Com'era verde questa piazza

In front of the building, built during the second half of the 19th century, used to be a centuries-old holm oak grove, a park of a villa; outside the old Leghorn city centre there were other large green areas where prestigious residences were immersed, as well as urban gardens and orchards that in the middle of large city blocks later on infilled with new residential buildings. The decorative motif chosen is inspired by this theme, evoking those trees that only live in the community memories and old photographs and can now be seen again as if they were reflected in a virtual gate on this large wall.
This mural is a vertical band aligned with the concealed connecting section of two massings that make up the building; this wall of 1,400 square meters was not considered as a pictorial support: the painting is a definitive solution to improve the façade proportion, and the perceived massing, in relationship with the other elevations facing the same open public space in front. Originally this was a demising wall pierced by eight small lunettes, and barely visible because they were screened by the holm oaks grove; today it is the main facade of the square that replaces the grove destroyed to build an underground parking. Creating an art mural was the only option to reposition the building image back to the right proportions without distorting the composition which due to its original position is marked by essentiality. The natural themed painting reaches over 20 m from the ground and it is 4.5 m wide; it features a tree-lined gash to simulate the presence of trees between the two building blocks, or the illusion of a reflection of the former holm oak forest in front of it. The work was executed in consecutive phases from a temporary scaffolding and finished, once perceived in its entirety, with the help of a mobile elevating work platform.