For the second year in Jesolo, a seaside town characterized by a seasonal tourism, an experimental project comes to life during the summer. The project presents a neighborhood garden in an unusual role, linking together entertainment and time dynamics of local agriculture. In an area of 53000 mq the charm of the game in the open air meets the natural rhythms and seasonality of the corn plants, whose cultivation is widespread in this region. The visitors and the city itself can thus enjoy a different aggregative proposal, sustainable and affordable for everyone. The corn maze “Le Messi” results from a synergistic project between a local businessman and the American company “The Maize”, one of the largest companies in the world specializing in designing and building corn mazes. During the second year the team was joined by an Italian landscape architect that designed the floor plan of the corn maze.
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- © Flavia Pastò
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- © Flavia Pastò
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- © Flavia Pastò
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- © Flavia Pastò
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- © Flavia Pastò
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- © Flavia Pastò
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- © Flavia Pastò
The garden consists of 5 mazes with increasing levels of difficulty. The works for the realization started in April, following the agricultural calendar, with the planting of nearly 500.000 corn kernels organized in a double orthogonal plan. The plants were then irrigated with hoses located between the rows. In May, when the corn plants have reached 50 centimeters of height, rows were cut according to the path designs. The complete design is visible only from above. At the end, the garden is a simple but not trivial game that involves a wide range of people, since no special skills are required to enjoy the labyrinth. It was conceived as a fun attraction but at the same time instructive, to make young people closer to agriculture. The aim of the maze is obviously to find the way out trying to orient within 6 km of paths, through intuition, technique and creativity like in the classic labyrinths located in the parks of the villas in the surroundings of the Venice city. The maze is open only from June to September; at the end of the season, when the threshing starts the garden disappears, leaving the empty land to rest until the following spring. The corn crop is weighed and checked, to be sold to collection centers for production of flour and other food products.
Landscape Architecture: Arch.Flavia Pastò (email),
Name: LE MESSI_Labirinto di Jesolo
Location: Jesolo (VE)
Designer: arch. Flavia Pastò
Costumer: CA’ Verde srl, with the sponsorship of Jesolo City Tourism department
Timeline: April 2016_ Corn planting
May 2016_ Cut of Path
June 2016_ Opening
September 2016_ Closing and threshing
Area: 52.300mq the total area (with service, bar, parking)
50.000mq the Labyrinth area
462.500 grain of wheat
6 km of path
5 Labyrinths with different difficulty
Cost: € 25000
Image credit: Flavia Pastò
