Greenside Offices, San Donato

The ' The Wilderness Wood ' park is within the former Eni office complex in San Donato Milanese. This settlement is characterised by a large central courtyard, crossed by all users to access their offices and small side courtyards. The surrounding naturalistic context, enriched by the presence of mature and diverse trees in the courtyards, inspired the site's transformation into portions of woodland. The new layout defines paths and relaxation areas within the indistinct edge of the pioneer vegetation, suggesting a natural and regenerating experience for users in the vicinity of the working environment.

Within a redeveloped office setting, where there was once a car park with a few trees planted according to the taste of the time, there is now a park that has transformed temporal stratifications and apparent randomness into its strong point. As in a forest, the trees grow spontaneously, varying in size and distance: those closest to them form a group that soars towards the light, while those further away expand, taking the space they need to grow and spread out. The vegetation's variety of forms reflects nature's infinite possibilities. A dense, 'wild' forest rises between the buildings, incorporating the pre-existing trees. Paths, respectful of the imprint of the vegetation already present, are traced here and there, where stones of lost steps are the only elements that signal man's presence without prevailing over the spectacle of light and shadow orchestrated by nature through the foliage.

This project responds to the growing need for urban nature and represents a landscape approach that always confronts the pre-existing, refusing to draw on a blank sheet of paper. Tall, dark cedars, young light poplars from the Lombardy countryside and swaying birches from northern Europe are integrated into the design to tell a revisited story, blending them into a meaningful landscape while accommodating the changes in context that have occurred over time.