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Birch trees at Villa Ada with a Simon Schama quote on Landscape and Memory.
“The desire to find solace in nature has led humans to elect 
trees as the symbol of relentless rebirth, a constant renewal of life.” 


Simon Schama, Landscape & Memory
Arborvitae installation, Villa Ada, Rome 2015
Arborvitae logo with a green circular symbol inspired by the growth rings of a tree.

Arborvitae

Rethinking Memorial Landscapes

What is Arborvitae?

Arborvitae is a cultural and landscape project redefining places of memory.

 

Traditional cemeteries are reimagined as inclusive green landscapes, where remembrance, nature and public life can coexist.

 

Memorial functions become part of accessible urban green infrastructure, contributing to environmental quality, collective well-being and a renewed relationship between humans and nature.

 

At the heart of this vision is the commemorative tree: a personal act of remembrance that, over time, becomes part of a shared landscape.

Why now?

Contemporary cities are facing profound environmental, social and cultural transformations: climate change, land consumption, ageing populations and increasingly multicultural communities.

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The growing practice of cremation, in particular, is changing the relationship between body, memory and cemetery space. It makes it possible to reconsider places of farewell beyond the traditional burial model, opening the way to landscapes where trees become part of a new ecological and symbolic language of remembrance.

Arborvitae installation at Villa Ada in Rome, with a reflective band around a tree trunk.
Arborvitae installation , Villa Ada, Rome 2015

Public and private applications

Arborvitae is conceived as an adaptable model for both public and private contexts.

In the public sphere, it offers municipalities and institutions a vision for rethinking existing cemeteries, designing cemetery extensions as green memorial landscapes, or regenerating degraded and neglected urban areas as memorial parks. In this way, places of memory can become part of broader ecological and landscape strategies, rather than relying only on new built structures.

In private contexts, Arborvitae can inspire symbolic memorial gardens for families, foundations and private estates.
Each garden is unique: rooted in the character of the site and shaped by the wishes of those who commission it, creating a meaningful relationship between memory, nature and time.

Each application depends on the cultural, spatial and legal framework of the specific country.

Case studies

Rendering of the Garden of Memory in Casapulla, with a spiral path, red circular seating, cypress trees and a central Tree of Life.

Garden of Memory​

Casapulla, Caserta | Local device

A small cemetery extension of about 2,500 sqm, conceived as a symbolic garden organised around a spiral path and a central Tree of Life.

Design rendering of the Arborvitae project in Corsico: a memorial landscape with a cinerary house integrated into the park, combining architecture, vegetation and public space.

Memorial Landscape

Corsico, Milan | Landscape system

A 5-hectare memorial park combining landscape, water, cycling paths and a cinerary house, offering two complementary ways of relating to ashes and remembrance.

Design rendering of the Arborvitae proposal for Rome: an urban memorial park with a pond crossed by a cycle path, commemorative trees and public spaces within a metropolitan green infrastructure.

Urban Memorial Park

Rome | Urban infrastructure

A 60-hectare proposal where archaeology, ecology, public space and commemorative trees become part of a metropolitan green infrastructure.

Arborvitae has been developed through three design proposals at different scales: from a small cemetery garden to a metropolitan memorial park.

Contact

Arborvitae is available for public presentations, institutional meetings, cultural programmes and site-specific project opportunities. For collaborations or project enquiries, please get in touch.

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