Business district in Palermo

The island of Sicily features a unique landscape thanks to the variety and heterogeneity of the flora. This is due to its climatic conditions, mainly subtropical, and its location in the middle of the Mediterranean sea. Many botanical species arrived in Europe through Sicily, brought by the wind, birds and trade.

The Colli plain is an example of this great variety of landscapes and before World War II it was a fertile plain, covered by oak forests, citrus groves and exotic gardens of 18th century villas.

The project for the green areas of the new business center intends to revive the naturalistic and arboreal vocation of the area, giving the green spaces distinct evocative qualities.

We thought of multiple gardens characterized by different microclimatic conditions, in accordance with the peculiarities of the architectural project which from 126m in height goes down to below ground level. A continuous path will cross these layers of vegetation each of them recalling typical landscapes of the region.

Year:

2020

International competition:

Submitted

Collaborations:

IRACI architetti
IN-NOVA studio
MRC architetti
Cartia e Chifari Ingegneri

To select tree and shrub species, the looked at the vegetation of Monte Pellegrino Nature Reserve and Real Tenuta della Favorita, both very close to the project area.

On the rooftop of the towers, which are exposed to wind and sunlight, the reference will be the rocky vegetation of the Sicilian coasts.

The park at ground level will stage the encounter between the Mediterranean scrub and the typical tree crops of the island.

In the underground level we will try to evoke the undergrowth of the holm oak forest, of which the nearby wood of Villa Niscemi is a splendid example.