Biography
With Pietro Porcinai, garden art enters the contemporary era. The 20th century's greatest landscape architect and creator of gardens in Italy was born in Florence at Villa Gamberaia in 1910, where his father Martino was gardener. The young Porcinai was certainly influenced by being born in one of the places that is a symbol of gardens in Italy.
After studying at the Technical Agricultural Institute at Le Cascine, he underwent training in Germany and Belgium, where he came into contact with landscape architects and nurserymen, and understood the importance of the profession of landscape architect, which was practically unknown in Italy at the time.
From his earliest projects in the 1930s until his major creations in the 1970s, including the famous Pinocchio Park at Collodi, Porcinai developed an unmistakable style of his own. He wedded form and space via a skilled use of vegetation, maintaining his cultural roots in tradition, but interpreting it in a modern vein, with special attention to the new meaning of the garden. The gardens of Villa L'Apparita at Siena, Villa Il Roseto at Florence, and Villa Catastini at Santa Croce sull'Arno are the most successful and complete creations of this master of landscape architecture.
After studying at the Technical Agricultural Institute at Le Cascine, he underwent training in Germany and Belgium, where he came into contact with landscape architects and nurserymen, and understood the importance of the profession of landscape architect, which was practically unknown in Italy at the time.
From his earliest projects in the 1930s until his major creations in the 1970s, including the famous Pinocchio Park at Collodi, Porcinai developed an unmistakable style of his own. He wedded form and space via a skilled use of vegetation, maintaining his cultural roots in tradition, but interpreting it in a modern vein, with special attention to the new meaning of the garden. The gardens of Villa L'Apparita at Siena, Villa Il Roseto at Florence, and Villa Catastini at Santa Croce sull'Arno are the most successful and complete creations of this master of landscape architecture.
