Milan 5-6 October 2018
Pictures Milan
Pictures Turin
Milano, Parco Sempione
Visit to Parco Sempione, the most important English-style romantic park of the city designed by Emilio Alemagna in 1893. The park, is also full of attractions—including an aquarium, sports stadium, Napoleonic arch, and even a medieval castle. The Palazzo dell’Arte hosts the renowned Triennale Design Museum. The Castello Sforzesco, the enormous landmark no longer has any residents, but is open for tours. The renovated Arco della Pace “Arch of Peace” is one of Milan’s most beautiful, yet off-the-beaten-path, pieces of history. Also one of Milan’s most famous sporting arenas, Arena Civica. The neoclassical stadium holds 10,000 people and hosts major soccer and rugby games and international concerts. The aquarium Acquario Civico is a stunning building, with its large statue of Neptune, god of the sea, and home to more than 100 varieties of fish. The Torre Branca is one of the city’s highest buildings, the tower boasts fantastic views of Milan. A relaxing getaway in the centre of the city with 38 hectares of green space including forested areas and peacful ponds. It has trees, bushes and flowers dispersed among its many vivid green lawns and a pretty artificial lake, which houses numerous kinds of birds.
In one of the many high sturdy trees we have received a professional demonstration of tree analysis and maintenance. Once again it has become clear that only professional knowledge, craftsmanship and experience can guarantee the safety and preservation of trees.
City Life Milano
City Life Milano, an ambititiuos commercial and residential restoration project of the historic urban centre of Fiera Milano covering a surface of 366.000 square meters. The innovative housing complex is characterised by a modern aesthetic and functional style, as well as residential areas. CityLife provide commercial, entertainment and service facilities that will make the complex a vibrant area and provide round-the-clock amenities. The new district encircles a large public park of 170,000 m2 designed to be used by all citizens thanks to the incorporation of bicycle and pedestrian paths and to its wide confines which join up directly with surrounding urban areas. The park will be a green lung that will integrate with the existent parks in the north-west area of the city contributing to the oxygenation of the air and restoring the balance of the urban environment. At the centre of the district stand the imposing Tre Torri (Three Towers) office blocks, landmarks of the project that significantly contribute to reshaping the city skyline. Designed by Arata Isozaki (Isozaki Tower, 220mts), Zaha Hadid (Hadid Tower, 170mts) and Daniel Libeskind (Libeskind Tower, 150mts), the buildings stand out for their cutting-edge technology and for the innovative materials employed. The five residential areas being developed were designed by Zaha Hadid and Daniel Libeskind, architects of international fame. The apartments were designed following criteria that enable the optimisation of energy use and respect for the environment, plus, they are all Class A certified.
Milano, Bosco Verticale
Bosco Verticale is a model for a sustainable residential building, a project for metropolitan reforestation contributing to the regeneration of the environment and urban biodiversity without the implication of expanding the city upon the territory. It is a model of vertical densification of nature within the city that operates in relation to policies for reforestation and naturalization of large urban and metropolitan borders. The first example of the Bosco Verticale consisting of two residential towers of 110 and 76 m height, was realized in the centre of Milan, on the edge of the Isola neighborhood, hosting 800 trees (each measuring 3, 6 or 9 meters), 4,500 shrubs and 15,000 plants from a wide range of shrubs and floral plants distributed according to the sun exposure of the facade. On flat land, each Bosco Verticale equals, in amount of trees, an area of 20,000 square meters of forest. In terms of urban densification it is the equivalent of an area of a single family dwelling of nearly 75,000 sq.m. The vegetal system of the Bosco Verticale contributes to the construction of a microclimate, produces humidity, absorbs CO2 and dust particles and produces oxygen.
Biological habitats. Bosco Verticale increases biodiversity. It helps to set up an urban ecosystem where a different kind of vegetation creates a vertical environment which can also be colonized by birds and insects, and therefore becomes both a magnet for and a symbol of the spontaneous re-colonization of the city by vegetation and by animal life. The creation of a number of Bosco Verticale in the city can set up a network of environmental corridors which will give life to the main parks in the city, bringing together the green space of avenues and gardens and interweaving various spaces of spontaneous vegetation growth.
Mitigations. Bosco Verticale helps to build a micro-climate and to filter dust particles which are present in the urban environment. The diversity of the plants helps to create humidity and absorbs CO2 and dust, produces oxygen, protects people and houses from harmful sun rays and from acoustic pollution.
Anti-sprawl. Bosco Verticale is an anti-sprawl measure which aims to control and reduce urban expansion. If we think of them in terms of urban densification, each tower of the Bosco Verticale is equivalent to an area of urban sprawl of family houses and buildings of up to 50,000 square metres.
Trees are a key element in understanding architectural projects and garden systems. In this case the choice of the types of trees was made to fit their positioning on the facades and by height, and it took two years to finalize it, alongside a group of botanists. The plants used in this project will be grown specifically for this purpose and will be pre-cultivated. Over this period these plants can slowly get used to the conditions they will find on the building.
Ecology billboards. Bosco Verticale is a landmark in the city which is able to depict new kinds of variable landscapes changing their look over seasons, depending on the types of plants involved. The Bosco Verticale will offer a changing view of the metropolitan city below.
Management. The management of the tree pots is under building regulation, as well as the upkeep of the greenery and the number of plants for each pot.
Irrigation. In order to understand the need for water, the plan for these buildings took into account the distribution of plants across the various floors and their positioning
Milano, Idroscalo
At the Idroscalo, a reservoir of 1,600 m2 fed by spring waters and the Martesana canal, you can practice water skiing, canoeing, rowing, sailing and swimming with flippers. Also land sports such as beach volleyball, football, gymnastics, volleyball, skating and handball. But also art, relaxation and a place to spend pleasant days in the open air and it hosts major music festivals.
Turin
Turin - The magnificent Reggia di Venaria Reale is back to its old splendor; sumptuous buildings, precious works of art, marble, stucco decorations and enchanting gardens. The complex had a great scenographic layout, full of fountains, gardens and garden-beds on two levels, to which one entered from the straight main road of the ancient town and with, in the lower garden, a large fishpond. The gardens, which appear to be a close union of ancient and modern, melding archeological settlements and contemporary works, with the whole thing framed in a vision of the infinite that has no equal in similar historical gardens in Italy. The Gardens of the Venaria Reale are a fitting accompaniment for this imposing complex. The 17th century plan had envisaged the creation of an “Italian garden” divided into three levels, full of sculptures and decorative arts represented by the Citroniera, the Theater Loggia, the Fountain of Hercules, the Temple of Diana and the approximately four hundred busts, bas reliefs, statues and telamons. In the early 1700s the layout of the gardens was redone according to the canons of the “French Garden”, the previous structure being demolished to achieve a new look with a one and a half kilometer extension, comparable to that of the Grand Canal at Versailles. In 2000 this Royal Hunting park, which had been named Venatio Regia and then Venaria Reale, began to undergo restoration. And what was done was an actual reconstruction of “a landscape”. The course of the paths, the different levels, the embankments, the treelined avenues, the outlines of the islands of greenery and woods were restored in accordance with the remaining signs still visible through the years. Similarly, marble artefacts and decorations were brought to light and restored. At the same time the area of the Great Fishpond in the “Lower Park” was made accessible with contemporary art by the maestro Giuseppe Penone in the “Fluid Sculpture Garden”, along with the 17th century archeological structures of the Fountain of Hercules and the Temple of Diana, the English garden areas, the Flower and Rose gardens, the wooded area, as well as the restored Gran Parterre south of the Reggia. Finally, the Reggia has also become an important focal point for cultural activities with shows, concerts, exhibitions and events of a high international standard.
Turin, the country’s first capital, and the engine room of unification, is blessed with a rich architectural heritage from Turin’s baroque. Plus there are art nouveau and contemporary structures to marvel at. Turin has a palpably industrious spirit. This is the home of Italy’s car industry, its first cinema, and arguably chocolate; it’s the place in which vermouth and Nutella were invented, and it gave birth to the Slow Food movement. It’s all there to explore and easily so. The Romans drew the neat grid of streets on which Turin’s layout is based, later layered with wide avenues and grand squares, such as the Piazza Vittoria, where the Torinese mingle over aperitifs. Cradled by the rivers Dora to the north and Po to the east, the Alps on the northern horizon providing a constant compass point, Turin is an eminently walkable city, made all the more pleasant by the 11 miles of arcades to stroll through. The charm of the old city with the Piazza San Carlo, Palazzo Madama and the famous porticoes with the iconic ‘Caffés’.