La città e gli alberi. Progetti di Gianni Pirrone per Palermo e Gibellina Nuova

Abstract

In the wake of the historical tradition of landscape architecture, the architect Gianni Pirrone (Palermo, 1924-2004) understood the need to look at urban greenery as a figure and not as a background, or frame of buildings and neighbourhoods. Pirrone consigns to an imminent future - a time that escapes our eyes today - the need for a new relationship between ecological reserves, gardens, residual areas and the city. The projects for the Botanical Garden and the Oreto Valley in Palermo and for the civic center of Gibellina Nuova solicit for a current reflection, making an interesting starting hypothesis. The vegetation, the colours, the water, the silence can take over and extend into an unprecedented pedestrian continuity capable of helping to create a valid alternative to the frequent fragmentation of the contemporary city. An artificial naturalisation of the public spaces is combined with the exaltation of their being a common good to be inhabited and shared. From this point of view, the photography is the most suitable tool in order to recognise the Oreto river as a subtle, lively and brilliant trace, between the yellow tuff ridges and the luxuriant vegetation; despite everything (pollution, waste, etc.)... The valley and the Hills of Palermo characterise the urban landscape, compressing less qualified buildings. Thus a beauty only apparently unknown appears; it is extraordinary, because - on the contrary - it belongs to everyday life, to what is close, albeit little considered: a delicate beauty with concrete potential.