LAND’s Portello Park is ready to be completed

Started more than 20 years ago engaged by Ennio Brion, unique promoter of architecture and design quality, and together with two masterminds, Gino Valle (1923-2003) and Charles Jencks (1939-2019): finally we will complete this special masterpiece of landmark in memory of the former Alfa Romeo factory.

The beautiful Alfa Romeo Industry Park at Portello was built in lots starting in 2009-10 on the area abandoned in the 1980s. The first part opened to citizens in 2011; a second opened in 2015 and then in 2017. Andreas Kipar and Charles Jencks with LAND S.r.l., designed a park with a particular shape. It is structured starting from a series of circular spatial lines which constitute the construction lines for the three “green sculptures”: Mound1, Mound2, and Mound3, together with the small garden called Time Garden, represent different scans of time – Prehistory, History, the Present and individual time. From a morphological point of view, the park develops at different heights recovered through a system of paths called “Time Walk”. From a broader perspective of the relationship with the city, Portello Park is also part of a green system of pedestrian and bicycle paths: the so-called “Green Rays” that, passing beyond the ring roads, connect the centre of Milan to the hinterland.

After years of waiting, something seems to be moving for this last strip of parkland. The report on the executive project for Lot 4 of the Portello Park has been submitted; IPER MONTEBELLO S.p.a. appointed LAND to draw up the final design of the green areas to redevelop and hand over to the citizens the heavily abandoned lot between Viale Serra to the south-east, Viale De Gasperi to the south-west and the park to the north. The design of the last lot was in collaboration with the landscape architect Charles Jencks, who was responsible for the principles that guided the modelling of the park and the entire redevelopment process. The project area is currently unused and has a size of 9777 m2. In coordination with the local administration, research was also carried out to find the most suitable position for a possible future kiosk in the area. In any case, the volume of the kiosk would not interfere with the centrality required by the furniture elements placed on the parapet of the retaining wall.

“Landscape and gardens always bear the imprint of time on their surfaces, in their growth and decay. For Portello Park in Milan, the basic concept is represented by “The Rhythm of Time”; the various rhythms that pulsate on Earth and in the universe form the basis of music. Therefore, here, the three large hills represent the three eras of time and culture in Milan – prehistory, history and the present, and the small garden illustrates the Rhythms, from the heartbeat to the Four Seasons and the most important events in the universe. The rhythms of growth and walking are in close syncopation.” – Charles Jencks, 2009

From a methodological point of view, the project started from the desire to create a strong continuity with the already realised part of the park, both from a landscape and perceptive point of view and from a conceptual point of view. The choice of materials and plant essences followed those previously undertaken, just as the paths and the network of public spaces were conceived as an extension of the existing ones. In addition, a new guiding principle was proposed by Charles Jencks to which the design form could be linked, which takes its cue from speculations on time and the rhythms of the Earth and the universe to focus on the influences the latter generates on human life and nature. The themes of interest, therefore, focused on the astral bodies of the sun and moon and the interactions that these two elements have with each other and with the Earth: the name chosen for the new part of the park is “Moon Garden”.

We are looking forward to seeing the last chapter of this great story being completed!