Garden built for the Radicepura Festival
Date: April 2025
Role: On-site assistance during construction

LEARNING FROM THE SOIL

The first garden I helped to build was also my first construction site. The designer, Nicolas, was present throughout all the stages, and our task was to faithfully translate his vision. There wasn’t much room for creative freedom, but that’s exactly what allowed me to focus deeply on the technical and executive aspects: observing, learning, coordinating.

The first challenge was adapting the rectangular design to the circular area framed by rosemary shrubs. After internal discussion, we decided to reverse the original layout, positioning the chestnut wood gazebo in the area furthest from the main entrance to enhance both its visibility and elevation.

Work began by marking the layout on the ground and creating the foundations: a lean concrete base beneath a dry-stacked tuff wall, held in place by wooden boards precisely aligned using a level, string line, and rebar. While the concrete was setting, we prepared the gazebo footings — using tubs filled with cement where we inserted the already measured and cut chestnut posts. To mark the exact point where each post should emerge from the ground, we drove in a nail at the future soil level — a small detail, but incredibly helpful once the area was backfilled.

In the following days, we shaped the terrain to recreate a gentle slope — using a mini-excavator and compacting the soil by hand. Then came the assembly of the pergola, with posts and beams fixed with nails and wire: a simple yet effective system designed to last the two years of the installation.

We also created the bed for the dry stream running through the garden, laying stones recovered from the nursery and washing them by hand to highlight their natural color. Around that, the trees began to arrive: the first was a young Platanus orientalis, planted without a stake and standing firm in the wind, just as we had hoped. Then came a Prunus dulcis, carefully moved using ropes and a mini-excavator, followed by Vitis vinifera, Cedrus deodara, Punica granatum, Chrysojasminum humile, and other shrubs that shaped the landscape imagined by the designer.

This first experience taught me the importance of operational sequencing, construction precision, and attention to detail. But most of all, it showed me how every gesture on site is already part of a landscape in the making.