Green Kilometer Public Park by GHISELLINI ARCHITETTI

The Green Kilometer Public Park in Mulazzano represents a forward-thinking approach to urban design, transforming a conventional green area into a dynamic and inclusive public space. Conceived by GHISELLINI ARCHITETTI, the project seeks to establish a protected yet permeable environment where the local community can gather, engage, and cultivate a range of collective activities. The design emphasizes both social inclusivity and environmental integration, creating a park that functions as an extension of the city while offering a distinct realm of leisure, activity, and human connection.

A Network of Pedestrian Paths

Central to the park’s design is a rich network of pedestrian paths, which functions as a circulatory system threading through the landscape. These paths are not merely functional routes; they constitute a dynamic spatial fabric, constantly reshaping the visitor’s experience at every step. Each approach to the park is penetrated by these walkways, ensuring that movement is multidirectional and flexible, allowing people to access the park from any entrance while experiencing varied sequences of spatial encounters.

The paths are deliberately curvilinear, winding in loops and rings that create a series of specialized circular surfaces across the park. These surfaces become defined areas for distinct activities, ranging from outdoor play and physical exercise to quiet contemplation and social interaction. This design strategy encourages movement that is exploratory rather than linear, fostering spontaneity and engagement with the landscape.

Multifunctional Outdoor Spaces

Within these circular surfaces, the park offers a rich variety of functions and amenities that cater to the diverse needs of the local community. Spaces are allocated for recreational activities, fitness, relaxation, and general well-being, forming an ecosystem of uses that responds to both active and passive modes of engagement. Each functional area is carefully integrated into the surrounding greenery, ensuring that the natural environment remains a continuous backdrop while simultaneously supporting a wide range of human activities.

The dimensional depth of the park spaces enhances the visitor experience by providing layered environments where scale, enclosure, and openness are thoughtfully balanced. Equipment and landscape interventions are strategically placed to ensure that both physical and social interactions are promoted without disrupting the overall harmony of the park. In this way, the design emphasizes quality over quantity, ensuring that each feature contributes meaningfully to the holistic experience of the park.

Integration of Historical Elements

A defining characteristic of the Green Kilometer Public Park is its relationship with historical structures. A historic wall within the site is retained as a symbolic and ordering presence, shaping the park’s spatial narrative and regulating circulation patterns. The wall delineates the margins of the park while maintaining visual continuity across the landscape, bridging historical identity with contemporary design. This intervention ensures that the park respects its cultural context while offering a refreshed interpretation of public urban space.

An Open and Transparent Public Realm

The park’s landscape design reinterprets the traditional concept of a public park. Rather than a closed, time-bound, or overly curated space, Green Kilometer embodies openness, transparency, and inclusivity. It is conceived as a shared territory, where the community can engage in everyday life, encounter new social interactions, and experience well-being in a fluid, unrestricted setting.

The innovative layout combines formal and informal elements, blending sculptural landforms, plantings, and activity zones to create a park that is simultaneously visually stimulating and functionally diverse. Every element is calibrated to encourage movement, play, and relaxation, ensuring that the park is accessible and inviting to all age groups and user types. This holistic approach redefines the contemporary public park as a place of exchange, encounter, and community-building, rather than a mere recreational facility.

Landscape and Environmental Experience

The environmental strategy of the park emphasizes sustainability and harmony with nature. By integrating native vegetation and maintaining ecological continuity, the design fosters a sense of place and identity that resonates with the local context. The undulating paths, green surfaces, and carefully considered plantings not only provide aesthetic pleasure but also create microclimates, shade, and shelter, enhancing comfort and encouraging prolonged use.

Visitors moving through the park experience varied spatial sequences, from intimate corners for quiet reflection to expansive open areas suitable for social gatherings and community events. The combination of innovative landscape interventions, functional programmatic zones, and historical preservation establishes a park that is simultaneously engaging, adaptive, and resilient, meeting both present and future needs.

A Vision for Community Well-Being

Green Kilometer Public Park is more than a recreational site; it is a catalyst for social cohesion and collective well-being. Through its thoughtful design, the park encourages people to connect with nature, culture, and one another, offering a platform for physical activity, creative expression, and informal social interaction. It stands as an exemplary model of contemporary public space design, where inclusivity, flexibility, and landscape quality converge to create a meaningful urban experience.

In essence, the Green Kilometer Public Park transforms Mulazzano’s urban landscape into a living, breathing public realm, balancing the preservation of historical elements with the integration of innovative landscape and architectural interventions. It is a space where community life, environmental sensitivity, and contemporary design intersect, establishing a benchmark for future public parks in urban contexts.

Photography: Marcello Mariana