Arredo Urbano
The floral park “Mátria Parque de Flores” is located near the city of São Francisco de Paula, in the Serra Gaùcha region in southern Brazil. The park is the realization of a dream of a couple of cycling and motorhome travel enthusiasts, Osmar and Fátima Piazza, who, inspired by the splendid gardens seen during their travels, decided to create a floral park by allocating 25 million of Reals to the project (€ 4.75 million).
The park covers an area of 50 hectares and is surrounded by about 25 hectares of Atlantic Forest which is cared for by the park staff through the Meliponas breeding, i.e., stingless bees responsible for 90% of the forest’s pollination. In addition, recycling techniques and mineral and organic fertilizers are used, so that everything is as natural and authentic as possible.
The botanical collection of the park counts more than 9 million plants divided into 300 different species. There are also 12,000 trees, a garden made up of 22,000 roses and a wisteria tunnel, one of the longest in the world, measuring 102 meters. The park is divided into 30 gardens interconnected by an 8-kilometer path that also passes through the adjacent forest.
One of the main themes of the Mátria Parque is the passage of time and the succession of its natural cycles. The managers carefully chose the varieties of plants that would allow to see flowers in all the different seasons of the year, selecting and mixing complementary species for the flowering periods.
The choice of keeping the flowers that have withered and fallen or letting the leaves fall and decompose on the ground is in line with the desire to show one of the fundamental aspects of life, impermanence. The flowers and leaves that end their life cycle become the nourishment for the next generation.
The real protagonist in this park is the interaction between man and nature. Mátria Parque invites its visitors to appreciate the ever-changing work of art that is nature itself and to take a break from everyday life. A new form of entertainment within an equipped green area.
Credits: JA8 Architecture and Landscape, Alencar Arquitetura
photo: Jô Moreira – Marcelo Messias
matriaparque.com.br
