Progetti per paesaggi prossimi

This paper deals with exploration in landscape architecture, through the investigation of proximity as a key concept to set working methods and to define processes of inventive analysis and projects, in order to redesign places and open space frameworks. Reflecting on proximity in landscape projects brings up the idea of nearness in physical and spatial terms and that of sentiments and relationships between people, and between people and places. Reading proximity in terms of time, means being concerned with mutations that are ongoing and those still to come, anticipated in project actions and upkeep practices. A major field for human and social relationships, cultural exchanges and potential mediation and conflict, proximity is also a critical space for meeting and clashing with others. So proximity always has an innately dual role which stimulates the designer to use flexible and adaptive working tools. Here, the report of two applied research experiences presents two possible interpretations of proximity. The first refers to a municipal landscape plan and project that proposes a working method to orient territorial transformations, passing through different spatial scales and gradients of proximity. The second is a proposal to reinvent the role of a historic garden in Florence, seen as a proximity space in the system of urban public places.