Another Border

The former artificial lake Vacaresti constitutes another nature at the scale of the city. The new landscape developed here contains a wide variety of plants and animals in a very particular context. Although an area of large potential, it is isolated and disconnected from its surroundings, forming a 2 km2 gap in the fabric of the city. The proposal deals with the boundary between city and the existing landscape. It is a park, a public space that follows the trace of the former lake’s earth dam while shaping itself according to punctual urban situations and the natural environment within. It creates a new artificial scenery, another border that contains and connects instead of dividing, that defines a background for the city and for the existent natural environment. This project was developed during the atelier with Junya Ishigami at the Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio.