Habitat 3650

ARCHITECTURE TALKS WITH NATURE

byCaterina Vianello

A HOLIDAY FARM THAT LOOKS TOWARDS THE FUTURE

Everything starts with a number, 3650 A number that both suggests a quantity but also becomes  a symbol of qualitative value and habitat rebirth.

We are in Olmo di Martellago, close to Venice, in an agricultural plot of land of 6 hectares, and that 3650 is the number of native woodland specimens that in 10 years have become, from small plants the heart of a redevelopment and and environmental sustainability project which somebody would call ambitious (if not even utopian), had the ideas at the source not started to thrive and bear fruit.

In 2011 Endrius Rocco, a brilliant architect with a CV that includes cooperation with the realization of major works in Milan (skyscrapers, malls, the Zero and Centre pavilions at the Expo, the railway station of Torino Porta Susa), together with his wife Pamela Colorio, also an architect, decides to give birth to an idea which allows architecture, agriculture and nature to dialogue together according to interdisciplinarity and contextualization

So he abandons the work and rhythms of the metropolis to go back to the earth and the beginnings, taking the teachings received as a heritage from his grandmother Amelia, whose life vision was set on a peaceful dialogue between man and environment, able to construct a well-structured system which was completely free-standing but capable at the same time to communicate with the outside, giving and taking the best of her and other’s knowledge.

The beginnings were unquestionably demanding, arduous: aside  from the study and acquisition of the technical competences, it was also necessary to win the mistrust which surrounds the idea of a project which doesn’t seem to have an immediate purpose, which isn’t aimed to an economical profit or at least doesn’t guarantee it.

The decision to cooperate with agronomist technicians (most of all Gianfranco Marchetti, who created the “Bosco delle Viole” (Pansy wood) in Oderzo), united with the know-how in the architectural field, slowly lead to the creation of an organic farm, with annexed holiday farm.

Habitat 3560, this is the name of the farm, is nowadays an accommodating facility immersed in the woodland green: hornbeams, oaks, walnuts, maples, mulberry trees, elders, hazelnut trees, apple trees and Japanese plum trees are only some of the plant types that during the years have contributed to create, or more precisely to re-create, the biodiversity of the past, the same existing at the time of Rocco’s grandmother. 

In the 6 hectares, between groves, rural hedges and buffer zones, in an area where hares, pheasants, woodpeckers and swallows have reappeared, there’s place for many things: a didactical farm, that allows the smaller ones to immediately learn how the relationship between man and nature doesn’t have to finish in an one-way exploitation; a holiday farm, whose heart takes place in a wooden artifact realized with sustainable green design with zero emissions; the production of wine and vegetables.

If barley, wheat, apples, cherries, tomatoes,  peas and zucchini are available at the  guest’s disposal, the real flagship of the farm  is the biological prosecco, produced in limited amount, but which quality looks at the illustrious examples of the Valdobbiadene  vineyard hills .

“We have decided to follow the times of nature” – explains Rocco – “we have to keep our feet on the ground and start again from here, aware that giving  quality back to the habitat means to give back  economical value to everyone and also knowing that the  immediate gain is short-lived”.

The prosecco of Habitat 3650 is called  Amelia: there surely was no better way  to pay tribute to the received teachings, demonstrating at the same time how  technical progress and professional competences acquired in time can transform the agricultural heritage into a better future.  Possible and sustainable.

3650 IS THE NUMBER
OF NATIVE WOODLAND
SPECIMENS THAT
FROM SMALL PLANTS
BECAME
THE HEART
OF A PROJECT

HABITAT 3650 ORGANIC FARM

Via Olmo, 7
30174 VENEZIA ITALIA
P.iva 03364550271
REA: VE – 367706

Organic farm
Farmhouse accommodation
Educational farm
Rural tourism

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