Italian Law No. 10 of January 14, 2013, is the singular act that established National Tree Day, an event that aims to raise awareness, educate, and promote respect for and protection of natural heritage. In a historical phase made of different speeds, this day has the ambitious goal of fostering greater awareness of the fundamental role of trees in reducing pollution and improving environmental well-being. With their ability to create shade habitat and comfort, trees represent an essential natural heritage, a universal ethno-botanical and naturalistic cultural treasure. According to recent studies, trees, forests, and woodlands are complex, integrated organisms with behaviors that can be deemed social, affective forms of relationship, solidarity and defense, and mutual aid that only animistic cultures of the past had recognized.
A new heightened sensibility can match this internationally recognized scientific-humanistic and spiritual dimension. This inspiration is no longer solely functional and refers to fertile dialogues with art, architecture, philosophy and even anthropology. Thus, the recovery and preservation of primary forests, and of every possible converted and convertible space, takes on the sign of a cultural sensibility that refers to the need to preserve the original matrices in which humanity chooses to recognize itself.
Just from the idea that throughout human history the tree has always protected humans and living creatures by offering them comfort and well-being, defense from the heat of the sun, moisture for breath and air, survival, and ideal living conditions. Cultures, religions, and poetic and literary narratives have celebrated these sheltering branches showing glimpses of sky, their leaves illuminated by the changing light and iridescent with the air that moves them. As a symbol of life in multicultural and multifaith iconography, the tree is a multilayered system, a moving sequence of concentric circles that hold time within a perfect, regenerating material, managing fixity and movement, high temperatures, and sudden frost.
The interaction between man and nature as embodied by the tree are memorable edifications, progress, technique and technology that have influenced navigation in peacetime and wartime, design, building and architectural development over the centuries; the extraordinary French forestry policy also arose to ensure the supply of masts to ships, alongside the civilian uses of forestry.
The peculiarities recognized the wood and the tree arrive today in the cultures of bio-architecture and more generally in the good practices of environmental sustainability, which focus on environment quality, the permeable surfaces made of primary materials: earth, textiles, wood, metal, brick. Interpreted with various design and aesthetic criteria to meet the demand for natural comfort and while also fixing their connotations of identity in the structural and exhibition apparatuses. Prime examples are the Masharabiya, with its precious perforated walls; the Jali, which has characterized Indian architecture for centuries; the wooden textures and weavings of Japanese iconography; and the Gelosia typical of the Emilia-Romagna region’s rural architecture, created to age iconic products of agricultural tradition and to preserve the organoleptic quality of the fodder, essential nourishment in the winter months.
Following in these footsteps, i-Mesh — a thread that adapts and adheres like a gentle skin — has become a bridge between Nature, Tradition, and Innovation, even with references to the tree tradition, both on the symbolic front and on the functional dimension related to natural sun protection, vital air circulation, and permeability of the gaze and vision.
Some projects are particularly symbolic.
In April 2022, i-Mesh collaborated with the Migliore+Servetto studio to breathe new life into the Procuratie Vecchie in Venice. After a lengthy restoration by David Chipperfield Architects Milan, this historic building was opened to the public for the first time in 500 years. Now home to Generali Group's The Human Safety Net Foundation, the Procuratie hosts two unique installations, one inside and one outside. In the center stands the tree work, designed by Migliore+Servetto and made with i-Mesh.
A direct reference between nature and architecture that makes symbolic reference to the shelter, well-being and comfort given by trees, to their canopy that gently filters light, to the deeply-rooted connection with the surrounding environment - tree among trees, tree in the breath of the ecosystem, the sign of a permanence capable of regeneration. The tapestry of the Procuratie Vecchie, in the wondrous and unique city that has rested on thousands of logs and pilings for centuries, celebrates the concept of the building, design and resilience of wood and tree, and makes it current and rooted in the endless metamorphosis of tradition.
In a different vein is Trouble in Paradise by Pierpaolo Pitacco, a work that cites bodies and branches, volumes and lightness, roots that speak to each other, intertwine and embrace. Ancestral from the colors that bounce off the ochre tones of wood and earth, the tapestry recalls the original elements, the roundness, the anthropomorphic signatures of Nature, Man, and Woman - a universe of colors forms and dialogues.
