This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)

Colonnetti Park, between via Vigliani and via Artom in Turin, was built in the 1970s. The chosen area had become a working-class district after the Second World War, which had eventually grown too quickly on the abandoned agricultural countryside.

A typical urban garden project was thus developed, focusing mostly on innovation: rather than a traditional green space like many others in Turin, Colonnetti Park was designed as a place to enjoy while taking a leisure stroll, rather than an art installation to be merely passively admired.
The actual project started from the very preservation of the pre-existing arboreal heritage and its further integration with trees, shrubs and ground covering species chosen according to a most unique creative style which would make the new park a consistent work of living art.

Walking along a zigzagging path which runs perpendicularly across the garden, visitors can enjoy a rich, informal and low-maintenance hedge made of ornamental shrubs with painstakingly proportioned flowers (Forsythia intermedia, Callicarpa bodinieri, Hibiscus syriacus, Weigela florida, Philadelphus coronarius); they were placed there to mesmerize with their wondrous summer colours and fragrances.
On via Vigliani – shortly before the abovementioned hedge, there are evoking and eye-catching flowerbed of grass (Pennisetum alopecuroides, Miscanthus zebrinus, Cortaderia selloana and Festuca glauca) resting against a background featuring a long lavender hedge arranged at the apex of a curved hill and leading to the war memorial in the garden.

Further down the path, visitors will come across a series of hillocks of different heights planted with shrubs and ground covering species of flowers and foliage with different colours. The central point of the garden is where the children’s area dedicated to the old airport, shaded by two flowering East Asian cherry trees (Prunus serrulata “Kanzan”) and a metal arch covered with star jasmine (Rhyncospermum Jasminoides).

“Casa del Parco”, concealed under a strip of lawn and a green hill, is the very beating heart of the Park: it’s a structure used for a wide range of events, courses, concerts and interactive workshops for the neighbourhood.

Park designers: architect Alessandra Aires and agronomist Guido Giorza.

This post is also available in: Italiano (Italian)