CityLife for INTERNI – HUMAN SPACES

“La Foresta dei Violini” is the installation sponsored by CityLife for the 2019 Design Week, as part of the INTERNI – Human Spaces exhibition-event. The piece is a symbolic tribute to the centuries-old Paneveggio Forest, devastated by the exceptional storm that struck northeastern Italy in November 2018.

CityLife is taking part in the INTERNI HUMAN SPACES exhibition-event, held from April 8 to 14 during Design Week, as sponsor of the installation La Foresta dei Violini, designed by the architecture firm Piuarch based on a concept by Nemo Monti.

The installation – created with the support of the Autonomous Province of Trento and the Magnifica Comunità di Fiemme – will be set in the Courtyard of Honour at the University of Milan, emerging from the north-side loggias of the first floor. It is intended as a moving tribute to the lost Paneveggio Forest in Trentino, where, on November 3, 2018, a devastating storm felled millions of trees.

Constructed from raw wood, using two massive red spruce trees uprooted by the storm with their roots intact, La Foresta dei Violini is a space of active memory, rich in symbolism. It stands as a testimony to both violated nature and the immense power of nature itself—where architecture becomes support and anchor.

The tree trunks rise from the university’s loggia, with their roots dramatically suspended over the courtyard, projecting beyond the balustrade. They are supported by a large architectural trestle made from crafted red spruce: an archetype of human craftsmanship and repair, a pillar of support. With its elemental and iconic form, the structure becomes an emblematic representation of architecture—what remains between sky and earth. It evokes the most basic and universal symbol of the ancestral relationship between technique and nature, between raw material and transformation.

La Foresta dei Violini pays tribute to land, forests, and nature itself—to the cultures that shaped trades upon that nature, to the wood industry that originates from those lands, to the artistry that turned those woods into musical instruments, and to the musicians who bring them to life through music.

The wood used in the installation comes from the Paneveggio Forest in Trentino—known as the “Forest of Stradivari” because the famous luthier personally selected his wood there to craft his violins. The centuries-old red spruces of this forest were devastated by the November 2018 storm. It is estimated that at least a century must pass before the forest can return to its original state.

The installation tells a story that is both a testimony and a symbol of hope for renewal—just like the wood from the same forest used to restore the cycling track of the historic Velodromo Vigorelli in Milan, another ambitious project completed by CityLife.

CityLife chose to participate in INTERNI’s exhibition-event embracing the concept of Human Spaces: a call to place human beings and their needs back at the center of architecture, design, and urban planning. People’s well-being—linked to the places they live—and environmental respect are at the core of CityLife’s mission, which has breathed new life into one of Milan’s historic districts, formerly home to the city’s trade fairgrounds.