Toponym
| Interventions

A large pond is built in a old loading area of an abandoned gravel pit: it is the ancient landscape that was born again after many years of damage of the territory.  

Cases of rehabilitation of the ancient name (‘toponym’) of a site are known, even though not frequent, after many years it fell into disuse. In this particular case the quality and the beauty of the native landscape are given back to a site that still keeps its old name. 

 

This work, among many others, is only the last modification made by men in the area but it is also the only one that bridges over the history because it gives again a meaning to the local toponym ‘stagno’ (in Italian = ‘large pond’).

 

From an aesthetic point of view, the artwork became a new and important point of reference for the entire periurban park in whom it was built. The placid and, at the same time, the pleasant appearance of this new natural site contrasts strongly with the boring and banal geometry of this green space, so similar to many other ones in the suburbs around the world.

 

Category

Work-Site

 

Area

Stagno, Lastra a Signa (Florence)

 

Ante operam state

Loading area of abandoned gravel pit. 

 

Type of intervention

Construnction of a seasonal wetland inside a periurban green space.

 

State of work progress

Completed (2005)

 

Main authorities/agencies involved

- Comitato per le Oasi WWF dell'Area Fiorentina

- Municipality of Lastra a Signa

- Publiacqua S.p.A.

 

Main bio-indicators (species or ‘groups’ of species) utilized to monitor the ecological functionality of the work-site:

- Amphibians: refuge and breeding

- Waders: stopover during migration.

- Rails: stopover during migration, nesting.