Cuba loves Napoli

The young family who lives in this garden immediately expressed very specific desires: a dining area, a pergola, an outdoor kitchen, a relaxation area and a small playground for the children. Inserting all these elements into a garden of just over 100m2 made the landscape design a fun game of tetris.

The need to concentrate different functions in a small space led us to follow two guidelines: to limit paths and flowerbeds to gain useful space; to characterize the different areas through architectural elements, plants and materials. We decided to divide the garden into three strongly defined environments, three outdoor rooms that will be added to the house: the wooden porch, the gravel patio, the playground.

The wooden porch
A larch wood deck, covered by a laminated wood pergola. This area of ​​the garden is designed to be used all year round, it houses a dining table which can accommodate up to 12 people if necessary and a small outdoor lounge. 

The gravel patio
An outdoor kitchen, a bar and a relaxation area are located under the old orange tree among bamboo, kentia palms and nandina plants. Banana trees and strelitzia contribute to create a tropical vibe, while the gravel flooring allows you to build a rustic but at the same time clean atmosphere. Furthermore, this solution will improve soil drainage, making the garden less humid and more eco-sustainable.

The playground
A third of the garden is transformed into a small football and basketball pitch for children, which can be transformed into an open-air cinema or dance floor for parties. Given the shade and stress from foot traffic, a natural lawn would not have worked, so we chose a high quality artificial lawn fixed directly onto the ground, to allow water to drain.

Mixing influences coming from different corners of the world is a typical trait of our work, as we have already talked about in the project of another Neapolitan garden. In this case the reference we took inspiration from are the courtyards of the casas particulares in Cuba. The result is a Mediterranean garden with a tropical touch, a cross between a Neapolitan courtyard and a Cuban patio.