I Cento Giardini di Mazara, Mazara del Vallo

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I Cento Giardini di Mazara

Walking from Via Salemi to Piazza della Repubblica in the first morning of our visit to Mazara we crossed through the old city. At first we were impressed by the beautiful mix of a European heritage city and a Mediterranean medina that the old city is, but as we walked deeper in it we were further surprised by the presence of domestic nature in various forms, either as groups of plants in pots and trees adjacent to houses, small gardens or wilderness that grows freely within abandoned yards or ruined buildings. We thought that these kinds of domestic nature; gardens of various sizes bounded by walls or wedged between houses and the street, could be a main identifying element of the city. Our thoughts were confirmed soon after that, when Lucia and Marco explained to us that Mazara indeed used to be a garden city. This impressed us even more because we could make the historical and cultural link with our occasion. Nicosia historically was also a garden city, in the same manner that a lot of other South European, Middle Eastern or African cities in the Mediterranean, used the garden as an important urban element.

Our contribution to the vision about Mazara is built around the garden as an important urban element: The gardens used to be an identifying element of the city, while it still forms the cultural identity of the city. The gardens have to be re-considered and further adapted to the contemporary urban reality of Mazara. The gardens can provide common activities that connect people from different cultures. Mazara can become again a ‘City of Gardens’ in the same manner that is a city of cultures.

The vision of the ‘Garden City’ can be possible by the use of a tool-box for the rehabilitation of existing gardens and a public programme, but also by appropriating and colonising empty sites and abandoned yards with the use of local nature. A website run by the municipality can work as and index with all available gardens to be claimed for use by the community. The development of various uses, events, festivals, and workshops can involve one or more gardens and create networks in the old city. The municipality can create a city guide based on the visit to the gardens and promote it as a guide to the city of Mazara. More specifically our design strategy consists of three chapters:

1. The ‘Garden Facades’

The main characteristic of the gardens is their relation with the urban space, which in many cases is defined by a façade, or a ‘garden façade’ as we called it. The re-design of facades can reconsider the boundaries of the gardens and establish various grades of accessibility: from secret gardens that are experienced through cracks on the walls, to public gardens that can work as meeting places.

2. The gardens as ‘Senses-Oriented Public Space’

We propose the use of vegetation as a design tool to create volume, voids, shadow, provide colour and qualities in urban space. We also propose the use of other elements that refere to the senses and that traditionally used in Mediterranean gardens, like cisterns, fountains, objects of reference, that also provide a tactile quality to the space.

3. The creation of ‘Garden Networks’

Finally we propose the use of gardens as a resource for activities for public use. The purpose is to provide spaces for public activities, like exhibitions, workshops, markets, community events that can favour coexistence and enhance the public presence in the city. A second purpose of the activities is also to connect gardens and create networks of gardens as well as corridors that connect the river with the part of the city east of the railway. As a result the users of the old city can experience it as a continuous garden full of possibilities and chances.