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Empathy Garden
Empathy Garden
Cernobbio, Italy
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Empathy Garden
Cernobbio, Italy
Firm
Type
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2014
SIZE
3000 sqft - 5000 sqft
BUDGET
$10K - 50K
The project Empathy Garden was born as an installation in the Central Pavilion of the Exhibition Centre of Villa Erba on the Lake of Como in occasion of Orticolario 2014—one of italy’s leading events on advanced gardening.
An Evolution of the project St Horto, Empathy Garden is a hybrid space: a meeting point, a stage for cultural events and promotions linked with the local territory, a place to promote a culture of sustainable urban farming and stimulate reflections on ecosystemic aspects and finally a creative space THAT communicates through interactive music and architecture. The key concept of the project is empathy, the ability to perceive the world outside ourselves, feeling part of it. We believe that only through the development of a strong empathic link with what surrounds us we can find ourselves in balance with nature.
What defines a city as a real environmentally sustainable place? This is the question that arises implicitly EG... Prior to the design standards, technologies and market trends we need to understand that the urban evolution towards a truly sustainable development goes through a new relationship with the environment. In this kind of theoretical framework, we propose Empathy Garden as a design solution: a garden as a moment of pause and creative expression that can create an atmosphere of renewal within the urban context.
In terms of design, the scheme of the installation has been structured on the extremely rational geometric pattern of the central pavilion. There are many aspects which have informed our approach: the monumental scale of the pavilion (about 1250 square meters with a diameter of 40 m and a height of over 9 m), the belt of asters and pergola with climbing roses in chestnut poles along the perimeter of the pavillon by Studio Rattiflora, the functional necessity of a space which could gather all the paths of the event and a real square as meeting place that could accommodate events, but at the same time the need to value the main function of garden, giving the opportunity to exhibit appropriately species and products of local farms.
The roar was thus chosen as base module, in that it offered a good coverage of the space whilst optimizing the number of components. The base modules are six, from 0.5 sqm to 3 sqm, formed by the combination of 4 different cuts which then compose the sides of the planters, 8 different nodes with as many optimized variations for the joining of the elements. The result is a total area of 300 square meters, consisting of 50 modules and 90 nodal elements.
The radial structure of the scheme, modified to respond to functional needs and budget, values the void as a fundamental quality: trying not to overfill the space, already rich and opulent, we tried to reach an equilibrium with the environment.
The result is a project composed of fragments that does not renounce to communicate a sense of unity in the points of highest density of the elements, revealing the regularity of the underlying geometric pattern...
Landscape architecture
The key element that has been taken into account at an early stage was the color and the effect the pavilion would have had within the complex. Another very important issue was the proportion and geometry of the modules and "sails", as distinctive elements of the installation.
In this respect the landscape architect has carefully studied the arrangement of the species according to the size of individual plants; priority was in fact that despite the density of fruits, flowers and foliage (there were over 800 plants of 20 different species) the structure of the design would remain visible, while the overall intent was to create scenes and target looks towards interesting details.
As for the choice of colors, the landscape architect was inspired by the perfect harmony that binds colors and music in synesthetic perception, even tones therefore as the melody had spread from the center of the garden to the surrounding space. At the center where the volume of the music is increased, the whites of ageratum, carnations and violets, then the yellow marigolds, peppers and chillies in new varieties and yellow violets to accompany our gaze to the tones of orange and red. Cyclamen, snapdragons, alkekengi, nasturtiums, tomatoes and more to the dark shades of blacks cabbages and asters. In a such a sensorial garden we could not have left out the aromatic species, as mint, oregano, myrtle, thyme and helichrysum matched with lippia citriodora have mixed their fragrances to deepen the experience of visitors to this Empathy Garden.
The space of Empathy Garden is a deep space, while you are dragged gently by colors, aromas and music, it becomes easier to remember that we are part of it.
Intimately linked to nature: Empathy as feeling within. In any kind belong waves that propagate from Empathy Garden, whether music or color, bring in some resonance within us, in our inner garden.
Music and Sound Design
In the Empathy Garden also music is also linked to the environment in a symbiotic relationship. A nucleus formed by different melodies, as many as the cardinal points (and wind directions), evolves according to what surrounds it. The rhythmic regularity and control of musical form have been structured in a way to have an effect of unpredictable harmony. The physical and human interaction generate the flow of sound; the role of the composer was to create boundaries within which this could turn chaos into music.
Through the use of the software MaxMSP a truly interactive musical instrument has been developed, capable of generating music which is always similar but never the same. Data from the weather station is converted into MIDI signals and sent to the computer. The latter uses the temperature to change the timbre of the sounds generated by moisture to handle the amount of reverb and direction of the wind to move between the 8 pre-existing melodies. The wind speed is instead associated to the speed of rotation of a "bingo-sequencer" which has 4 spheres within— the contact between the latter and the sides of the hexagonal surface corresponds to a virtual finger that presses on the button, as virtual, of a hypothetical piano.
To insert entropy within the system Markov chains have been used, with the final aim of developing an interactive, multi-levelled experience, capable of generating sounds through interaction with visitors (harps sound and motion tracking systems), with the environment and the plant physiology (through environmental sensors and measuring the electrical activity of the plants).
The goal was to create a stable body governed by mathematical and physical laws but do not renounce the unpredictability and the ability to change itself depending on the surroundings, in a sort of thermodynamic equilibrium. The result is a tribute to nature, perfect in its imperfection.
An Evolution of the project St Horto, Empathy Garden is a hybrid space: a meeting point, a stage for cultural events and promotions linked with the local territory, a place to promote a culture of sustainable urban farming and stimulate reflections on ecosystemic aspects and finally a creative space THAT communicates through interactive music and architecture. The key concept of the project is empathy, the ability to perceive the world outside ourselves, feeling part of it. We believe that only through the development of a strong empathic link with what surrounds us we can find ourselves in balance with nature.
What defines a city as a real environmentally sustainable place? This is the question that arises implicitly EG... Prior to the design standards, technologies and market trends we need to understand that the urban evolution towards a truly sustainable development goes through a new relationship with the environment. In this kind of theoretical framework, we propose Empathy Garden as a design solution: a garden as a moment of pause and creative expression that can create an atmosphere of renewal within the urban context.
In terms of design, the scheme of the installation has been structured on the extremely rational geometric pattern of the central pavilion. There are many aspects which have informed our approach: the monumental scale of the pavilion (about 1250 square meters with a diameter of 40 m and a height of over 9 m), the belt of asters and pergola with climbing roses in chestnut poles along the perimeter of the pavillon by Studio Rattiflora, the functional necessity of a space which could gather all the paths of the event and a real square as meeting place that could accommodate events, but at the same time the need to value the main function of garden, giving the opportunity to exhibit appropriately species and products of local farms.
The roar was thus chosen as base module, in that it offered a good coverage of the space whilst optimizing the number of components. The base modules are six, from 0.5 sqm to 3 sqm, formed by the combination of 4 different cuts which then compose the sides of the planters, 8 different nodes with as many optimized variations for the joining of the elements. The result is a total area of 300 square meters, consisting of 50 modules and 90 nodal elements.
The radial structure of the scheme, modified to respond to functional needs and budget, values the void as a fundamental quality: trying not to overfill the space, already rich and opulent, we tried to reach an equilibrium with the environment.
The result is a project composed of fragments that does not renounce to communicate a sense of unity in the points of highest density of the elements, revealing the regularity of the underlying geometric pattern...
Landscape architecture
The key element that has been taken into account at an early stage was the color and the effect the pavilion would have had within the complex. Another very important issue was the proportion and geometry of the modules and "sails", as distinctive elements of the installation.
In this respect the landscape architect has carefully studied the arrangement of the species according to the size of individual plants; priority was in fact that despite the density of fruits, flowers and foliage (there were over 800 plants of 20 different species) the structure of the design would remain visible, while the overall intent was to create scenes and target looks towards interesting details.
As for the choice of colors, the landscape architect was inspired by the perfect harmony that binds colors and music in synesthetic perception, even tones therefore as the melody had spread from the center of the garden to the surrounding space. At the center where the volume of the music is increased, the whites of ageratum, carnations and violets, then the yellow marigolds, peppers and chillies in new varieties and yellow violets to accompany our gaze to the tones of orange and red. Cyclamen, snapdragons, alkekengi, nasturtiums, tomatoes and more to the dark shades of blacks cabbages and asters. In a such a sensorial garden we could not have left out the aromatic species, as mint, oregano, myrtle, thyme and helichrysum matched with lippia citriodora have mixed their fragrances to deepen the experience of visitors to this Empathy Garden.
The space of Empathy Garden is a deep space, while you are dragged gently by colors, aromas and music, it becomes easier to remember that we are part of it.
Intimately linked to nature: Empathy as feeling within. In any kind belong waves that propagate from Empathy Garden, whether music or color, bring in some resonance within us, in our inner garden.
Music and Sound Design
In the Empathy Garden also music is also linked to the environment in a symbiotic relationship. A nucleus formed by different melodies, as many as the cardinal points (and wind directions), evolves according to what surrounds it. The rhythmic regularity and control of musical form have been structured in a way to have an effect of unpredictable harmony. The physical and human interaction generate the flow of sound; the role of the composer was to create boundaries within which this could turn chaos into music.
Through the use of the software MaxMSP a truly interactive musical instrument has been developed, capable of generating music which is always similar but never the same. Data from the weather station is converted into MIDI signals and sent to the computer. The latter uses the temperature to change the timbre of the sounds generated by moisture to handle the amount of reverb and direction of the wind to move between the 8 pre-existing melodies. The wind speed is instead associated to the speed of rotation of a "bingo-sequencer" which has 4 spheres within— the contact between the latter and the sides of the hexagonal surface corresponds to a virtual finger that presses on the button, as virtual, of a hypothetical piano.
To insert entropy within the system Markov chains have been used, with the final aim of developing an interactive, multi-levelled experience, capable of generating sounds through interaction with visitors (harps sound and motion tracking systems), with the environment and the plant physiology (through environmental sensors and measuring the electrical activity of the plants).
The goal was to create a stable body governed by mathematical and physical laws but do not renounce the unpredictability and the ability to change itself depending on the surroundings, in a sort of thermodynamic equilibrium. The result is a tribute to nature, perfect in its imperfection.
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