Vol. 22 No. 2 (2024): On diversity and differences
Complessità. Riconoscere e favorire le diversità / Complexity. Acknowledging and promoting the diversity

Increasing biological and spatial diversity. Dialectics of design and scientific experimentation

Chiara Geroldi
Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy; NBFC, National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy
Bio
Thomas Cabai
Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy; NBFC, National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy
Bio

Published 2025-07-02

Keywords

  • Diversity,
  • biodiversity,
  • landscape architecture,
  • context,
  • afforestation

How to Cite

Geroldi, C., & Cabai, T. (2025). Increasing biological and spatial diversity. Dialectics of design and scientific experimentation. Ri-Vista. Research for Landscape Architecture, 22(2), 62–75. https://doi.org/10.36253/rv-16122

Abstract

This contribution addresses an experimental scientific project aimed at increasing biodiversity through a!orestation, developed by a multidisciplinary group in various parts of Italy within the National Biodiversity Future Centre, Spoke 5 Urban Biodiversity. The focus is on projects carried out in the Città Metropolitana of Milan and in Pistoia, involving the discipline of landscape architecture, in a multidisciplinary environment. The project has a particular nature being scientific while also incorporating spatial and design-oriented disciplines. It engaged with a variety of plots to be repeated, adapted, and monitored in diverse contexts, addressing both the ideal conditions of a scientific project and actual spatial ones. The process and interventions are discussed from a landscape architecture perspective showing the role that can be played by the discipline and reflecting on the value of diversity, both biological and spatial.