THE INITIATIVE IS FREE FOR MEMBERS; NON-MEMBER ADULTS WILL PAY €10,00 FOR ONE DAY AND €15,00 FOR TWO.

The regularly scheduled appointment for Association members this time will be held in Piemonte, more precisely in Valle Varaita (CN), locality of Casteldelfino. Both your accommodation and the Saturday meeting will be by the agricultural house, “mulino della fucine.” The full board price is €40,00 per person (it includes lunch and dinner, bed for Saturday night, and Sunday morning breakfast).
The topic of Saturday evening’s meeting will be about reading a Japanese Garden. Doctor Francesco Merlo will chair the debate and will be the person in charge of the projections. He is known by most of us for the periodic publication of articles concerning Japanese gardens in the magazine Bonsai and Nature. Attached you will find his curriculum and the program of Saturday.
For Sunday, you can participate in an interesting excursion in a small forest of Swiss Pines in Alevè. It is very close to the agricultural house and is where member Mauro Coppa will comment on the Swiss Pines’ peculiarities and characteristics during the walk.
For further information, the Alevè forest is the biggest pure Swiss Pine collection in all of Italy, which is considered by experts an “ancient forest.” Inside it you will find thousand-year old specimens.
The wood is 820 hectares large, and is between 1700 and 2500 metres high from sea-level but it is also possible to find specimens of Swiss Pine on higher levels, at about 2950 metres high on the northern side of “Cima delle Lobbie”
Since 1949, this wood has been included in the prestigious register of “seed stand” and since 2000, it has been acknowledged as “site of community interest.” The excursion will be exclusively on a mule track, therefore, we advise you to wear mountain shoes and clothing. The excursion will take about 2 hours before reaching Bagnour, the desired mountain dew, for lunch, which will cost about €16,00.
The average distance for friends who come from Veneto or Trentino is of about 550 km, so, I apologize for dragging you out of bed so early. For those who don’t wish to return home, through prior arrangements, you have the option of staying and sleeping in the agricultural house on Sunday night. Please let me know as soon as possible if you wish to participate so that I can book the house and the mountain dew, well in advance. My contact information is: PAOLO GIAI mail alisea03@interfree.it – mobile: 338/7007479. For the more curious, here are some websites you can visit about this subject:
www.ilmulinodellefucine.it
www.vallevaraita.cn.it
www.ghironda.com/vvaraita/rubriche/aleve.htm


SATURDAY 22 SEPTEMBER 2007
General Program
Japanese Garden Reading
By Francesco Merlo
The Japanese garden is not a set of lanterns, tsukubai, shishiodoshi and tobi-ishi.
There is a kind of system of organized spaces and volumes and a kind of interaction with the surrounding environment, which is typically Japanese. Through the comprehension of some typically Japanese composing techniques, you will be able to read and get a glimpse of the source of inspiration for many works, even contemporary works, which have been released both in Japan and in Europe; both by Japanese and foreign landscape architects.


MORNING – Reading instruments:
10.30 Preface: What is not a Japanese Garden
11.00: Some Reading Instruments:
Shukkei
Monomane
Shakkei
Sumikake
A glimpse of the subject
12.30 Lunch
 

AFTERNOON – Reading and Writing Tests
14.30...Reading Kyoto Gardens and Surroundings
16:00 Cavour-Cardè-Alpignano-Modena-Aosta-… Reading Tests
17:00 Writing Test

Note: The writing test is about generating a group consensus to identify the best materials to make a little Japanese garden.which must be based on the rules you learned previously during the lesson. Materials may be of any kind, as what is important is the application of the rules, the equilibrium of the masses, full and empty spaces, etc.

Abstract curriculum
FRANCESCO MERLO, Agronomist ,Landscape Architect

• Degree in “Agriculture sciences and technologies” Agriculture Faculty, University of Torino.
• Master in Landscape and Green Areas planning at the University of Torino.
• Diploma at the Research Center for Japanese Garden Art, Kyoto University.

• Collaborator of “Dept. of Agronomy, Forest and Land management of University of Torino for Green Areas Planning and Management.
• Member of Scientific Council of Master in Landscape and Green Areas Planning at University of Torino.
• Professor for Japanese Gardens and Parks and Gardens Seminaries, European Garden History at Master in ‘Landscape and Green Areas Planning’ and at the University course of first level in ‘Vegetable Productions’ ‘curriculum ‘Green Areas Planning and -Management’.
• Author of the column ‘Japanese Gardens in the World” in Bonsai Italia Arte e Natura of Volontario Editors, Milano.
• Co-author of the special number of ‘Verde Urbano’, Chapter Il Moderno Landscape Design, magazine Phytomagazine, Phytoline Editors.
• Representative for the Workshop Karesansui Organization : shape-function-composition in the modern landscape design, promoted by Agraria Faculty of the University of Torino, which had as Professors Master Kazuo Makioka and Architect Sachimine Masui.
• Co-author of the book ‘Le antiche camelie dei Rovelli’, Grossi Libraio Editor , Domodossola.
• Co-author of the book ‘Evergreen Azaleas of Lago Maggiore’, ‘Quaderni della Regione Piemonte-Agricoltura’ n°50 supplement, edit by Piemonte Region.
• Co-author of the book ‘Camellias of the Eighteenth Century’, vol.II, A study between Verbano e Canton Ticino’, ‘Quaderni della Regione Piemonte-Agricoltura’, n° 54 supplement edit by Piemonte Region.
• Co-author of the book ‘Gardens in Piemonte’, edit by Edizioni Daniela Piazza, Torino (in preparation).