ARCHITETTURA E VEGETAZIONE URBANA. I progetti di Gianni Pirrone per il sistema Orto Botanico - Oreto a Palermo e per Gibellina Nuova

Following the historical tradition of the Garden Architecture, in the 1970s, 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 or area pertaining to buildings and neighborhoods. Pirrone consigns an imminent future - a time that escapes our today’s eyes - 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 provokes a current reflection; they are also an interesting starting hypothesis. The vegetation, the colors, 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 renaturalization of public spaces is combined with the exaltation of those being a common good that is to be inhabited and shared. From this point of view, the photography is the most suitable tool for depicting the Oreto river as a subtle, lively and brilliant trace, between the yellow tuff ridges and luxuriant vegetation; the valley and the crown of the hills characterize the urban landscape compressing and engulfing less skilled buildings. An extraordinary beauty that only only seems to be unknown, because - on the contrary - it belongs to everyday life, to what it is next, albeit little considered: a delicate beauty with concrete potential that is still largely ignored.