THE SIGNS OF WATER

Abstract

Signs of Water. A hidden waterscape in Palermo is recovered from the oblivion through a process consisting in a territorial analysis, a careful reading of ancient maps and historical archives, a deep design of new landscapes trancing the signs of the passage of water in a land where water has a permanent role along the centuries. A vast agricultural territory covers the Conca d'Oro valley, where lays the city of Palermo: rich in landscape, environmental and archaeological heritage, only some areas were subtracted from the intense construction and speculative activity that characterized the history of the city in the sixties and the seventies of the twentieth century. The main goal of this study is the recovery of the park and the enhancement of all the elements of interest and importance within it, today in a degraded condition. These include not only the historical artifacts but also the vegetation system and the remaining specimens of the nineteenth-century park of the former Orléans estate. The theme of water is the guiding thread of the project: water in its various forms pervades the territory. The water as the origin of the area in which the river Kemonia flowed, and the "water system" of Arabic derivation, with all the elements that compose it, are a design inspiration and the park is endowed with a water museum which tells its history and origin, forming a new attraction in the park but also in the University, in direct contact with it. Inside the park a strong landscape component is certainly the presence of all the artifacts that make the water system for the irrigation of the park of Orléans, all made following the principle of collection and storage of water , coming from the Arabic heritage. For all these characteristic elements, the restoration is planned, in particular of the larger tanks, the gebbie , which are suitable to become points of interest and attraction of the park through their commissioning, making all these places more usable, as some tanks are hidden for the lack of pedestrian connections suitable for their exploitation.