design competition

Since 2016, Myplant & Garden and the Fondazione Minoprio ITS Academy have been collaborating on the “I Giardini di Myplant” (The Gardens of Myplant) competition to create green spaces for people in need. This initiative is made possible through the event’s direct contributions, as well as the passion, generosity, and commitment freely offered by designers, exhibitors, and volunteers.
The creative competition is aimed at professionals specializing in the design, creation, and maintenance of gardens and landscapes. Originally launched as a theoretical contest titled “The Patio Garden” during the 2016 edition of Myplant & Garden, the project quickly evolved its vision: moving from ephemeral installations to the creation of concrete, lasting interventions with significant social utility.

The subject of the creative competition is the design of the external areas of the Spazio Vita Center, adjacent to the Spinal Unit at Niguarda Hospital in Milan. To redevelop the intervention area of approximately 400 square meters, the aim was to imagine a welcoming and functional environment, with expanded accessible spaces for users, patients, and staff of the Center and the Spinal Unit. The external area will be used as a rest, pause, and relaxation zone, as well as a meeting place for patients and their families, and as a venue for group activities. The call included the provision of removable seating and tables, the creation of shaded areas, the maintenance of beds for horticultural therapy, the embellishment of a perimeter wall, and the redevelopment of the greenery.

The object of the competition is the design of a vegetable garden (SKY FARM) on a portion of the roof of the newly designed destination center Caselle Open Mall (COM) located in Caselle Torinese (TO) near the international airport of Turin, Sandro Pertini.

The aim of the contest was the design of a large green area (project area size: 3,900 square meters) equipped with educational, multisensory, rehabilitative, and convivial paths, which contemplated the presence of traditional and automated ground gardens-gardens and transparent structures for hydroponic, aeroponic and aquaponic crops.

The first prize winner was the landscape architect Elena Varini, assisted by the landscape architect Enrico Turini, the landscape agronomist Giuseppe Baldi and Planet idea srl.

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Protagonist of the competition is the outdoor area of CasArchè (North-West of the city of Milan), the new sustainable organisation dedicated to mothers and children with social distress, owned by Fondazione Archè Onlus.
The outdoor area will be a green path branched into ‘rooms’, and it will become a didactic playground for its guests.
The winning project was “Le stanze Verdi di CasArchè – Luogo di incontro, gioco e socializzazione” (Green rooms at CasArchè – Meeting place, playground and social hub) curated by Virna Mastrangelo and Jessica Pettinari. Works will start in October 2019 under the coordination of the designer, the cooperation of the students of Fondazione Minoprio and the supply of plants and materials by Myplant & Garden.

The area that involved the design competition was located within the Centro Maria Letizia Verga per lo Studio e la Cura della Leucemia del Bambino (Maria Letizia Verga Centre for the Study and Cure of childhood leukaemia) in Monza.
The hospital hosts areas for research, cure and the assistance of children and their families. There is also a gym, used to contrast on an osteo-muscular level the debilitating effects of the medications needed to cure the disease. This sport activity, called ‘progetto Sport Therapy’ (Sport Therapy project) presents significant benefits on a social, psychological and quality-of-life level.
The aim of the competition was to broaden the activities of the gym, situated on the uppermost floor of the hospital building, also in its outdoor spaces close to the gym itself, for a total outdoor surface of approx. 500 sqm.
The winner of the competition was the team composed of Marinella Spagnoli, Mariasole Donata Betti, Mariangela Borrelli, Valentina Satti and Sara Pacini who have designed a therapy garden that stimulates all the senses.

The realisation of the project was sponsored by Myplant & Garden with the contribution of the charity Associazione Onlus Il Giardino di Luca e Viola and of: Criplax, Dakot, Ecoplus, Euro3plast, Fertil, Consorzio Myplant & Garden, Kostplant, L’Ortofruttifero, Parcoplant, Rasconi, Vivai Meani.

The protagonist of the competition was an area of around 5,000 sqm within Dynamo Camp, the association near Pistoia that offers Recreational Therapy programs to children 6-17 years old who are affected by serious or chronic pathologies and are following a therapy or find themselves in the post-hospitalisation period.
The competition was won by arch. Luigi Serio – PRR architetti and it concerned the redevelopment of an area of approx. 5,000 sqm, with a particular care to themes such as fences for farm animals, a vegetable garden, a snack/leisure/relax area and access to the swimming pool. The area had to be designed so as to be accessible also to those with motor difficulties.
Myplant & Garden has been able to give life to this project also thanks to the cooperation of companies and organisations that have believed in the project: Consorzio Myplant & Garden, Bonfante, Cariboni Group, Criplax, Impresa Edile Cav. Ciatti Remo, Modularte, Tutor International.