Piazza Europa – Catania (CT)

The occasion of the construction of an underground work, a parking lot, presented the opportunity to create an unprecedented public place in the heart of the city: a garden-square.

The project – architectural and landscape – highlighted a new way of experiencing the open space by distributing functions and meeting spaces on 3 staggered levels sloping down to the coast where the architectural element is integrated with hanging plant spaces creating a system of places that are open to different uses and needs.

The green roof system was created with an extensive composite Mediterranean shrub system that, while contributing to environmental mitigation and compensation, enhances the landscape.

In fact, it is a low-weight, low-cost and very low-maintenance system that accommodates a plant variety related to the specificity of places, specifically to the tradition of Catania gardens. Sixty C4 plant species specific to an extremely competitive Mediterranean climate -with average summer temperatures exceeding 24°C, summer drought, nutrient-poor soils, and high light levels – compose a highly resilient green infrastructure that helps mitigate urban heat buildup, provides a perceptual and aesthetic benefit, helps preserve biodiversity and, therefore, generates significant social and environmental value in addition to ensuring the agronomic conditions necessary for the proper development of vegetation over time.