Don't forget the bosco
I was treated to the almost ethereal beauty of Italian Renaissance gardens in my my mid-twenties, while travelling around Europe. This included, on a warm and still late summer afternoon in 1997, a dreamy wander around Villa Lante in Bagnaia, Viterbo (central Italy).
Villa Lante is a particularly striking example of Renaissance garden design in terms of its deployment of both giardino (formal garden) and bosco (natural woodland) to create a unique, harmonious and beautiful space.
In these designs, the garden is a meticulously designed and manicured area within the larger estate. It is typically located near the villa or palazzo and serves as an extension of the architectural design. The garden is characterized by its geometric layout, often featuring symmetrical patterns, parterres (ornamental flower beds), and well-maintained hedges. They are often built on terraces to create a sense of elevation and to offer panoramic views of the surrounding landscape. Water features, such as fountains, pools, and water channels, are common, providing both aesthetic beauty and cooling effects. Classical statues and sculptures are typically placed throughout to evoke a sense of antiquity, convey a thematic narrative of some kind and to showcase the owner's wealth and taste. Pergolas and arbors provide shade and serve as focal points within the garden.
The bosco, or woodland, is a more natural and untamed area that surrounds or adjoins the formal garden. It serves as a counterpoint to the highly structured and manicured garden, offering a sense of wilderness and seclusion. The bosco is characterized by its dense vegetation, winding paths, and rustic features. It is typically populated with a variety of trees, to provide shade and create a forest-like atmosphere. Grottos, often decorated with shells, mosaics, and sculptures, serve as cool retreats and spaces for contemplation. Natural springs or fountains are often found within the bosco, adding to the sense of tranquility and beauty. Paths in the bosco are often designed to meander in unpredictable ways through the woodland, creating a sense of discovery and surprise.
The interplay between the structured garden and the wild bosco are a fundamental aspect of Italian Renaissance garden design. The garden represents human control over (and systematic taming of) nature, while the bosco celebrates the untamed beauty (and surprising possibilities) of the natural world. Together, they create a harmonious and balanced landscape that offers both formal and informal spaces for leisure and contemplation.
We like to make a very carefully structured giardino of our organisational design, strategy and talent management. It helps to keep things symbolic, impressive, neat, organised, bounded, sequential, predictable and reliable.
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AI and automation will absolutely love the giardinos we've built and will no doubt enthusiastically offer to help us construct more of them.
We ought not to forget or neglect the importance of also providing adequate organisational bosco. This is where our people and teams can reconnect to the importance of context, think outside the structural box, tap their reflective resources, be helpfully surprised and dare to dream of creative new possibilities.
Gardens are absolutely helpful, even necessary.
But without a good bosco, we're bound and (bound to become) unbalanced.
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Literary Agent
5 个月This is a good lyrical essay/vignette on the balance between order and a sense of the wild (read: chaos), however, there's an imbalance in your argument regarding the notion of bosco, which seems rather vague and underdeveloped when you apply it to people. I'm guessing this is a cultural issue, with Australians usually favouring the formal over the informal; an inherently conservative value that seems to be embraced across Australian industries. My suggestion would be to ask why there's such an overall rejection of bosco, in favour of formality, and how this is at odds with Australians being incorrectly regarded as a more informal society. In reality, Australia is a highly regulated society that tends to be risk-averse. My biggest issue with working in Australia was how poorly received and undervalued creative thinking was treated by employers.
Governance & Board Expert ? Academic Educator ? Independent Director ? Strategist ? Leadership Mentor ? [ Trusted Advisor Since 1999 ]
5 个月Gee Wiz , I grew up playing in those gardens to escape the constraints of apartment living….. I suppose I was living the leadership metaphor, whereby, one creates open space to develop rather than enclose people in boxed processes!!?? Go figure!!
Non-Executive Director, Strategy Facilitator and Executive Coach.
5 个月Jason Renshaw love this! I have also been lucky enough to stroll gorgeous Italian gardens - designed at a time of expanding human and societal possibilities. You can feel their brash optimism. Your analogy is terrific - mix the structured with the wild, the manicured with the untamed, the irrigated and the dry-grown, and a little shelter for when the weather gets a bit extreme. In my time as a CEO, now as NED and Strategy Facilitator, it is delight to be in constant dialogue with the diversity of teams: from the architects to the builders, the risk managers to the risk takers, from the administrators to the ideators, the hustle of sales to the care of service, the protectors at the gate and the creatives in the clouds. Cheers to them all!