A historic landscape as contemporary infrastructure

The Park of the Reggia di Rivalta, inaugurated in June 2025, marks the transformation of a historic site into a new ecological and cultural infrastructure. The project emerges from a place rich in layers — where stories developed over time come back to life: from an 18th-century Este garden to productive farmland, from a residual space to a public park. The multiplicity of its diverse pasts unfolds in a park where eras that never coexisted resurface and now live side by side.

A perimeter boulevard, adjacent to the ancient boundary wall, defines the edge and connects some of the park’s main attractions: the central parterre, with its oval fountains and winter garden; the elm rotunda; the dancing lawn, a stage for ancient ceremonies or spontaneous new rituals; and the belvedere, offering a privileged viewpoint over the surrounding landscape. A system of diagonal paths makes the central part of the park accessible — a fragment of rural landscape where seasonal mowing, unexpected blooms, and unpredictable mixtures reveal a nature in constant transformation.

Five large pergolas emerge as visible landmarks, reachable across the vastness of the meadows. Restored historical elements — such as the basins, grottoes, and the belvedere — coexist with contemporary features, including crafted furnishings in terrazzo embedded with fragments of recycled glass that reflect the light. At night, a multitude of pinpoint lights ensures visibility along the boulevard and enhances the role of the pergolas as illuminated spaces, immersed in the chiaroscuro of the central lawn.

The park stands as a shared habitat between humans and animal species, and as a meeting point between past and future. It thus becomes a living platform — embracing the ever-changing and transitory nature of the landscape — providing new infrastructure for the local community and an attraction for national and international visitors.

More than a finished outcome, Parco Reggia di Rivalta is conceived as an open process: a landscape in which historical layers are not frozen but coexist, and where the project engages with the capacity to accommodate future transformations

Box 1 — Coexisting layers and palimpsest

Rather than reconstructing a lost image, the project activates continuity between past and present. The park is conceived as a palimpsest, where different historical layers coexist and overlap. Historical elements are not isolated but integrated into a system that allows for new readings and keeps them alive through contemporary use.

Box 2 — Use and appropriation

The project does not define rigid functions but leaves room for interpretation and flexible use. Spaces such as the central lawn, fountains and pergolas are designed to be experienced and reinterpreted over time through different practices, both formal and informal. Use thus becomes an integral part of the project, capable of activating and continuously redefining the meaning of spaces.

Box 3 — Ecologies in motion

The central park is conceived as a rural fragment, an open space where nature is allowed to evolve over time. Meadows, spontaneous species and seasonal dynamics create an environment in continuous transformation, capable of accommodating diverse ecologies. Not only a space for people, but a habitat for a plurality of species.

Data and Credits:
Size — 25 hectares
Hardscape — 5.33 hectares
Softscape — 17.21 hectares
Water surfaces — 0,18 hectares
Planted trees — Approx. 674 individuals
Schedule — Design: December 2018 – March 2021 — Construction: February 2022- June 2025 — Realisation: June 2025

Client — Municipality of Reggio Emilia
Project — Openfabric with Caarpa, F&M Ingegneria
Construction supervision — F&M Ingegneria, Giuseppe Baldi Studio, Openfabric
Constructor —Manelli Impresa S.p.A.
Construction management and Assistant DL —Giampaolo Lenarduzzi, Geom. Francesco Rangone (F&M Ingegneria)
Photography — Bruno Cattani, Tiwi, Diego Arbore, Jacopo Gennari Feslikenian, Giulia Ansaldi, Andrea Colzani.

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