A new green area in Viale Jenner
The area in front of the group’s headquarters was redeveloped by using plants, flowers and a fountain in partnership with Milan City Council.
A new lease of life for the traffic island adjacent to Mapei head office in Viale Jenner in Milan. Thanks to work carried out by the company, to a design by the landscape architect Franco Giorgetta, the initial stretch of Piazzale Maciachini has been transformed into a small green oasis (around 700 m2) with a lovely, gushing fountain.
After serving as a carpark and a location for service equipment for many years, the area has been redeveloped by the landscaping company Peverelli and is now home to an assortment of plants suited to the areas under the shade of the sycamore trees, such as long-stalked and leafy grasses (Pennisetum alopecuroides and Miscanthus sinensis) or a row of blue Fescue. A series of triangular and trapezoidal figures in a variety of colours, made from patches of grass in different contrasting colours, form a geometric pattern to give it all an even more pleasant look. A fountain with a vertical jet of water sitting on a triangular platform, and magnolias with flowers in striking colours, complete the overall picture which, to quote Franco Giorgetta, “Draws people’s attention for a moment and puts a smile on the faces of passers-by”.
The project is part of an initiative promoted by Milan City Council called “Adopt and take care of our Public Green Areas”, a joint-collaboration between public bodies and private citizens to make Milan more beautiful and green.
“We are grateful to the Squinzi family for proposing this project for the regeneration of a stretch of Viale Jenner that numerous Milan residents have to cross every day”, declared Pierfrancesco Maran, Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning, Green Areas and Agriculture of the City of Milan during the opening ceremony on the 10th of June. ”By eliminating the aqueduct, our aim was to restore aesthetic and environmental qualities to the parterre and the project we are inaugurating today answers those needs to the full, and demonstrates once again how synergy between public and private is fundamental in taking care of the city”.
And for Mapei, too, which has such a strong bond with Milan, the city where the mother company was founded and grew, this is an important example of participating and sharing: “We are really proud to have carried out this regeneration project and we wish to dedicate it to our dear Giorgio and Adriana Squinzi, who desired it so much”, commented Veronica Squinzi, Mapei’s CEO. “We learned from them that business must play an active role in the life of the community”.
DECORATIVE CONCRETE PLATFORMS
To make the triangular platforms decorating the area, products from the Mapei Color Paving® system were chosen: the concrete was made from a special mix of natural coloured (white, yellow, green) aggregates blended with COLOR PAVING ADMIX ready-mixed multi-purpose powdered admixture in the Natural and Yellow shades, along with MAPECOLOR PIGMENT, powdered colorants made from synthetic metal oxides that give the cementitious matrix a more homogeneous and stable colour (the Green shade in this case). The surface was treated with the surface-set retardant MAPEWASH PO2 Blue, which provides good protection from atmospheric agents. A coat of water and oil-repellent MAPECRETE FAST PROTECTION was then applied to ensure good protection with a consolidating effect, while the hydrophobising protection of the fountain was ensured with the application of PLANISEAL WR 100.
Products from the Mapei Color Paving® system were used to create the decorative concrete platforms. PLANISEAL WR 100 ensured hydrophobising protection for the fountain.
THE DESIGN BY FRANCO GIORGETTA: GARDENS GET THEIR OWN BACK
Replacing roads and cars with trees and flowers is a wonderful idea which, launched by the Milan City Council for the central traffic island in Viale Jenner, we – or rather Mapei – immediately wanted to take part in. Well, Deputy Mayor, you have been pushing a lot in this direction, and there have been other occasions to join you and try out this type of conversion, to have gardens instead of cars. In this case, with financial backing and technical support from Mapei, gardens have managed to get their own back. Not that it was without problems. We found all kinds of things in the ground, but with our support, and the high quality work by the landscaping company Peverelli, we managed to make the carpark blossom. For now the magnolias have gone through their period of full bloom, but the flowering grasses are starting to bring their tones to the island’s patchwork of colour, with the long blades of the grass plants around the borders that sway in the wind, or with every passing car or bus.
We also included a fountain in the project, that presence of water that once characterised Milan, whereas today fountains, a glory of every hamlet or city, are all too scarce. We hope that these jets of water, forever in motion, the colours of the flowers and the gentle swaying of the long blades of grass, can draw people’s attention and put a smile on the faces of passers-by.
