Focusing on the future of public space, and centering their approach on wellbeing and sport as drivers of sustainability, economic and social development, the Lugano Municipal Council in Switzerland has given the go-ahead for the planning of the new Pole of Sports and Events (PSE). Designed by LAND, the project dictates the direction for public spaces in the post-pandemic era.
Planned on the basis of renewed awareness, with Health, Sport, and Sustainability at the forefront, in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the PSE project is important for both the FC Lugano football club, and all the city’s companies and young people involved in sport. Imagined by LAND Suisse, the Swiss branch of the international landscape architecture studio LAND – Landscape Architecture Nature Development, the Parco dello Sport Al Maglio is an innovative project of sustainability and urban regeneration, presented in collaboration with Orsi & Associati and the Studio Ingegneria Lepori.
The desire to restore to health and revitalize a run-down area, together with the need to build the sports infrastructures, has prompted our group to develop the concept of an integrated sports park […] In this project the naturalistic and landscape components are associated harmoniously with the built components, giving rise to a single large sport and recreational area that we have called the Parco dello Sport. -- Federico Scopinich, Director of LAND Suisse.
Replacing a structure that was obsolete and inadequate, the Parco dello Sport was conceived with “the aim of enhancing the entire Maglio urban area and bringing an abandoned peripheral ward back to life, turning it into a destination of wellbeing for all citizens in a renewed context of the urban landscape”. Putting in place a multi-purpose Palazzetto dello Sport, the project introduces a new reading of the landscape as a living and productive organism. Moreover, sports rigid structures contrast with the natural elements of the landscape, and slow mobility is introduced to the river bank.
Part of the Raggio Verde del Cassarate, the major urban regeneration plan that develops the territorial connection and the reactivation of the environmental, landscape and social connections along the entire length of the territory traversed by the River Cassarate, the 100,000 m2 project joins together characterizing elements of the territory, like the water stream and the nearby village.
The Al Maglio project offers an original interpretation of the landscape and a unique opportunity to speed up progress towards the global objectives of sustainability, to rethink the development model of our society based on new paradigms. Reappropriating the space for wellbeing and physical activity should be on the agenda of all the municipal authorities in the post-pandemic era. The Parco dello Sport, together with the Cassarate River Park, are key pieces in the concept of ‘Integral Ecology’ expressed in Pope Francis’ encyclical. We must grasp every opportunity to regain the landscape and reconnect with Nature. -- Andreas Kipar, architect, co-founder and CEO of LAND.
- Architects: LAND Suisse, Orsi & Associati, Studio Ingegneria Lepori
- Client: Municipal Authority of Lugano
- Location: Lugano
- Year: 2019-2020
- Team: Andreas Kipar, Federico Scopinich, Martina Conti
