play has always been the great driving force behind culture.
Italo Calvino
site | Besozzo – Va
year | 2024
dimensions | approx. 3100 sqm
type of project | public park
photos | Stefano Anzini
the project starts with the ‘conversion’ of an abandoned industrial area (reclaimed) into a new playground for the community: it is not only regeneration of the area in the physical sense, but also regeneration of the urban relations that the playground space triggers with the Bardello river and the town of Besozzo overlooked by the area.
the play areas are surrounded by pedestrian areas in limestone and green areas planted with Acer campestre and shrubs such as Rosa canina, and Perovskia atriciplifolia, Abelia grandiflora
the planned playgrounds are inspired by the theme of water and are designed in the form of two side-by-side barges in which the play areas for basketball, volleyball, minivolleyball, and table tennis are inserted.
the colours of the sports fields are designed not to be dazzling, with soothing tones ranging from blue to fuchsia and light orange.
however, the project is not only an aesthetic playful dimension, but also an opportunity to generate new public spaces in which collective and landscape values are mixed to create human relations of social sharing.
this new ‘play landscape’ also opens up a view towards Bardello and the surrounding landscape is located adjacent to a future cycle path along the river to ensure accessibility and connection also outside the municipality.
