Lizard’s belveder- Around the Rock- SICILia

Lizards’ Belvedere – Sicily: a sequence of terraces and rock gardens revealing the contrasting landscapes of the Fiume Verdura valley.

Around the Rock unfolds as a series of terraces set against rock gardens, each framing selected views to read the Verdura Valley — a coastal river landscape in southern Sicily — and to observe the ruins of Castello di Poggiodiana.

At first glance, the castle draws the eye. Beyond this immediate focus, the broader structure of the valley gradually emerges. The river’s meander shapes a contrasted landscape: on one side, a gentle, fertile slope planted with citrus groves; on the other, a steep, eroded hillside marked by yellow tuff cliffs, where dry-adapted vegetation takes hold.

Within this arid, rocky environment, lizards find shelter. Their habitat becomes a starting point for the project — a way of engaging with the landscape at ground level, moving slowly through rock gardens.

Each sequence frames a specific relationship between the valley, the cultivated land, and the castle. Around the Rock proposes a fragmented and attentive reading of the panorama.

The project was designed and built in one week with students from the Palermo School of Architecture, as part of a series of initiatives developed for Agrigento, Italian Capital of Culture. The collaboration took the form of an intensive workshop, where students were directly engaged in an in situ design process. Guided by Wagon Landscaping, they worked at the scale of making, gaining a concrete understanding of how a garden is constructed within a short timeframe.

This hands-on approach fostered a “hand-scale” practice, where the project continuously adapts to site conditions, and where design remains open-ended for as long as possible — extending into the act of building itself, until the moment it takes shape on the ground.

Customers : Association Arts et Jardins Haut de France et Agrigento Capitale italienne de la Culture

Groupement : Wagon Landscaping and students from d’architecture de Palerme (IUAP)