BadPol_into the wild | Emanuele Ferrarese

"Before raising the menhir, man possessed a symbolic form of transforming the landscape. This form was walking, an action learned with difficulty in the first months of life and then a no longer conscious but natural, automatic action. It’s'walking that man began to build the natural landscape that surrounded him. "With this words Francesco Careri introduces his essay" walkscapes "(Einaudi, 2006 Turin) and from these words I want to start to introduce the design for the landscape of Badia Polesine.

The project is a set of punctual interventions inserted into the landscape, it is an attempt to " systemizing" what is present and what it takes to understand it, to immerse itself in it and to enjoy it thus becomes its effect.

Starting from the parking areas near the embankment to the bottom of the bridge, passing through the small car park at the top of the bridge and away, towards the west, towards the flood plain. From the top of the hill, the only element of landscape standing in the perfect flatness of the Polesine, you can read the presence of the river Adige: generating element of the settlements, the uncontaminated nature of floodplain, peculiar elements such as the scarps of Adigetto, the visual opening, when the mists allow it, towards the hills to the north; but just turn your head to your left to read the characteristics of the Polesine countryside: fields, colors of nature, ditches, headlands, border trees, bell towers, courts, until you get lost in the linear horizon.

From the bridge there is a route for almost 4 kilometers through this landscape, until reaching the flood plain in the hamlet of Villa d'Adige. Here the summit path of 1400 meters encircles it into the territory and opens trails in escarpments that can facilitate the visit. Inside the flood plain the elements scattered along the various paths help to read the features, the diversities of landscape, vegetation and natural life. An artifact for an elevated point of view (birdwatching), benches that mark the intervention and give a key to reading it, a meeting space organized within an environment where the vegetation is free and spontaneous; until reaching a classroom designed to encourage events and meetings surrounded by a natural setting of pure beauty.

The materials used to create these micro-interventions try to be respectful of the environment itself, suited to their insertion rather than their use, because their real purpose is to be there, to spur the visit, more than being comfortable or practical.

This is the idea for helping the Badia Polesine landscape; a project as an opportunity to create synergies and relationships between designed things, present things and surroundings, in a balance supported by the visitor's movement.