Itineraries Through Milan's Architecture
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ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO /places the city through its parts From the idea of the city to the built city: the Garibaldi-Repubblica area Patrizio Antonio Cimino PROJECT DESCRIPTIONS BY Simona Rosato Itineraries through Milan’s architecture Modern architecture as description of a city “Itineraries through Milan’s architecture: Modern architecture as a description of a city” is a project by the Order of Architects, Planners, Landscape Architects and Conservators, edited by its Foundation. Scientific Coordinator: Maurizio Carones Executive Director: Paolo Brambilla Editorial Staff: Alessandro Sartori, Stefano Suriano General Manager: Giulia Pellegrino Press Office: Ferdinando Crespi “From the idea of the city to the built city: the Garibaldi-Repubblica area” Patrizio Antonio Cimino, project descriptions by Simona Rosato edited by: Alessandro Sartori, Stefano Suriano, Barbara Palazzi Images courtesy of: Civica Raccolta Stampe Achille Bertarelli CZA - Cino Zucchi Architetti Translation: Maddalena Ferrara A special thank you to Vito Redaelli For copyrights regarding any unidentified iconographic materials, please contact the Foundation of the Order of the Architects, Planners, Landscape Architects and Conservators of the Province of Milan www.ordinearchitetti.mi.it www.fondazione.ordinearchitetti.mi.it From the idea of the city to the built city: the Garibaldi-Repubblica area An historical reading of the “Garibaldi-Repubblica” area means retracing the history of Milan and the idea of the city over the last two centuries. This place actually makes clear the fundamental relationship between new urban locations and transport infrastructures. These locations served at first as production sites throughout the nineteenth century until the half of the twentieth century and then, from the mid of the twentieth century to our days, as service/informational sites. This relationship created, over the past two centuries, a strong contrast between the built city and the idea of the city. Retracing and interpreting this – sometimes admitted, sometimes denied – contrast is crucial to the comprehension of the new urban design that today is coming to its completion; only through its critical reading we can understand the current interventions that conclude a two-century long path in urban planning. As we keep the focus on the idea of the city in the nineteenth century, on the city actually built in the twentieth century, on the strong polycentric vocation of the Lombardy – continuously denied through the forced development of the city-metropolis – on the debate about the idea of city through its different master plans, on its innovative idea in the post-war period, on breaking the urban centrality in favour of a city as the main system of stratified regional relationships, on the transition from a city as a productive site to a city of services and finally to a consumer global city, we find the essential key to understand the evolution of this part of Milan where, over the past two centuries, everything concentrates, everything is structured on the view of the future city. This part of Milan takes shape and becomes visible when the railroad is built. The rising industrialisation of the Lombard territory, towards the FROM THE IDEA OF THE CITY TO THE BUILT CITY: THE GARIBALDI-REPUBBLICA AREA first half of the nineteenth century, accelerates the urbanisation process, a phenomenon strictly related to the high growth of the population during the same years. In the first half of the nineteenth century Milan has a population of 150,000 that peaks to 243,000 in 1861 with a rise of 60%. After 20 years, in 1881, the city counts 350,000 inhabitants. The urban development, as the new economic-capitalistic approach of the end of the nineteenth century, structures itself on the idea of a city founded on production, while large-scale relationships change the times of the city. Up to the first half of the nineteenth century, Milan continues developing almost entirely inside the boundaries of the Spanish city. The sole exceptions of external development follow the historical urban axis, where, immediately outside the city walls, a consolidated urban fabric already existed (the Borgo degli Ortolani situated along the Varesina road running along the North-east boundary of the old parade ground, and the Borgo di San Gottardo that, due to the presence of the canals, developed along the road holding the same name). The remaining part of the territory outside the walls, instead, was entirely occupied by farmland. “The massive urbanisation of the Lombard territory triggers an increasingly hectic expansion process and new needs, which the city was not prepared to meet” (1). The history and the construction of the Garibaldi-Repubblica MILAN, ENTRANCE OF THE FERDINANDEA LOMBARDO VENETA ROAD AT BORGO DELLA STELLA (IMAGE COURTESY OF CIVICA RACCOLTA STAMPE A. BERTARELLI) FROM THE IDEA OF THE CITY TO THE BUILT CITY: THE GARIBALDI-REPUBBLICA AREA area integrates in this hectic development framework. The urban shape of this part of the city of Milan revolves around the construction of the railroad infrastructure. This part of territory experiences its first urbanisation just towards the half of the nineteenth century. In 1840, the railway line Milan-Monza (the second Italian railroad line after the Naples-Portici) is inaugurated. But, as soon as 1838, the railway line Milan-Venice is already under construction, contemporary to the Milan-Como line, which represents the second railway of the Lombard territory. “The construction of these first lines gives a decisive impulse to the reciprocal relationship between infrastructures and production facilities. Milan-Monza and Milan- Como railways, actually, are the backbone of a production system centring in the capital of the region and having its natural end, through the Milan-Venice line, towards the Adriatic Sea”(2). With the construction of the first railway line Milan-Monza, it is also inaugurated the first stub terminal station at Porta Nuova, today still visible at the beginning of Via Melchiorre Gioia. In 1857, where today we find Piazza della Repubblica, the construction of the new Central Station railway hub of Milan begins, an infrastructure aimed at collecting the lines coming from different origins. The location, besides determining a sort of ‘closure’ of the city, giving a boost to its inconsistent development, also causes an ongoing urban fragmentation, still clearly recognisable, and breaks off the network of historical roads that formed the framework of this part of territory. “Only Corso di Loreto – today Corso Buenos Aires – was adequately stepped over by the railway; the ancient Postal road to Sesto and Monza, outside Porta Nuova, instead, was suffocated with a building of inadequate span, still existing. The road to Como was cut off at Garibaldi rail-yard and redirected to Via Farini, which originally held on purpose the name of “Comasina Nuova”. All the other regional main roads were crossed by level crossings. However, a deeper, indelible damage came from the land economics. The new railway, in fact, created an unpleasant and cluttered belt along the urban boundary, while humiliating everything that remained outside” (3). The first attempt to regularise and address the design of this part of the city comes with the Master Plan of Milan drafted by Cesare Beruto in 1889. He tries to organise the emerging city through large urban blocks, situated between the città dei bastioni (the city inside the Spanish walls) and its outermost boundary – envisaged FROM THE IDEA OF THE CITY TO THE BUILT CITY: THE GARIBALDI-REPUBBLICA AREA by Beruto as a major road (currently the external beltway). His plan overlaps and rests on a system of infrastructures that cut off the continuity of the ideal major roads. The layout itself regarding Monza’s railway connection to the railways directed to the Central Station, situated in Piazza della Repubblica, clearly defines the contradiction between the two designs: The built city and the imagined city. The two lunette-shaped areas, created by the connection of the lines coming from Venice and Turin with those directed to Monza- Como, will unmistakably determine the future design of the city. The Master Plan drafted by Angelo Pavia and Giovanni Masera in 1911 activates an overall redesign process of the urban MILAN MASTER PLAN BY CESARE BERUTO, MILAN 1885 (IMAGE COURTESY OF CIVICA RACCOLTA STAMPE A. BERTARELLI) FROM THE IDEA OF THE CITY TO THE BUILT CITY: THE GARIBALDI-REPUBBLICA AREA infrastructures. However, it is only with the moving back of the Central Station from Piazza della Repubblica to its current location in Piazza Duca d’Aosta that a process of urban review of this part of the city begins. “Between 1906 and 1908 the immigration flow towards the city of Milan reaches its peak. The built surface, following the implementation of the master plan drafted by Beruto, was 6.6 million square metres, and reaches 9.7 million in 1901 and 14 million in 1911”(4). Since the end of the nineteenth century the intense cultural debate, started by the different conferences held on occasion of the Universal Exhibition in 1881, involves the Labour Question. The socio-cultural unrest as a result of this debate creates a real Social Question. In 1886, the new social canteens, designed by the architect Luigi Broggi, in response to the thorny need of feeding the underclasses and the working class (5), are built near Ponte delle Gabelle along Naviglio della Martesana (Martesana Canal). During these years, the new social needs created by the strong immigration flow towards the city lead the way to the first examples of social philanthropy: Social cooperatives, mutual help societies and cooperatives of consumption for the creation of food shops. These associations create the prerequisites for building new housing for their members.