Many Italians and others will remember summers camping on the Adriatic coast.
When parents, anxious to relax by the sea, hoisted cooler bags, towels and toys on their shoulders and walked towards the beach.
Who hasn’t been dragged onto the sand to build the marble track or hasn’t spent hours on the water’s edge building makeshift castles with the aim of making them even remotely resemble Gaudí’s Sagrada Família? Renzo Piano himself, a world-famous Italian architect, said in a tweet: “This is how I started my career, as a child, on the beaches of Genoa”.
For Renzo Piano, creating has always been a pleasure and the light-heartedness that one has as a child has certainly trained his imagination. The father of the Shard of Glass in London in his projects must always keep in mind the result he wants to achieve and the relative consequences.
In the past, however, like any child on a camping holiday in Comacchio, the young Genoese let himself be carried away by creativity without thinking about the consequences, just for the sake of creating.
Inviting adults to rediscover this childlike spirit, the architect suggested 4 tips for building the perfect sandcastle to The Guardian newspaper.
We have summarized them for you below:
- First of all, you need to be aware of the futility of the operation: building a sand castle is an action with no purpose, so you shouldn’t expect too much. The castle is destined to be destroyed by the sea for the simple fact that there is no point where the water cannot reach it. So, if you want to return from your camping holiday in Comacchio having built a castle worthy of the name, you have to study a strategic position on the shoreline that allows you to have the right balance between sand and water. If it is too close to the sea, the building will be overwhelmed by the waves, if too far the water will not be able to reach it. It seems easier said than done, but follow your instinct and it will be fine.
- Once you have chosen the location, start digging a ditch with your hands where the water has already moistened the sand. The sand obtained will be used to build the castle in the center. Initially it will look like a mound preferably with an inclination of 45 °. It is important that the moat does not exceed 30cm in depth and 45cm in width. While the castle should be about 60 cm high.
- At this point, create a passage for the water. The magical moment when the waves reach your castle and the dug canal becomes a real moat will only give you great satisfaction. If you have found the right location, you will be able to enjoy this show approximately every 10-15 minutes. To imprint it in your memory, close your eyes every time the wave reaches your castle.
- Finally, put a flag or whatever else you come across on top of your artwork. This will serve to make it more visible to passers-by. Then get up, go home and forget about it.
So, parents on a camping holiday in Comacchio, abandon shovels and buckets, go to the shoreline with your children and build the perfect castle with your hands. Don’t be afraid to become a child again.