Lake Maggiore, Switzerland

 This Private Garden of a villa is situated high above the Lake Maggiore in the Swiss Canton Ticino. The terrain here is cliffy, irregular, with sudden offsets in height. It is difficult to project in this zone, difficult to force a wearisome adapted vegetation to grow on the rocky ground.
Despite the challenging geography in this project, we wanted to create a pathway enabling to circle the villa, also to make accessible the upper part of the Garden with is natural stone wall: the rocks were freed fro the all covering vegetation giving space at some spots to new Mediterranean plants, that know how to survive under these conditions needing only low-maintenance.

The prelude of the path that crosses the rocks is given by a light stairway, resting only at its two ends. The regular and subtle design avoids any mimesis in this context, contrasts the rough-textured environment. The precise shape against the rocky background emerges a dialectic confrontation that emphasizes the natural textures also due to the used material and color.
Climbing these stairs can be the beginning of the circle trail passing various areas in this Garden such as the lane, the olive trees, the pathway along the forest, several recreational spots adjoining the villa. From here the view opens onto an unequalled panorama of the Lake Maggiore, thus inviting to experience another new and unexpected dimension of this Garden.