In the heart of the Florence-Prato-Pistoia Plain, the BELVEDERE project explores the places and production processes of this Tuscan pastoral idyll.

Composed of ornamental plants and building elements in a strictly codified style, this typical landscape is self-replicating, becoming a model that can be exported worldwide. The project interprets this nursery-producing region as an exceptional "back room" that, in addition to providing the aesthetic for a vast urbanized area, becomes a laboratory in which to observe and reflect on the relationship between nature and technology. At the Centro Pecci, the project takes the form of a digital belvedere: a metal structure with seats and monitors where a video mapping of the surrounding region can be enjoyed - with a focus on the technical, logistical, and technological dimensions of the Prato landscape. 

Finally, inside the Italian Pavilion, the project is presented via a formal assemblage of all the specific elements that make the technical reproducibility of the region possible. Plant pots, irrigation systems, and pallets of serial architectural elements made of polystyrene offer a formal syn- thesis of the techno-aesthetic style of the Florence-Prato-Pistoia Plain. These elements, extrapolated from their context of origin, become the corner- stone of an articulated and layered work in which the original idea and the constructed one - just as in the Tuscan landscape - continuously meld into one another.

(ab)Normal e Captcha Architecture

(ab)Normal is a design studio and creative agency that explores areas such as design, architecture, set design and art digital.
Captcha Architecture is a research-based architecture studio that investigates the contemporary condition through the relationship between architecture, politics, technology and ecology.

Emilio Vavarella

Emilio Vavarella is an artist working at the intersection of interdisciplinary art practice and theoretical research.

Practices

(ab)Normal (Marcello Carpino, Mattia Inselvini, Davide Masserini, Luigi Savio)
Captcha Architecture (Margherita Marri, Jacopo Rosa)

Advisor

Emilio Vavarella

Incubator

Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci 

Location

Piana Firenze-Prato-Pistoia, Toscana

Technical Sponsors

Municipality of Prato

Supporters

Nuova CMS

Vannucci Piante

Acknowledgements

Valerio Barberis, Assessorato all’Urbanistica di Prato, Urban Center Prato, Vannucci Piante (Andrea Massaini, Fiorello Gori, Enzo Gramigni), Poliart, Nuova CMS