THE HOME OF SUSTAINABLE BEAUTY
Come to visit our open-air lab, a place of inspiration and beauty inside the Davines Village. Discover it with us!
A Scientific Garden of 3,000 square metres sides the architecture of the Davines Village in Parma.
Cultivated following the principles of organic farmingand a guardian of biodiversity, the Scientific Garden is not only the emblem of the values of beauty and sustainability that we have always advocated.
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The Scientific Garden gives us the possibility of having a direct contact with nature and its infinite resources, plants are a source of study and inspiration for our daily and future work.
Davide Bollati
Chairman of Davines Group
From plant to product: circular research
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The scientific garden embodies Davines philosophy. It combines – and elevates – the two complementary forces that drive us: scientific background and humanistic vocation. This way, a model of circular research that is unique in the world comes to life.
Carlotta Del Canale
Head of Techincal Marketing
Sunflower
One of the most significant plants of the Italian landscape, sunflowers grow also in Davines Scientific Garden.
Its oil is used in the Authentic line to ensure natural nourishment and moisturisation.
Artichoke
Artichoke extract is known for its purifying properties. This is why we grow artichokes in our garden and use them in the Naturaltech Detoxifying line that takes care of scalp and hair stressed by external environmental factors.
Lavender and rosemary
The Scientific Garden hosts also lavender and rosemary amongst its plants, and their extracts make the fragrance of A Single Shampoo unmistakeable.
Lavender comes from the Mediterranean area and has been used to cleansethe body since the times of ancient Romans.
Also, the name rosemary comes from two Latin words: ros and maris, that together mean sea dew and refer to the light blue of the flowers.
Agastache
The extract of Agastache Mexicana has a strong anti-inflammatory effect with calming properties.
Davines uses Agastache for its super-active ingredient contained in the line for brittle hair Naturaltech Energizing.
Echinacea
Native Americans considered echinacea a sacred plant for its numerous healing properties. Davines grows it in its Scientific Garden and uses it in the Naturaltech Well-being line: echinacea extract is rich in polyphenolsknown for their antioxidant properties.
Also, the name rosemary comes from two Latin words: ros and maris, that together mean sea dew and refer to the light blue of the flowers.
Lemon
Scented lemon trees grow in our bistrot and in the Scientific Garden.
The phytoceuticals extracted from this plant are used in our Naturaltech Rebalancing shampoo, ideal to control an excessive sebum production.
Design: an encounter between science and humanism
The design of the Scientific Garden was entrusted to the landscape architecture studio del Buono Gazerwitz from London and draws inspiration both from the Emilia region rural landscape surrounding the company, and from the sixteenth century geometry of the Garden of Simples of Padua (UNESCO World Heritage), the origin of all the botanical gardens in the world. The garden geometry – a circular plan with an inscribed square – is reminiscent of the Vitruvian Man and subdivides sections dedicated to different botanical types.
The Scientific Garden plants
Plants have been selected according to the scientific properties useful to Davines Research and Development laboratoryor to the wellbeing of staff. The Scientific Garden is indeed both a place of research, and a natural space one can enter to enjoy the beneficial effects deriving from contact with green.
- Garden of aromatic plants:it hosts for example basil, parsley, coriander and thyme. Some of these plants are used for cooking in our Bistrot.
- Garden of medicinal plants:it contains the plants present in our formulas, such as Echinacea, Agastache Mexicana, Mirabilis Jalapa and many more.
- Garden of tinting plants: it hosts the tinting plants used to produce natural colours.
- Garden of perfumed plants: it is home to marvellous flowering plants and a wide variety of roses, including Boscobel, Vanessa Bell, Winchester Cathedral, Darcey Bussel, Munstead Wood, Buff Beauty and Wildeve.
Greenhouse
In the Scientific Garden there is also room for a Greenhouse, designed and manufactured in England with the aim of containing species that would not adapt to the Emilia Romagna climate, but that are useful for laboratory research. Our goal is selecting the plants by the end of 2020. The result we would like to achieve is this: the central part of the Greenhouse will feature an orangery, for citrus fruit typical of the Mediterranean; the two sides will host plants from humid tropical areas, such as banana trees, or cacti typical of dry tropical areas.
Arboretum
The Scientific Garden is surrounded by an Arboretum, a collection of trees coming from all over the worldto represent our international community so that its cultural heritage and diversity can be symbolically present at the Davines Village.
Green Kilometre
The motorway is not far from the Davines Village. Therefore, on the northern side we planted trees that can naturally contrast the harmful emissions of cars. We are one of the promoters of the Parma Green Kilometre positive impact project.
Reference by Davines
