An agri-cultural park in the heart of Palermo

The aim of the “Parco di Villa Tasca” project is to convey a message of growth of collective wellbeing, offering everyone the chance to find their own space outside the home, dedicating themselves to active voluntary work or activities organized within the park at a very low cost.

Peculiarity of the Park will be the edible Labyrinth, which will rise in an area of 5 thousand meters east of the historic avenue of palm trees of Villa Tasca. The first and only edible labyrinth in the world, it will host a vast collection of plants, all linked to food history, with particular attention to the ancient native Sicilian varieties that are disappearing. Once completed, the flowerbeds will form the imposing inscription “Save Diversity”, to remind us of the importance of biodiversity and push us to protect the precious agri-cultural heritage.

Strongly desired and conceived by Luisa Mainardi, designed, like the rest of the park, by our studio, is an inclusive project: visitors to the park will be able to actively contribute to its realization by laying one or more stones each, and then helping in the care, cultivation and dissemination of the plants that will be grown there. The seeds of the cultivated plants will be donated every year to those who want to cultivate them, thus actively contributing to preserve them from extinction.

The park will be managed using all the appropriate practices to minimize the environmental impact referring to modern principles of sustainability, circular economy. The park is built entirely at Km 0, recovering the 1200 residual plants of the nursery that stood in the area until the early 2000s. An ancient citrus grove, half a hectare made up of about 300 secular trees, has also been recovered.

In order to realize all the furniture, fences and buildings of the park, waste materials recovered inside Villa Tasca were used as a priority, with a view to reuse and minimizing the environmental impact.

Project

An agri-cultural park in the heart of Palermo: “Villa Tasca Park”

Landscape designer

Patrizia Pozzi

with Stefano dentice di Accadia, Sabina Chiodi, Valentina Cardani e Caterina Garampazzi

Location

Palermo

Year 

2019 in progress

Client 

Giuseppe Tasca and Luisa Mainardi

Area 

6 hectares

Photographer 

Helen Hecker
Stefano Dentice di Accadia