Despite the uncertainties related to recent events, the panorama of interventions in the real estate sector is showing in many cities a remarkable dynamism and inventiveness.
Project Name: Stone Fountain
Location: Milan, Italy
Year: 2020
Design: Carlo Ezechieli
Collaborator: Valerio Croci
Photos: ©Andrea Martiradonna, ©CE-A Studio
In Milan, in particular, the outcome of the competition for the recovery of the former Porta Romana railway yard – a major intervention that seems to give strength to the already important recovery operations, such as Fondazione Prada, NEXXT, Talent Garden and many others – opens up a further scenario of exceptional renewal. Precisely fitting in this context, the Stone Fountain is as a poetic solution for a sustainable drainage issue within typical Milanese courtyard recently reclaimed by a residential loft intervention.
Complying with the practical need of retaining stormwater on site, this stone fountain is conceived to reveal the presence of the vein of gravel – lying just underneath the site – brought to Milan 12’000 years ago by the melting glaciers, at the end of the last Ice Age.
Designed as a crossover between lotus gardens and Japanese rock gardens, the concave surface of each circular stone retains a tiny layer of rainwater, both showing the falling raindrops as well as reflecting light, as mirrors, when the rain stops.
