COMPETITION ENTRY
REUSE AND RESTORATION OF ANGELO MAI INSTITUTE’S GARDENS
ROME 2021

DESIGN TEAM:
2A+P/A (Gianfranco Bombaci, Matteo Costanzo)
Yellow Office (Francesca Benedetto)

The garden is reimagined in light of the memories and identities of its previous lives. Some of these are now preserved as archaeological remains embedded in the stratigraphy of the soil. But the garden has also been, at different times, a hortus and a locus amoenus. The project seeks to reveal these layered identities and allow them to coexist in the present through the design of diverse microclimatic conditions—generated by the presence of water, vegetation, shade, and the porosity of the paving surfaces. The main goal is to create an atmospheric and civic garden, where the intimate dimension of an immersive experience can merge with the collective dimension of sharing, attentiveness, and care—a garden capable of offering, at once, both a public and a domestic quality.