Naturescape

The new skyscrapers of Milan's Porta Nuova Varesine area, and the occasion of the Milan International Furniture Fair, supply the setting for Urban Stories, a series of narratives suspended between design and architecture and recounted by three of the major players on the scene: Michele De Lucchi, Diego Grandi e Kengo Kuma.

Once again Kengo Kuma regales us with a striking installation which cleverly uses combinations of natural elements - stone, plants, water, bamboo, gravel - to create dreamlike images of a Japanese garden, inviting the visitor to experience the elegance, tranquility and wisdom of Zen simplicity evoked by the space. The mellow shapes of the stonework in Florentine Pietra Forte, finished with sandstone from leading quarry Il Casone, work together to outline and contain mirror-like pools of water.

The elements in stone, artfully modelled to follow and gently echo the planes conceived for NATURESCAPE by the Japanese maestro, interface with green surfaces which play host to an authentic forest of bamboo, a vertical woodland skillfully created by Frassinagodiciotto, who have taken care of all aspects of the project as well as its green elements, acting as project manager throughout, from conception to finishing touches. In this project Frassinagodiciotto has once again been able to show its dual vocation as design studio for landscape architecture and, simultaneously, specialists in gardening and exteriors, always working to strict criteria dictated by well-being, functionality and attention to detail.

Kengo Kuma says:
‘Water is a powerful sculptor. Stone is a patient material. Water can also transform the hardest materials into something soft and delicate but... it is stone which marks the path’.

Materials
Pavements: Pietra Serena Stone by Casone Group, gravel.
Glass: like water

Plants list
Bamboo

Frassinagodiciotto

Architects: Kengo Kuma and Associates, Frassinagodiciotto, Casone
Landscape Contractor: Frassinagodiciotto