I giardini della Zingara | PlaC

Ancient rivers have cut like blades through the Murgia landscape, leaving a unique natural heritage which are today known as Gravinas. The design and landscape competition for the urban "Gravina della Zingara" was a unique exercise in the nature of the structure for which we were called upon to design.
This now-dry river runs from north to south in the small municipality of Statte, cutting a deep gorge ranging from 5 to 8 meters in width. Over time, the inhabitants began to cultivate and spontaneously took over both banks of the canyon and its lower part, the once riverbed, through terracing and embankments using dry stone walls.

The competition called to respond to these anthropic phenomena and spontaneous vegetation with a non-invasive intervention, aimed at a re-organization of the entire canyon into a series of gardens for the community, creating a continuum with the nearby historic centre.
The proposed vegetation is native and tailored to require as little maintenance as possible, while new mineral surfaces are designed to help drain runoff waters.

The project is organized through a series of small devices that allow the community to re-use the gravina. Each device is a small focus point from which the order interventions develop, on this basis the project was divided temporally and budget wise.

Following, what was once the stream of water, a public square was planned at the lowest point of the gravina. Somewhere the community can gather on festivities, market days or summer evenings.
Smaller elements were designed as simple geometric figures and scattered across the landscape, acting as the project fil rouge, creating new possibilities and uses for the community.

Team: PlaC (Team leader Urban+Architecture), Chiara Martini (Landscape consultant), Sertec Engineering Consulting srl (Structure+MEP), Stefano Assone (Agronomist), Marco Lano (Geologist)