Architect, anti-star, one of the main representatives of postmodernism, university professor, scholar, historian, researcher, theorist of the curved line, passionate about Borromini,
author of the Great Roman Mosque and the Renaissance Quarter. Not everyone knows that Paolo Portoghesi (who died last May) was also a landscape architect. His legacy actually includes a garden. Beautiful – or rather “awesome” – close Calcata, a small village overlooking the Treja valley, in the province of Viterbo. First place in the Most Beautiful Parks of Italy competition, «for the modeling of space according to the new alliance between man and nature», from which unpredictable harmonies were born.
Who knows if Portoghesi sensed it in 1990, when he and his wife, Giovanna Massobrio, started buying the small plots used as a vegetable garden that spread around the house. Who can argue. In a video on YouTube, when he accompanies a group of visitors, he talks about it ironically: «The idea comes from the fact that architects are sick of planning. They want to change the world. I preferred to design the garden. And because it was created at different times, it could only be a story: composed of memories, journeys, experiences near and far.”
Many chapters, all different, scanned by a hundred lecterns, placed here and there, with the texts of poets and writers, reminiscent of what one encounters when walking. AND Doric templefor example, supported by ten pillars of Lebanese cedar, a “water area”, an arabesque-style fountain, two heads of monsters inspired by the ogre of Bomarzo, here in a smiling version, a large lawn surrounded by centuries-old olive trees similar to sculptures, renamed after the names of famous artists: Bernini, Borromini, Brancusi, Michelangelo, Moore and Rodin. «They were not here, they were transported, but these trees are suitable for transplanting because they have a superficial root system, 30-40 cm. The farmers say that the roots of the olive trees want to hear the sound of the bells.”
However, another olive tree, an old patriarch who arrived after an adventurous journey accompanied by a team of bikers (his name is Ulysses, not by chance), was placed at the entrance to the Italian garden. The traditional layout – inspired by Villa Gamberaia in Florence – has a star design and sharp angles that create a clear contrast with the softness of the vegetation. The vegetation, which is incredibly lush here, maintains a close connection with the territory of the Trejo Valley and Upper Lazio.
“There is a precise desire for continuity and attention not to create new signs. The garden cannot be seen anywhere but from the plane and only interprets what exists.” The heroes are mainly oaks, hollies and cypresses. However, if on the one hand nature is free to grow as it pleases, on the other hand it lends itself to the architectural play of Portoghesi , who leaves his “hand” everywhere, including staircases, piazzas, loggias, colorful aediculi, even the library circular, which is a sequence of rooms, each with its own autonomy. “The task of the architect is to imagine the future”. He interpreted it with optimism and also with a certain systemic approach that ensured that the sum of the many elements created something more than the individual parts.The chorus is better than the soloist.
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