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Feel UpTown, green UpTown!

admin — Thu, 27 Nov 2025 12:01:56 +0000

Feel Uptown – draining paving

Feel UpTown’s landscape design creates a vibrant, light-filled sanctuary in the heart of the R6 residential complex. Reinterpreting classic Milanese courtyard traditions, this green space opens up to and interacts seamlessly with Cascina Merlata Park.

Designed for Everyday Life

The elegant, minimalist layout serves a dual purpose: a functional space for daily living and a stunning visual garden when viewed from the upper floors. Flowerbeds are shaped into gentle hills. This design technique multiplies green perspectives and provides the necessary soil depth for thriving root systems. Walkways are crafted using carefully contrasted materials to deliver a rich, sensory experience underfoot. The organic forms designed by landscape architect Valerio Cozzi provide a soft counterpoint to the sharp geometries of Studio Labics’ buildings. The result is a welcoming, human-scale environment.

Feel UpTown trees

Feel UpTown trees are nearly fifty: flowering cherry trees (Prunus serrulata ‘Accolade’), magnolias (Magnolia liliflora ‘Susan’, M. soulangeana, M. tripetala), katsura trees (Cercidiphyllum japonicum) and Chionanthus retusus. The planting layout takes into account the size at maturity of each species, to let crowns grow free following their natural shape.

chionanthus-retusus

20+ green islands

Shrubs and evergreen herbaceous plants are establishing on the more than twenty green hills of the plaza which is a private space open to the public. The use of ground cover perennials instead of lawns is intended to protect the soil from wheather erosion and solar radiation. They will also create a favorable micro-climate that will reduce watering requirements. The arrangement of green islands is designed to maximize freedom of movement in the area and privacy for residents on the ground floor.

Anemones and ferns have taken their place in the cooler flower beds. The concept of the Feel UpTown green courtyard is inspired to the often overlooked importance of private courtyards for the city of Milan. Set apart from the city buzz, they are quiet and cool islands inhabited by evergreen foliage or unassuming blooms, such as aspidistra and bergenia.

2,000 sqm green roof

Feel UpTown green heart is a 2,000 sqm intensive green roof located above a level reserved to residents. The isles are obtained layering lightweight soil, water storage and drainage technical materials to root systems and structural needs. The courtyard is accessible from via Pier Paolo Pasolini and from Parco Cascina Merlata through wide staircases and ramps accompanied by trees.

Feel UpTown and SuDS

The entire Feel UpTown green courtyard project has been designed to support sustainable urban drainage systems (SuDS) in Milan. Not a single raindrop is lost or causes the underground civil systems to overload. Both the green area, which covers approximately 1,000 square metres, and the paving allow rainwater to infiltrate the underlying layers and reach the storage tanks, from which the irrigation system draws water.

The concrete slabs that make up the paths are grouted with aggregates bound by permeable bio-resins.

FEEL UPTOWN

Where: Milan, Cascina Merlata
Landscaped area: 1,925 sqm
Year: 2019-2020 (project), 2024-2025 (construction)
Real estate developer: EuroMilano
Architectural project: Labics
Structural and MEP project: SIO Engineering
Irrigation project: Paolo Pessina, agronomist
Landscape project: Valerio Cozzi architetto landscape designer
Landscape services: Concept, Preliminary Design, Detailed Design, Construction Assistance on landscape-related topics

The construction works of the green court

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At the end of 2025, vegetation conquered the islands that are the hallmark of the new R6 residential complex in the booming Cascina Merlata neighborhood.

Read the review of the project here

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Feel UpTown, Milan

admin — Wed, 13 Apr 2022 14:54:06 +0000

Landscape design of the residential complex Feel UpTown translates the agricultural past of Cascina Merlata into a contemporary park. The project cuts down water consumption and maintenance needs, contributes to urban drainage and promotes botanical synergies to support biodiversity.

The green heart of Feel Uptown is a two thousand square meter roof garden. It rewrites the rules of the typical Milan court, because it is both a courtyard and an open space. Feel Uptown Garden is located at the core of R6, the residential complex designed by Labics for Euromilano real estate, in the context of the urban redevelopment of Cascina Merlata.

Overlooking the city and the Cascina Merlata Park through slits and wide stairways, Feel Uptown Garden consists of green isles arranged in a studied way to multiply the perspectives and to allow full freedom of movement.

Gentle ground movements encourage the spread of root systems, therefore reducing water consumption. Wide seats sheltered by trees invite to take a break outdoors.

Feel Uptown Garden lyes on top of the underground level dedicated to the residents of the new complex, borrowing techniques already applied with success in similar prestigious contexts in Milan and Como. Integrating architectural and vegetation through technical green solutions allows to improve the quality of life in the city and to reduce land consumption.

Permeable pavement works together with green areas to infiltrate and reuse rainwater thanks to proper collection cisterns. Ophiopogon japonicus will blur, over time, the limit between slabs and vegetation.

Feel UpTown Garden is also a view garden. The layout of plants is designed bearing in mind also the apartments overlooking the courtyard from above. Spring blooms of magnolias (Magnolia x soulangeana, Magnolia liliiflora ‘Susan’, Magnolia tripetala) are followed by bright green foliage, that together with Cercidiphyllum japonicum and Chionanthus retusus screen the summer heat and invite to enjoy the place. During winter months, naked trees let the underlying vegetation come on stage: pittosporum (Pittosporum tobira ‘Nanum’), ferns (Dryopteris erythrosora), cast-iron-plant (Aspidistra elatior), heartleaf bergenia (Bergenia cordifolia), Carex spp. and Mexican feather grass (Stipa tenuifolia).

Private gardens of the residences take part to the composition. Tall hedges protecting privacy, in fact, also work as a green backdrop that improves the feeling of being surrounded by nature.

FEEL UPTOWN

Where: Milano, Cascina Merlata
Area: 1925 m2
Year: 2019-2020 (project), building in progress
Real estate company: EuroMilano
Landscape project: Valerio Cozzi architect landscape designer
Architectural project: Labics
Plant and structural project: SIO Engineering

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the egg garden

admin — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 17:33:06 +0000

Giardino all’improvviso con scultura EGG (26)

The EGG garden is a glimpse of a primaeval world, guarded in a prestigious building in Como. A tiny garden designed to offer a scenographic setting to the offices at the ground floor. And, at the same time, an inspiring green environment to the upper floors. The dimmed light of the north-facing atrium suggested the idea of evoking a leap in time with landscape design. As in a virgin forest, ferns fill the inner ellipse of brown metal. In the outer one, quartzite chips evoke the sparkle of the water. Hydrangeas climb a diamond-shaped treillage while acanthus and periwinkle colonize the custom-made planters. The dark green foliage visually improves the depth of the scene. The very protagonist of the EGG garden is the cor-ten® steel sculpture, designed to evoke the mystery of the origins of life on Earth. The colour palette, set to natural hues, aims to improve the well-being of the working place. The design exploits the dynamic curves of the ellipses to obtain a lively composition. The vegetation favours species with dense foliage and exotic shapes to convey the image of an uncontaminated place.

The EGG sculpture construction and installation process, and the planting gallery:

Giardino all’improvviso con scultura EGG (3)

Location: Como, Italy
Site area: 36 sqm
Partners: Fusaro Mario Srl (Egg sculpture), Società Agricola Panda Srl (vegetation) Barducco carpenteria metallica (metal cladding, planters and treillage)
Year: 2012 (design), 2013 (construction)
Services: Concept, executive and construction design, EGG sculpture design, works supervision

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Squared garden in Milan Porta Volta

admin — Thu, 15 Oct 2020 17:06:50 +0000

giardino-pensile-milano-valerio-cozzi (3)

3,600 sqm of lawns and outdoor areas in Milan Porta Volta, at the core of the building complex designed by the architect Gaetano Lisciandra. The project adds an embracing outdoor space for the residents without sacrificing the comfort of having a parking garage in the city centre. Technical solutions borrowed from green roofs and permeable paving solutions create a fluid environment, in which the functional and natural elements interact. Landscape design is inspired by the homework pages: the square flooring elements connect each building to the green areas in a neat yet unpredictable way. Isles of lawn, patches of shrubs and trees chase each other respecting the orthogonal rule but skipping lazy symmetries. Large WPC platforms invite you to enjoy the sunshine – sometimes hiding a technical element. Everything is ordered like in an exercise book: even ventilation grids, drains and gutters join the composition with the help of ballast filling. A garden where imagination can play with the zigzag outline of the flower beds, like at schooltime.

Client: Nexity Immobiliare, Studio Iorio srl
Location: Milan, Porta Volta, Italy
Site area: 3,600 sqm
Year: 2016 (design), 2018 (construction)
Partners: architects Gaetano Lisciandra, Giovanni Barni, Umberto Beneventano
Services: Preliminary design, executive design

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La Forgiatura, Milan

admin — Sun, 30 Aug 2020 15:57:55 +0000

La Forgiatura Milano – corten planters with lawn

Industrial SITE reDEVELOPMENT: a new match between people and space through LANDSCAPE design.

Hardscape and softscape design build a bridge between past and present times. Today, La Forgiatura is a multifunctional area in the north-west area of Milan. It hosts fashion brands, ICT and pioneering medical companies. Today’s extraordinary complex rises from a former industrial site area, hence the name of the place, meaning ‘forge’. In the nineteenth century La Forgiatura produced special steel components, exporting them all over the world. The regeneration of the area, that took place at the turn of the first decade of 2000, has been attracting new investors and is still on the move.

I joined the design team as landscape designer since the very beginning

Since then, I have been connecting and upgrading La Forgiatura buildings with outdoor and indoor green solutions. During the years, I have been developing and tuning landscape in accord with evolving functions, tenants and key figures. I also had the chance to design tailored wayfinding to welcome and address people and traffic.
Landscape project features sharp designed hills, 1 to 8 m high, that generate a dynamic relationship with buildings. Neat lawn surfaces mirror and multiply glass facades. At each change of the season, the widespread vegetation recalls the sense of renovation that turned the old factory sheds into energy-efficient buildings and spaces to share.

LaForgiaturaMilano-reclaimedconcretetoperformasretainingwalls

The area offers plenty of green shades

Outside, vegetation may flow smoothly besides the concrete paths, or create a green band over property limits. The advent of new companies creates new planting isles defining new ways to enjoy the location. At La Forgiatura, plants are not scared by heights: they grow on the Astronave terrace, scramble over steep hills, climb or trail down from the structure. Indoor green welcomes workers and guests at the Hall Raimondi, or creates peaceful isles where to enjoy a break or a chat.

what’s next?

La Forgiatura is an inspirational and exciting place where to work as landscape designer, because it’s a place that attracts enterprising people and where things move fast. It’a also a regeneration landmark in Milan with well-established vegetation that has good stories to tell anytime you come by. What’s next? I look forward to discovering it.

Location: Milan, Italy
Site area: 24.000 sqm (common and green areas: 8.000 sqm)
Year: 2007-2009; 2018; 2019 (design, different lots); 2011, 2012; 2019 (construction, different lots)
Partners: AG&P, arch. Giuseppe Tortato, Milano Layout Srl
Services: Concept design, Preliminary design, Detailed design, Construction design, Bill of Quantities, Works supervision, Control of the execution of works

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