The Acqui Terme Park is located along the Bormida River just south of the city of Acqui Terme and west of a spa and small commercial area in the Piedmont region of Italy. Several objectives that informed this design were to develop access from the spa to the park, to incorporate the existing aqueduct remains that exist on the site into the design and to design a park that fit into Italy’s natural, cultural and historical context.
This design blends these elements, drawing on historical organization of space, a cursory knowledge of Italy’s cultural use of space and the naturalistic setting of the park. The most formal section of the park functions as a gathering place with an amphitheater and an axial array of promenades with a pool at the center. Drawing on the design of Piazza della Signoria in Florence, an “L” shaped space held together by a fountain of Zeus at its interior corner, this park’s irregular shape pivots around the aqueduct remains which can be seen from every point in the park. The array of paths around the fountain is pivotal to this design because it allows the park to turn a corner while maintaining it’s identity as a single space and provides a strong axial symmetry drawing the park together.
The grotto also draws on historical paradigms and acts as a formal connection between the spa and the park. From the spa, visitors travel north across the road and traverse the embankment on the north side of the parking lot by walking down a gently sloping arcaded bridge. This bridge passes over the man made water way that encompasses the island on which the grotto sits and winds down and around into the grotto. At the center sits a simple pool surrounded by gravel walks and four parterres. The grotto connects the western part of the park via a long alee which passes beneath the pedestrian bridge and through the arches of the existing bridge which crosses the Bormida River and then joins the array of paths at the fountain near the center of the park.
This design blends these elements, drawing on historical organization of space, a cursory knowledge of Italy’s cultural use of space and the naturalistic setting of the park. The most formal section of the park functions as a gathering place with an amphitheater and an axial array of promenades with a pool at the center. Drawing on the design of Piazza della Signoria in Florence, an “L” shaped space held together by a fountain of Zeus at its interior corner, this park’s irregular shape pivots around the aqueduct remains which can be seen from every point in the park. The array of paths around the fountain is pivotal to this design because it allows the park to turn a corner while maintaining it’s identity as a single space and provides a strong axial symmetry drawing the park together.
The grotto also draws on historical paradigms and acts as a formal connection between the spa and the park. From the spa, visitors travel north across the road and traverse the embankment on the north side of the parking lot by walking down a gently sloping arcaded bridge. This bridge passes over the man made water way that encompasses the island on which the grotto sits and winds down and around into the grotto. At the center sits a simple pool surrounded by gravel walks and four parterres. The grotto connects the western part of the park via a long alee which passes beneath the pedestrian bridge and through the arches of the existing bridge which crosses the Bormida River and then joins the array of paths at the fountain near the center of the park.
No comments:
Post a Comment