top of page
THE SQUARE PARK
Redesign the Energy Park in Rome for Parkour Practice
The mission was to design a park to practice the discipline of parkour. Inside the park there had to be a training area with specific tools and two pavilions for services. Parkour is a discipline born in metropolitan France at the end of the 80 whose aim is to overcome any type of obstacle in a path, looking from time to time to adapt your body to the environment; the real goal is therefore to get maximum knowledge of your body, know your limits and, through hard training (mental and physical), overcome them. The term “parkour” comes from the French parcour and literally means “path”. Its practitioners are called so traceurs (male) and traceuses (female).
Park Planning: My Portfolio
Our concept started to take shape from the moment we decided that the park needs to be well equipped and usable by the athletes but also pleasant for non-sporting visitors and citizens. A pleasant meeting point for athletes and aggregation place for children and adults. Starting from this basic concept we have tried to combine the needs given by the two different types of relevant users thus creating a pleasant and usable environment for everyone.The first inspiration for the project is the work of Sol Lewitt, American painter and sculptor of the second half of the ‘900. Starting from the study of the cube by Sol Lewitt, it was developed a system of elements to be included in the park in terms of obstacles; It has implemented a process of subtraction by removing the element layers to become the desired thickness. The design it is also played on the abduction of internal parts of the cube. The other elements that take the function of poles for balance are designed studying the edges of the cube as Sol Lewitt did, moving and subtracting any sharp edge in a three-dimensional study of the cube according to mathematical rules, creating some interesting long-limbed forms. The formal rigidity -together with the creativity in the combination of colours and pattern- inspired our work. To make the environment welcoming both for athletes and for the community we have imagined a macro-zoning that recalls the profiles and the plants of the urban environment. These macro-tiles when blend together are creating a labyrinthine surface of different materials: water, EPDM, grass and gravel. Approaching the minimalist Judd and Morris, Lewitt solutions presents a series of three-dimensional grid like abstract sculptures or cubic structures based on a strict logical system of conceptual steps in an attempt to exclude from the
Park Planning: My Portfolio
bottom of page