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ONGOING PROJECTS
THE SEA IN THE PINES
Landscape design for the Duino Marina
Key facts
Location: Duino, Trieste - Italy
Client: Autonomus Region Friuli Venezia
Period: 2025- 2022
Project services: Landscape General project
Consulents: D. Zadnik - Structural engineering; A. Morich, E. Deseira - MEP; A. Marinò - Authority interface
Work progress status: On site
The sea in the pines:
The project reads the Duino shore as a thin passage between land and sea, with the landscape unfolding before your eyes.
In Across the River and Into the Trees (1950), Hemingway notes this precisely: 'He stopped the car in the pines and could smell the sea before he could see it.’
It is this anticipation — the smell of resin, the salt suspended in the air and the wind brushing the pine needles — that truly reveals the place.
The pines remain where they are. They preserve the coolness of the hot hours, the cicadas of the afternoon and the moon gliding through the branches. The surf continues below, steady and constant.
The paths follow the line of the cliffs. They take the slopes, the stones, the rough edges. They go down to the sea with the calm of fishermen waiting for the right wind.
The furnishings stay discreet. They simply serve. Like the bollards on the pier.
The arrival doesn’t build a viewpoint. It offers something else: the chance to feel the sea, even without seeing it. A sea that stays with you, even when you no longer look at it.
Technical description:
What began as a simple road safety measure turned into an intervention to protect the trees in the marina. The work emphasised the important role that the pine trees play in shaping the area's identity, leading to the development of conservation strategies.
The heavily man-made area has impermeable soils, degraded paving, and fragmented public spaces. The pine trees along the quay are rooted in poor, poorly drained soil and have developed surface root systems that deform the paving.
The project restructures the public space with continuous paving, orderly paths, and furnishings that are consistent with the coastal landscape. An aerated soil system with uncompacted volumes to improve the growing conditions for the trees is introduced under the new paving. Where possible, small pillar structures are used, and dedicated aeration compartments are used elsewhere. Raising the level by approximately 20 cm enables the new technical package to be installed without disturbing the roots.
This approach restores functional and perceptual coherence to the marina by using the pine trees as the guiding principle for landscape redevelopment, while also recognising them as an essential element of the area's environmental quality and identity.
