A therapeutic garden to solicit the five senses. The project that won the 2018 edition of the creative contest of Myplant & Garden, dedicated to the designers of the greenery, will be realized in the month of October. The hanging garden is located inside a hospital that specializes in the treatment of childhood leukemia and will be a sort of open-air gym.
"The garden of sport therapy" was the title of the third edition of the creative contest of Myplant, organized in collaboration with Fondazione Minoprio. Winning a team of designers formed by Marinella Spagnoli with Mariasole Donata Betti, Mariangela Borrelli, Valentina Satti and L'Ortofruttifero by Sara Pacini.
The area covered by the competition, coordinated by the architect Umberto Andolfato (Aiapp Lombardia), is within the Maria Letizia Verga Center for the Study and Treatment of Childhood Leukemia, in Monza (MB), a center of medical excellence for the treatment of childhood leukemia. Among the spaces in the center, there is also a gym, used to contrast the debilitating effects of pharmacological treatment at the osteo-muscular level and to continue the path of physiological growth of young patients. This sport activity, the 'Sport Therapy project', has significant benefits also from a social, psychological and quality-of-life point of view. The advantages registered so far by this approach to treatment are very encouraging.
The aim of the competition was the expansion of the activities carried out in the gym, located at the top of the building, even in the outdoor spaces adjacent to the gym itself (about 500 square meters).
The winning project has proposed to create a therapeutic garden that solicits the 5 senses, taking up the cardinal principles of healing gardens, with the reinterpretation - even variable - of the spaces and the use of plants with a low maintenance impact.
Vertical and horizontal elements in composite wood characterize the part destined to a transformable gym. The parterre tracks open to the central area, also equipped with accessories for other types of physical-sporting activities.
One side of the terrace, which becomes an aerobic path, leads to the area next to the skylight, shaded and fragrant with aromatic, dedicated to exercises for fine motor skills. Any equipped tiles would allow the displacement of umbrellas (different for colors and sizes) and hooks for some elastic equipment in case of need. The equipment for the exercises, in addition to functionality, will also have a strong aesthetic and playful value, as well as some seats, also backlit, with animal shapes. In terms of lighting, there are LED-rabbit lamps and LED strips flush with the floor and lighting fixtures along the perimeter steel poles. The terrace will host both a winter vegetable garden and a summer vegetable garden, and includes the use of lawns, herbaceous (skylight area), flowers, grasses, shrubs and small trees (perimeter areas), anti-trauma carpet and synthetic grass depending on the functionality of the areas. The privacy of people will be guaranteed by the installation of colored metal pipes with irregular cross-section. The space was finally organized in such a way as to accommodate a large number of people during official events promoted by the structure.
The selections were taken care of by the evaluation commission of the competition, as follows: Umberto Andolfato (AIAPP Lombardia and Myplant & Garden), Angelo Dal Sasso and Emanuele Bortolotti (Master in Planning and Conservation of the Garden and Landscape - PoliMi and Fondazione Minoprio), Angela Mosciarelli (Order of PPC Architects of the Province of Milan), Leonardo Oprandi (AIAPP Lombardia), Francesca Lanfranconi and Laura Marchetto (Maria Letizia Verga Center), Manuela Strada and Virgilio Piatti (Fondazione Minoprio).
"The project will be implemented in October 2018 with the coordination of the winning design team - say the organizers -, the collaboration of the students of the Fondazione Minoprio and the supply of green and materials by Myplant & Garden. We are satisfied: we have received many applications, and the work of the jury has been very intense and productive. We will help the Foundation, we will help children in need and their families. The 'Sport Therapy' program works, and we are convinced that it will give better results ".