An intervention that, as early as 2011, has underscored the importance of adopting a new cultural approach to the project. We aim to create functional spaces of significant natural and environmental value that seamlessly interact with the plant’s technological buildings. We achieve this by applying innovative concepts in landscape protection and ecological mitigation, shaping a new, contemporary landscape.
Essential Elements
A complex of environmental and landscape mitigation measures in the context of the new natural gas compression and storage plant in Bordolano, in the province of Cremona. The surface area, of about 80,000 m², covers the entire area pertaining to the power station, located in an area characterised by a historical agricultural vocation and close to the river Oglio. As early as 2011, the themes exposed in the design anticipate many current issues and elements of reflection concerning the importance of ecosystem protection of the territory and landscape, affirming the fundamental role of architecture and landscape planning.
Goals
- To increase the natural levels of the area, characterised by various anthropic and artificial elements.
- Provide a system of tree and shrub plantings to reduce the impact and ecological fragmentation of the area.
- Attention to the development of functional and integrated proposals within three primary project levels:
- the gas storage plant
- the landscape design
- the synergic integration between the two levels.
The Territory
Geographical area of reference
- Hydrographic right of the Oglio River in the municipality of Bordolano (Province of Cremona)
- Surface area of 8 km², at 63 m a.s.l.
- It borders the municipalities of Casalbuttano, Castelvisconti, Corte de’ Cortesi con Cignone (Province of Cremona) and Quinzano d’Oglio (Province of Brescia).
The Bordolano Gas Storage Concession (approx. 63 km²), is located within the Cignone Gas Storage Concession (approx. 140 km²). (Image 0)
The concept of landscape and territory
The concept of landscape expressed here involves all the natural and human factors that contribute to defining and shaping places.
The territory is considered in a broad and innovative sense, as the result of heterogeneous combinations of: Natural resources and phenomena, Gradual processes of humanization, Multiple interrelations and stratifications.
The landscape is elevated to cultural heritage because, in its entirety, it seamlessly combines historical and monumental assets with natural ecosystems.
Cognitive elements of the territory
The integrated design approach requires a broad local knowledge framework about the environmental components stratified in different matrices: Vegetation system: ecosystems and vegetation Soil and subsoil Surface and underground water system Agricultural system, historical settlement system, road system: anthropogenic components, historical settlements-cultural heritage.
The changing landscape
The territory analysis reveals intense human impact, altering the natural vegetation. This has led to macroscopic consequences such as habitat loss and fragmentation of the remaining natural environments, increasingly distant and isolated. The landscape is heavily anthropized, often monotonous in its agricultural, urban, productive, and road components. Only the dense water network winding through the surrounding plains, sporadically interrupted by rows, breaks the orderly sequence of crops.
