An Oasis of Irregular Fields
Discovering Lugano's Maglio Area
With Veronica Marzorati and Domenico Tirrito on a visit to the construction site of the Parco dello Sport Al Maglio (Lugano).
It’s early morning when we arrive at Canobbio’s Maglio area. The sun’s coming up over the construction site, where a degraded area will be improved and transformed into about 100,000 m2 of green lung – an oasis of nature and biodiversity right next to the dense urban fabric along the banks of the “green ray” Cassarate river (Lugano) flowing through the city.
“The opportunity to create a wellness destination for all citizens was based on need,” explain Veronica and Domenico of LAND, who are handling the project commissioned by the city of Lugano, as we get ready for our walk. The project arose from the need to create a new sports center for Lugano to replace an obsolete structure, and from growth in the sports sector in which Lugano excels. A single site needed to be found that could accommodate most of the activities of about fifty sports teams, to guarantee a sufficient number of available fields so that work on the new stadium in Cornaredo would not negatively impact sports activities.
The Maglio area currently has a football pitch, a gym and a bocce club. New sports structures will be created in the near future: three additional football pitches and a multifunctional building, all on an expansive natural field; a public park that anyone can use and enjoy.
“We combined the desire to revitalize a degraded area with the need to create sports infrastructure,” explains Domenico as we walk. “In this project, the natural and landscape components are harmoniously associated with the built components, creating a single large recreational and sports center that we’ve called the Parco dello Sport.” The sports structures, which are rather rigid and codified in terms of dimensions and volume, are balanced with natural elements of landscape design.
The opportunity to create a wellness destination for all citizens was based on need to create a new sports center for Lugano.
The setting is a challenge. The area in question had been used as a landfill and was covered with invasive plants and weeds. The land had to be cleaned up before it could be shaped.
Another significant problem regards water management. The impact of increasingly heavy and frequent rainfall requires a water discharge strategy, which could avoid serious problems and slowdowns in construction work.
“Design and construction are two different things,” says Domenico. “We architects are too accustomed to design. Nature is dynamic, there’s no fixed scheme, things change and have to be managed as they emerge. And that’s the challenge of this project, in addition to the scale and time frame.” The first step should be completed in the spring of 2023, while the official opening of the Centro Sportivo al Maglio will be in 2024, according to the mayor of Lugano Michele Foletti at the ground-breaking ceremony in April 2022. “Now we’re focusing on the internal part of the area. But then the park will be connected to the outside, linked to existing paths, for example the path that runs to Canobbio, to the river walk that leads to the Stampa and connects with the Canobbio-Tesserete and Lugano-Sonvico bike paths,” explains Domenico. “In developing the project, we paid special attention to guaranteeing access to the river bank, integrating this work on improving the river bank within the larger context of light mobility, both pedestrian and bicycle traffic.”
While walking along the edge of the construction area, we meet a man with his dog. “Even now a lot of people come here to walk their dogs, hike, or spend time in nature, even though the area wasn’t designed for this. Now we have the chance to improve it and give it back to the people,” says Veronica.
There will be new walking paths, connections to the bike path network, benches, picnic areas, water supply points, fitness areas, and a biotope to encourage biodiversity. A true green oasis.
Improved in the true sense of the word. There will be new walking paths, connections to the bike path network, benches, picnic areas, water supply points, fitness areas, and a biotope to encourage biodiversity. A true green oasis.
Domenico stops and pulls out the project plan to show us the work throughout the area. It’s natural to ask how LAND won the project with Orsi & Associati and the Studio Ingegneria Lepori engineering office. “One of the reasons was that the fields weren’t straight,” says Domenico with a smile. “Crooked, irregular fields that looked like they were adapting to the park. The park will thus become a link to the various elements.”
We come to the Collina, the Parco dello Sport’s panoramic point. The first flowers are already blooming around us. “The plantings will be gorgeous,” says Veronica. “Everything was planned from a new post-pandemic standpoint, where health, sports, reconnecting with Nature, and sustainability are in the forefront – in line with the United Nations’ Agenda 2030.”
In the distance, we see a strange-looking machine – a siever. It’s working the soil that was removed in order to reuse it. “The Parco del Maglio offers a new interpretation of the landscape – as a living and productive organism,” concludes Domenico, proudly watching, with respect for the upcoming challenges and future work, and imagining how it will be one day when football teams will be playing and young people, children with their parents, dogs and their owners, senior citizens, cyclists, and nature lovers will joyfully reconnect with the natural world.
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