Where the Flowers BLOOM

It's more than just a 100 sq km green area in the Biellan Alps. Oasi Zegna, born from the desire of a visionary entrepreneur as a socio-environmental experiment, has become a book and project adorning the city of Milan.

- ELISA PERVINCA BELLINI

I wish I had met my great-grandfather Ermenegildo", starts off Edoardo Zegna, currently chief marketing digital and sustainability officer of the company, as well as the fourth generation and official spokesman of the family, during one of his rare interviews. "If I had to describe him, I would call um a visionary driven by a healthy insanity, a state of the mind that allows you to express any type of emotion and creativity in its purest form."

Apart from establishing a wool mill in the Biellan Alpsthat over the years has turned into a true maison-in those same mountains in the '30s, he gave life to a project aimed at enhancing the landscape, nature and local community that was eventually called Oasi Zegna. It all started with winding up the valleys around Trivero-where the wool mill is located-from a height of 700m above sea level. "How did he come up with the idea?

I imagine my great-grandfather in his 30s, in his office at the factory, as he decides to go for a stroll in the mountains and, sitting on a rock, starts laughing and says to himself, 'All right, let's do it!' And so he plants a half million plants, creating that 26km-long road connecting the valley to the mountains."

But that's not all. Ermenegildo had a plan for his employees and the local community as well. Edoardo continues: "Firmly believing that the best way to unleash individual talent in the company was to build a social working environment around sharing and services, my great-grandfather built, in the area surrounding the factory, a swimming pool, a ski resort, a hospital with a little church, an orphanage, houses and shops: a true ecosystem for his employees." His was a unique vision.