“Meravigliati!” An ephemeral garden to (Re)Discover the Plant Landscape by Stradivarie Architetti Associati
Italy / Built in 2023 /
www.stradivarie.it
The project “Meravigliati! (be amazed)” was conceived as part of the cultural event Biotopia, promoted by the Regional Directorate of Museums of Piedmont and various local stakeholders, with the aim of enhancing new ways of connecting with nature, landscape, and the human dimension. Within this framework, an initiative was launched for the creation of six temporary gardens, designed by selected landscape architects to interpret the theme of biodiversity through landscape design.
The ephemeral garden created by Stradivarie Architetti Associati fits into this context as an experiential landscape installation, offering a reflection on the theme “biodiversity (not only) in the garden”. The project is located within the evocative grounds of the Castle Park of Agliè, in the province of Turin (Piedmont, Italy), occupying an area of approximately 36 sqm as part of a broader exhibition system.
Conceived as a small immersive installation, the garden challenges the idea of biodiversity as a mere botanical inventory, instead opening up to a relational perspective: one that explores the connections between human and non-human beings, between gaze and object, between distance and proximity. The goal is to generate a sensorial experience that stimulates observation, wonder, and—through them—a new form of empathy towards the plant world.
The layout is articulated through five vegetative islands hosting tree, shrub, herbaceous, and grass species, selected for their variety in texture, scent, form, and color. The composition avoids rigid spatial hierarchies, encouraging open-ended exploration and active engagement from visitors. Each plant is chosen not for its rarity, but for its ability to reveal an everyday beauty that often goes unnoticed.
To enhance the visitor’s engagement, a simple cardboard viewer was designed: a basic yet poetic tool, almost reminiscent of childhood, that invites one to focus on a single detail at a time. This small device becomes a key component of the design concept, amplifying the sensory depth of the experience and restoring the act of seeing as a form of connection.
A short text welcomes visitors to the garden and sets the tone for their encounter:
“You are not entering a special place, a wild garden, or a forest. You are entering a place that only you can make special! […] Meravigliati! is not a project, it’s an exercise. What we ask of you is a small ‘training’ […] Look at the flower, touch the stem and the leaf. Try to make friendship with the plants: you might discover details you had never noticed. […] If you look at them with empathy, you might satisfy your need for beauty, disorientation, and poetry.”
Meravigliati! does not offer a garden to be simply visited, but rather an experience to be activated. It is an invitation to slow down, to retrain the gaze, and to rediscover the quiet yet essential presence of plants. In a time when nature is often limited to backdrop or decoration, the project seeks to bring attention back to the invisible, the minimal, the fragile aspects because true biodiversity—the one that truly concerns us—cannot be measured only in species, but in care.
