What is a garden? Dialogue between architecture and nature at the Giardino di Pojega

What is a garden? What purpose does it serve? Why visit one? These are the questions that opened the meeting with the architects at the Giardino di Pojega, a unique setting chosen to reflect on the interplay between architecture and nature, the evolution of the landscape, and the deep relationship that people establish with it.

These questions found some of the answers in the work of the first Italian landscape architect of the 20th century, the main character of the book "Maria Teresa Parpagliolo Shephard. Designing According to Nature", the result of the work of Lucia Krasovec Lucas, architect, researcher, and President of IN/Arch Triveneto.

In the book published by Aracne in 2023, Krasovec Lucas tells the life and work of a pioneer in landscape design, with an approach that combined the tradition of historic Italian gardens with the innovation of English gardening, revolutionizing the concept of the garden itself, transforming it from a mere decorative space to a place of reflection and well-being.

Parpagliolo Shephard would undoubtedly have loved Luigi Trezza's vision, who conceived Giardino di Pojega in 1783 as a masterpiece that combines the formal rigor of the Italian garden with the romantic influences of the English garden. "I have studied Parpagliolo Shephard for so long that I can say I know her intimately," the author shared in her dialogue with architect Daniela Cavallo. "I am sure she would have greatly appreciated the visionary work that Trezza created in the Garden of Villa Rizzardi."

This event, sponsored by the Municipality of Negrar di Valpolicella, is part of a partnership project between the “Order of Architects, Planners, and Landscape Architects of the Province of Verona” and the Giardino di Pojega, made possible by the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR). This initiative reflects the centuries-old interest of the Rizzardi family in architecture and the beauty of the landscape. This legacy has been carried on by Agostino Rizzardi, the current descendant of the family, who has launched, with the support of the PNRR, a restoration plan to return the Giardino di Pojega to its former glory, continuing the long tradition of care and enhancement of the landscape that has always characterized the family.

The architects that took part at the meeting were able to reflect on these themes while sipping a glass of Pojega Valpolicella Ripasso Classico Superiore DOC, produced in the vineyards of the Rizzardi family's winery that embrace the garden of the same name. A dialogue enriched not only by the theoretical concepts related to the landscape but also by the sensory experience that unified beauty and wine culture.

In this way, Giardino di Pojega continues to be not only a place of extraordinary beauty but also a space for dialogue and inspiration, where history, culture, and innovation meet to offer new perspectives on our relationship with nature.