Mapping urban nature

Via Gattalupa is a well-known street in the San Maurizio neighborhood and a familiar route for the children of the Allende Preschool.

The children’s attentive and wise eyes offer us a viewpoint where urban nature comes out of the blur and transforms not only Via Gattalupa, but also the more conventional idea of a street.

Who knew that this street is also home to a very rich variety of insects and plant species?

OPEN THE MAP 

Encounters between children and the urban nature of Via Gattalupa broaden the visual and cognitive landscape for all of us. The dimension of the city's flora and fauna, in a small area characterized almost exclusively by the hedges of private dwellings that encroach on the public space of the sidewalk, presented a cross-section of life and relationships. The specific language crosses the ironic, narrative, imaginative expressiveness of children, giving vitality and identity to a ladybug that is born and grows up, recognizing the delicious smell of a small walnut tree, imagining that a leaf can be covered with sand or be so brave that it can crack stones to try to reach the sun.

Via Gattalupa is full of new presences that have always been there, but whose value and originality we perhaps only now glimpse at.

All the photos were taken by the children from the preschool.