The Radicepura Garden Festival is pleased to announce an international competition for garden designers of 8 temporary gardens. It is an international open call for ideas.

The Radicepura Garden Festival and the Radicepura Botanical Gardens

The Radicepura Botanical Gardens is the brainchild of the Faro Family who decided to make their botanical collection available: it was the result of fifty years’ work and aimed at safeguarding biodiversity, the real wealth of this area.

This has been the aim of the Radicepura Garden Festival ever since it started in 2017. It is the first major international event intended to promote the culture of Mediterranean gardens, involving the main players of landscaping, art & architecture, designers and scholars. The botanical journey includes rare and unique species such as Enchephalartos, a cycad genus of the Zamiaceae family, as well as permanent installations and gardens by François Abelanet, Paolo Pejrone, Michel Péna, Antonio Perazzi and Andy Sturgeon, in an exchange with the work by contemporary artists such as Emilio Isgrò, Alfio Bonanno and Adrian Paci. The park lies in the shadow of Mount Etna, where the rich soil has enabled over 3,000 plant species multiply, totaling over 5,000 varieties of plants. The park has 5 hectares of self supporting energy and water. The Palazzo of the Radicepura Foundation and the Palmento, a millstone used to make Etna wine, a jewel of industrial archaeology, and the set for The Godfather, part II. The green house (Serra) houses tropical plants such as the Ravenala madagascariensis and the Cyathea australis.

Requirements for Participation

Anyone with the expertise to plan create a garden: individual professionals or a team of emerging landscape architects, agronomists, garden designers, botanists, nursery experts & owners, planners, engineers, artists, curators. The Festival encourages multidisciplinary teams. The competition is also open to companies, associations, cooperatives, schools and universities.

Participants can not be over 36. Students may have an over-36 university tutor. Seven gardens will be created inside the Radicepura Botanical Gardens.
All participants or members of a group of designers can only make one application. Winners of previous Radicepura Garden Festival editions cannot apply.

Applications

Applicants will submit their projects according to the guided on line procedure emailed to them upon registration. Applications must be received by (no later than) October the 30th, 2026. Participation is free.

Selection

Selection will be a two-step process to identify winners.

STEP 1- IDEAS

Applicants will outline the idea underlying their garden design in a brief dossier in the form they choose: the project must include the garden concept with a title, a concise but exhaustive graphic project with a short text explaining by reference images and evocative sketches able to convey their vision. The Jury shall select the best projects. The shortlist will be drawn up for those taking part in Step 2. A specific area of the Festival will be assigned to them. They will have to finalize the project for the second step.

STEP 2 – SPATIAL POSITIONING

Designers shall locate their idea of a garden in the area assigned to them with an executive project, complete with technical drawings, construction details, project manager (aka developer) and planting plan, as well as costing estimates. Project costs shall not exceed €10,000, unless designers independently find sponsors to cover any costs in excess of the afore mentioned sum.
Gardens will be selected by a Jury of experts who will assess their technical and artistic qualities.