The Art of Enjoying Nature

December 23, 2020

The Art of Enjoying Nature

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ISPACE is a project in Switzerland to create spaces that will help revive our belonging to the natural world while it becomes a destination for work and life, as well as for tourism.

The project consists of the construction of 10 timber architectures/sculptures in the local woods of Rossa, in the Calanca Valley, Switzerland. The installation of the first work was completed in October 2020.ISPACE is a project born out of an idea combining art and architecture in the creation of environments that stimulate people to perceive the influence of space on their moods. It is a re-evaluation of the territory, allowing us to rediscover our bond with nature. It is an invitation to discover the paths through the valleys, the richness of biodiversity, and the magic hidden corners of the forest.

The project, undertaken by Davide Macullo Architects with the support of the RossArte Foundation, the municipality of Rossa and the Swiss National Park Val Calanca has involved the inhabitants of the valley, visitors and institutions in working towards a common goal and contributes to the debate on the enhancement of rural areas. These architectural sculptures form part of the wider work of the foundation, giving Rossa and Val Calanca an identity as a destination for work and life, as well as for tourism.Human beings have the extraordinary ability to “feel” space through their senses with their eyes closed. The perception of space through the senses is central to the work of the studio.

Ispace; a title that combines Italian and English to emphasise the universal message of the project; it is pace. space,and rhythm.

“Here in Rossa Ispace takes on new meanings as it is rooted in the territory that hosts it and combines the reading of ecology (in its broadest sense) with human ecology, in practical terms through the physicality of installations,” says Davide Macullo.

The work of Davide Macullo’s studio is centered on the awareness that architecture is the link between the DNA of a place and its future.

“The series of drawings ‘man seeking space’ imagines man’s constant search to find the ideal space and scale at which to feel at ease and it is this idea that informs the architecture that has been translated into Ispace,” he says, “Human beings have the extraordinary ability to “feel” space through their senses with their eyes closed. The perception of space through the senses is central to the work of the studio, which began in the 1980s during my studies under professor Luis Flotron in Lugano, who made the perception of space his main focus during a lifetime of research.”

The intervention in the woods acts to counterbalance the current trend of the exponential development of technologies that will alter the way humans build their habitat. The selection of native material; larch trees cut on-site to deforest the areas on the slopes of the valley involved in the archaeological restoration of the ancient terraces, is the first sign of sensitivity to the environment and uses the material to the best of its evocative power. The purity of design thinking and the almost absence of particular construction techniques remind us of a work that does not need to declare a temporal condition to emphasise the centrality of the relationship between man and nature.