Urban garden
Matera, Italy
2009
international competition
The competition called for the design of a major underground terminal covered by a botanical garden inspired by a specifically environmental and landscape approach. The construction of the underground facility implied a significant saving of surface that could be repurposed as a garden and additionally provide an updated version of the tradition of underground housing typical of Matera.
The design aims at creating a special site where underground spaces, light, water and vegetation come together in an organic unity.
The volume of the car and bus station follows the slope of the natural ground above, repurposed as a botanical garden. The parking levels, layered in diminishing order, look out onto a unified space. Natural light filters down to ensure the visibility of the underground circulation.
Light and vegetation penetrate the underground space through cuts and excavations in the ground.
From a terrace at the top of the botanical garden a path unfolds in a concentric route along the different crops down to the large round excavation that, like the mouth of a funnel, penetrates in the ground through a sequence of terraced ledges. From here a coiled pedestrian ramp brings vegetation, light, air and water down into the terminal's different levels. The natural elements penetrate the car and bus station like a vital sap that nurtures life in the underground parking facility for 30 buses and 150 cars on two levels.
client: Matera Municipality
architectural design: Quattroassociati
with: CetP