For Better Human Living

The Avenue Marco Facchinetti Marco Dellavalle human living For better Blossom

The Blossom Avenue For better human living Skira The pathway illustrated by theMarco projects Dellavalle presented over here the tells last theof decade story architecture as of and well the urban as activities planning. the undertakena The evolution by little evolution that Marco revolution of has Facchinetti and urban taken and often planning placeprovinces emphasized practice at and the towards the intermediate role the same bodies. of regional time The municipal scale inkey agenda entities in their consideration has in Italy operative of also territorial has spheres planning changed planning, involved practice, over sometimesnow even these at in though ten the other the years. expense countries new Building of of rules sustainability the trying the of has to European construction become solve Union and a such have models basic yet ofservices problems to development for as be in any the established force in-depth circulation in for absorption of Italy. years In of traffic Moreover, this canons municipalities in complex so are historical scenario, evolved still centres acting as too andand with to busy the projects great initiate inefficiency built dynamism, a of up Marco general public around Facchinetti reform transport on the and of the two Marco planning local key Dellavalle design. scale. concepts have The of putdesign reflections design forward and developed and incisive correct, and feasibility plans effective the that procedures projects provewhich of illustrated truly progress implementation, here capable ensures to show of virtuous affect how modifying productions, local planning reality,making new realities is at the episodes by able, least most of constructing through of urban evolutionary the what quality scenarios useit already in in of is exists. often applied. So fragmented that areas planning and can new always ways be of synonymous with evolution for the contexts to which cop_9101_carto 2 ok UK 1 10:17 Pagina 3-06-2015 comm.QXD:CitterioCopITAdef The Blossom Avenue For better human living Marco Facchinetti Marco Dellavalle

The Blossom Avenue For better human living Contents

Art Director First published in Italy in 2013 by The work accomplished, the projects carried 6 Introduction Marcello Francone Skira Editore S.p.A. out and the experiences recounted in this book Palazzo Casati Stampa would have been impossible without the help 12 Dialogue on the City Design via Torino 61 and commitment of the many people who have Luigi Fiore 20123 Milano worked with Marco Facchinetti and Marco 28 Imagination and Design in Urban Planning Editorial Coordination Italy Dellavalle but above all without the expertise Emma Cavazzini www.skira.net and patience of those working with us today, 38 Architectural Design and Construction namely Nicola, Lorenzo, Luca, Francesca Editing © 2013 Marco Facchinetti and Marco Dellavalle and Francesca, Tommaso, Raffaele, Alessio Silvia Gaiani © 2013 Skira editore and Guglielmo. It is to them that the work ATLAS OF PROJECTS Layout All rights reserved under international is dedicated. Antonio Carminati copyright conventions. 46 1. URBAN PLANNING No part of this book may be reproduced or Translations utilized in any form or by any means, electronic 156 2. ARCHITECTURE Paul Metcalfe on behalf of Scriptum, Rome or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and 268 3. INTERIOR DESIGN The drawings on pages 13–16 are the work retrieval system, without permission in writing of the Milan Polytechnic department from the publisher. of architecture and planning 291 Biography Printed and bound in Italy. First edition The photograph on page 290 is by Antonio Marogna ISBN: 978-88-572-2102-1 293 4. LIST OF PROJECTS

Distributed in USA, Canada, Central & South America by Rizzoli International Publications, 327 List of Associates Inc., 300 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010, USA. Distributed elsewhere in the world by Thames and Hudson Ltd., 181A High Holborn, London WC1V 7QX, United Kingdom. Introduction

The projects illustrated in this book tell the tionably concentrated on giving their terri- action for the local authorities – have made tention. The processes, the ones that real- necting the use of parking space to the ser- regulation imposed by decentralization, as story of ten years in the careers of the au- tories the best normative structure, focus- it possible through all these years not to ly do alter the everyday panorama outside vices and commerce present in the same stated above, at a certain point in the last thor and Marco Dellavalle, a decade in ing on the municipal planning instrument feel deprived of a level of intermediate plan- our windows, have found it easy to devel- towns, and the low efficiency of road-based decade we are observing together, some- which many things have changed, as al- as the only one really capable of an effec- ning, which has in reality even lost further op within this odd framework. public transport services – to absorb more thing broke down to the point of causing a ways happens simply through the passing tive response to their needs. The interme- power in certain contexts (like Lombardy), The agenda has also changed over these ten evolved canons deeply enough to reform crisis that has had a great deal to do with of time and the flow of history. A small rev- diate levels between the towns and the and not to feel deprived of certainties for years. Emphasis on the environment and the conception of planning in general. settlement contexts and towns. Above and olution has taken place in the order of region and the tools of implementation – in not having reformed all the tools of imple- attention to sustainability have informed Settlement policies have seen some new beyond the origin and genesis of the crisis, things, however, if we consider both the other words, everything that should exist mentation, the prerequisite for meeting tar- much of building regulations and planning developments over the decade, such as the it was clear that many projects and pro- framework of Italian legislation before the above the municipal plan and that must ex- gets, with the same attention. The resulting to the point of structuring the overall prac- need for agreements with private builders grammes would be interrupted and then de- reforms that made urban planning simulta- ist inside it and ensure that it is put into ef- urban planning is peculiar in character. The tice of planning. The results are, however, or a ceiling on prices. In many contexts, finitively dropped. Mediocre projects that neously a focal point of regional laws and fect – have not received the same attention municipalities have continued to feel at the not what we would have expected to see, however, they have not proved so effective small firms were no longer able to keep go- almost forgotten at the national level, and as the municipal instrument. Between ter- centre and in full possession of their pow- at least in general terms and at least not in addressing the problem of revitalizing ing and major operations blocked by far what remains today, after nearly five years ritorial management plans, urban plans sim- ers to modify the territory; the provinces everywhere. The focus on sustainability has historical centres with a view to protecting deeper financial crises began to appear on of international crisis, of the plans, projects, ilar to the old town planning scheme and and intermediate agencies have maintained certainly not made it possible to reduce the the territory or, at a deeper level, the need the always positive and progressive panora- and expectations around which that insti- structural plans, regional legislation has fo- radar alert against all municipal action, both consumption of building land and aim at a to revise the supply in relation to type of mas of municipal plans, causing a crisis in tutional reform was largely conceived. cused on the municipality and its territory negative and positive; the regions have different model of development, nor has it context and thus avoid the ugly, monoto- the mechanism upon which the plans them- The shift of urban planning, the sphere of with a view to obtaining the best possible withdrawn since the passing of the law in- imposed building regulations now in force nous repetition of small villas and condo- selves have always rested, and still more so all our activities, to the regional scale has planning. In ten years of activity, we have to a strange role of supervision and coor- for years in other countries of the European miniums, not least because of the lack of since the creation of tools by regional laws: meant a great deal and led at least in cer- realized that the municipal framework, even dination; and the state has literally Community. Concentration on strengthen- communication between building regula- planning provisions, implementation and tain regions to a change in attitude towards though reformed and transformed as it has disappeared from the urban-planning scene. ing infrastructures has absorbed Italy’s tardy tions and tools of planning for built-up ar- gain for the municipality in terms of re- the dynamics of transformation of the cities. been in Lombardy with the transition from And yet, this is the reform and this the ur- discovery of the need for railways and rail eas. To be blunt, though generated by the sponsibilities and standards. This mecha- Many regions have experimented with pro- the old town planning scheme to the terri- ban planning that reformers have helped services, which informed the debate and reform, many tools of municipal planning nism was struck by the collapse of the grammes and tools of implementation dif- torial management plan, has proved inca- for years to bring to life, characterized by work of many cities in the 1990s and the have not proved very effective over the last certainty that once a provision was includ- fering greatly from the old town planning pable of extricating itself from certain not decentralization and flexibility, the struc- early 2000s, and in some way made it ac- ten years in altering the Italian panorama ed in a plan, there would be a firm ready to scheme that all municipalities were required necessarily positive approaches and dy- ture rather than the whole, the process cepted that is better to work around stations and producing a landscape different from put it into effect, and indeed that there to draw up by law 1150 of 1942; many have namics of Italian history. The emphasis on rather than the plan. In the meantime, the than build without infrastructures. At the that of the previous decade. would be a firm ready to ask the munici- experimented with new, rapid and intense the programme and the associated anxiety territory crumbled and has gone on crum- same time, the municipal contexts are still As regards the difficulty of understanding pality to be remembered in the planning forms of planning; and many others have re- that the municipal plan involves in any case bling to no small degree over these ten too occupied with solving more basic ques- all these themes, together with others pre- phase with its own initiatives ready for im- iterated old dynamics and slow, rigid ways – the knowledge that after the municipal years from one municipality to another, with tions – like the presence of traffic in their cisely listed on the reform agenda, and with- plementation. This was no longer the case. of planning. All the regions have unques- budget, this is the most important public no intermediate plans, no design, no at- historical centres, the lack of policies con- in the general framework of freedom from The firm no longer came knocking at the

6 7 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION

door of the town hall or suspended its plans strengths, the easy angles and points of recounting the vision, we found ourselves Renovation of the Linificio factory, Cassano d’Adda (Milan). Overall planimetric and volumetric plan. while awaiting resources and clients. At a tension. With design we imagine what must working as technicians to help overwhelmed Definitive hypothesis, renovation of historical deeper level, the interruption of this natur- happen both through an ideal vision of our contexts of little quality to acquire more and buildings and additional volumes al process upon which Italian urban planning own and above all by taking into account the more, to stand out as centres of urban qual- had rested for years has led to a collapse data of the problem, putting things in place, ity in a discontinuous, irregularly concen- of collaboration on the part of the private working for the best and seeking a func- trated and badly connected territory. Design sector in the construction of the city. Due tional balance through constant adjustment has been used as a tool to oragnize and en- also to the world-wide crisis of resources, of the forces in play. We have gone back to sure implementation. No vision made sense agreements and partnerships have been design in these years of work. Precisely be- and had the honour of being included in an halted, shelved and interrupted or still pro- cause we felt overwhelmed by a problem- instrument of planning over these years if ceed but at a slower rate. Given in addition atic normative and administrative framework its implementation could not be guaranteed. the continuing lack of involvement at the na- and deterred from setting our sights high The two spirits and the two key words have tional level, it is easy to see on the evi- by the economic and social context, we have thus been built up and consolidated through termed suburban, as in the past. The activ- absence of pressure and distance from tion to make effective every design and dence of the last ten years that we are now recalled the power of our work through de- the master plan and the development of ity of planning for municipalities of varying “strong” and congested contexts. On the every provision it expresses, we have be- a long way away from the period of the sign. It is design that makes it possible to plans by means of master plans. The mas- size around more consolidated metropolitan other, precisely because of its need for lieved in the ability of a design – the mas- complex programs, the stimulus for rede- imagine a different form for a context. Just ter plan defines the structure of a context areas, such as Milan, Novara, Monza and spaces, meeting places, piazzas, connec- ter plan, for example – to adapt within the velopment that the state provided in certain as form was once the expression of the without over-determining it and lays down Florence, has brought realization that the al- tions and services, it must be designed be- process that drives it to transform its pro- phases, and the action of the private sec- wishes of a single power structure capable basic principles with a view to its possible beit “parochial” characterization of every cause it cannot be generated spontaneously visions into reality. No longer therefore the tor, ready to step in and build entire urban of constructing a city, today the form de- transformation. As a tool, it ascertains the single part of territory is still strong, marked by the current processes of these contexts, rigidity of a design to be pursued, not only sections, albeit driven by speculative aims. veloped by design can express the balanc- applicability of the rules it puts forward and and recognizable. Amid the defence of en- and must indeed be produced precisely as attention to the formation of a process, but Two key words appear to emerge from this ing of the many forces that have acquired builds up consensus by involving the parties vironmental values, protection of historical a defence against the ordinary ugliness that above all the correctness of a design, with panorama, namely design and feasibility, the right to participate in running the city, concerned in the physical aspect. Above all, elements and creation of quality of life, these areas continue to bring forth. its rules, norms and points of equilibrium, and it is on them that we have endeavoured a set of forces of variable geometry, chang- it provides a visual picture of the result in many areas reveal a search for a different At the same time, the tool has invested in capable of modification within the com- to concentrate in our work, intent as we ing and discontinuous but always present advance and generates a convergence there- form of urbanity with respect to the city, implementation, focusing attention no plexity of the process. With no sharp edges have been on observing the evolution of the and always capable of offering so many da- on of the forces in play, with their varying less crammed with things and events, more longer onto the plan and the process but on- or hardness, flexibly able to redraw its hori- decade. ta on the problem, which design alone can degrees of capacity to put the design into organized on the human scale, small and to the evolution of the plan within the zon in response to changes in the forces Design is the most powerful tool our disci- organize. Design is strongly present in the effect and strength to modify it or accept it compact, made up of usable spaces, rela- process. A design has life if its implemen- and intensities in play. pline and practice can have. It is through works carried out. Every assignment under- as it stands. tions and greenery. On the one hand, this tation is guaranteed. Far away from the pos- Through implementation, design has gen- design that we speak, describe the structure taken in these ten years has started from de- The aim of the design is the construction of strange kind of urbanity is paradoxically sibility of using designs solely in order to erated the architecture that we have con- of a context, highlight its problems and sign as a tool of vision and organization. In connected urban corners for areas generally sought within a focus on naturalness, the imagine, invent and stimulate, forced by ac- ceived, planned and built over these years.

8 9 INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION

Our architecture is born out of the care with working on the organization of pathways, ly, with its skin, volume and forms, it speaks urbanity sought after by many of these con- ferent distances of contexts of greater or consolidated contexts provided that they which we have conceived and addressed exchanges, flows and relations as dynam- of how the forces and variables in play to- texts. The elements designed and built have lesser rarefaction, the result of a strange pe- are well connected – may be the most stim- the planning processes in which we have ic forces capable of giving shape to space day are capable of giving shape to the Ital- the merit of contributing to the creation of riod of seventy years, sometimes so quick- ulating and emergent geography on which been involved. The volumes, spaces and re- as well as rational, canonically correct de- ian tradition of composition, returning to urban places within the open and discon- ly as not to notice the effects of its own to work. For this, we need planning instru- lations designed in our master plans have velopment in which openings and closings, the sharpness, order, rigour and correctness tinuous space of the suburb, of which they action but today, not least due to the slow- ments capable of involving implementation taken concrete shape thanks to the cor- materials and compositional elements re- of now historic compositions and recount- constitute an important part. Our architec- ness imposed by the crisis, in vital pursuit and its difficulties directly in the planning rectness of the pathways of implementation spond to a tranquil undercurrent already ing the modern world. It is unquestionably tural projects have therefore carried with- of quality in terms of settlement, environ- stage, and for this it is necessary to work plotted in relation to the requirements of de- tried and tested and already appreciated true that no architectural work conceived in them the very elements of that urbanity ment, infrastructures and relations. Our pro- around a design capable of expressing a vi- sign. Here too we have drawn upon histo- (by the Italian Rationalist movement, to and designed by us over these years stands – like compactness, the proximity of things, jects have engaged in a dialogue with this sion and guiding it along a pathway of rules ry and tradition. If our use of the plan as a which we are still so close) but susceptible alone on a tabula rasa. Precisely because the relation between open space and rela- geography of varying speeds and varying and standards to be constructed gradually tool and the design as the necessary am- of being disturbed by what these forces can it is born out of an urban-planning process, tional space, and the equal dignity between resistance to the inertia of rarefaction. They as the implementation takes shape, a plan bition of every space is rooted in the urban bring about. The resulting architecture is each work of architecture erects a volume constructed elements and elements of the have seen places capable of organizing in progress of the kind discussed above and planning of post-war Italy, when the form thus: it speaks of the design that we had in that is born out of the ground level of urban open space in which they are placed – in themselves around their centre and around exemplified by our projects. Not everything of settlements created by the great masters mind and through which we developed it, planning, designing the spaces at the foot the certainty that it is a mistake to con- the heart of their history, and helped them we have done has been a success; not all endowed the provisions with their essence of how the planning process modified that of the buildings, piercing the ground and centrate on one dimension or the other (far to structure a geometry of high-quality re- of the projects have been carried all the and was accompanied by a host of refer- design and made it feasible, of how objects laying bare what lies beneath, opening up removed both from hyper-absorbent resi- lational spaces, places capable of redis- way through: and not all the plans have ences, our daring to undertake architectur- were arranged and space was organized so the base to design spaces so as to increase dential machines and from the disappear- covering the fabric of retail commerce, and been built as we conceived them. It is im- al design expresses our essence through a as to function and give noble expression to the number of relations and exchanges and ance of architecture in favour of nature) and helped them to support this with suitable portant for us to gather them together here, rational, balanced arrangement of spaces, the uses for which it was conceived. Final- give meaning to the concept of small-scale that only both dimensions together – the policies of mobility and parking. They have however, because they all speak about an volume constructed and the open space seen places ready and willing to see the ongoing process in the conviction that ur-

Development of the main building in the renovation around or inside – can engender correctly consumption of building land not as a non- ban quality, the design of space and the of the Core area of Verano Brianza (Monza and Brianza). Volumetric concentration and gateway to the expressive architecture. critical consideration but as a condition to form of residential settlements are the best municipal settlement system Looking back over a decade of activity and be accepted only in return for the greatest expression of our way of being alive in this rereading the story that each of our pro- public benefit, and helped them to develop time. jects expresses, we find ourselves today processes of cooperation with private con- working on a city that we did not foresee cerns at a high level. Our projects have un- ten years ago but that perhaps provides us derstood in time that the construction of with a great stimulus. The city of today, or urban phenomena of quality – sometimes at least the one close to us, seems to take located far from one another but in such a shape increasingly as a succession at dif- way as to underscore the existence of once

10 11 Dialogue on the City

Marco Dellavalle You’ll be happy now. area. This is why I didn’t answer when you ities of all the municipalities to the higher Plan of the Martesana-Adda area. Province of Milan. Communicational and strategic map of the area See? Milan now has its skyscrapers too, said that I’d be happy. I can’t be so one levels of the province and the region. These and all in a group, not just one isolated as hundred percent. They are splendid, they bodies are fully involved in the action of a before, the poor old Pirelli that no one talks look great from a distance and they give a municipality every day as regards rules, about any more. So many and all together, sense of measure, like any “peg” stuck in plans, constraints, incentives, references just as we like, as in the US. a large expanse. But there is something and authorizations. But we never manage Marco Facchinetti The effect is really that jars for me, and you’ve put your fin- to go beyond this. The province and the re- good. Milan is a small city. You can see it ger on it: the metropolitan area. How is an gion seem to be light years away from the all if you get high enough: the green of the operation like the redevelopment of the functioning of a municipality, while at the Agricultural Park in the south, the Trade Fair Garibaldi and Repubblica district in Milan same time the problems of a municipality complex in the north with its two crooked connected with the development of the seem to be solvable only within the local towers, Linate airport and San Siro in the metropolitan area? What dialogue does it context, so small and confined as to ex- west. In short, with such a limited extension, establish with the very urgent need to re- clude even the neighbouring municipalities. the skyscrapers are all right there in the balance the metropolis? Little or nothing. MF You therefore understand that in this middle. They give a scale, as though at- The skyscrapers are not a territorial point way there will be no skyscrapers and no ho- tracting all of the territory and making it of reference in terms of functions, mean- mogeneous development at the metropol- seem more contained, more measurable. ing and weight for the metropolitan area itan scale if we are not convinced to the Of course, everything is bounded by the as a whole to the benefit both of Milan point of resolutely addressing this division Alps and the Apennines, which make it clear and of the neighbouring municipalities. No, and lack of coordination. And yet, you know, that the possibility for growth of the urban not at all. They are the umpteenth instance I still believe strongly in the need for an in- areas starts and ends here on the plain. of growth – albeit splendid, as I said – termediate level of coordination. I believe MDV It is small, but the space over which well inside the city boundaries. And this that municipal planning – through its own its sphere of influence extends is not so doesn’t make me happy, because it means territorial management plan, as it is called limited if we consider the metropolitan area that we have failed this time too, in this se- in Lombardy, or through any other tool for as a whole. The new skyscrapers can also ries of transformations. We were not con- management of municipal plans – is very be seen clearly from some outer areas, at vinced that metropolitan coordination with important and the responsibility of the mu- least the highest spire of the bank tower. So the metropolitan region could work. nicipality. I am also convinced, however, even the Duomo’s spire is overshadowed. MDV We have seen, however, in our plans that it cannot develop ignoring the plan- MF True, but the skyscrapers don’t seem and our everyday experience that there is ning of the neighbouring municipalities and to have much to do with the metropolitan constant day-to-day reference in the activ- therefore of the territory as a whole, es-

12 13 DIALOGUE ON THE CITY Plan of the Martesana-Adda area. Province of Milan. Plan of the Martesana-Adda area. Province of Milan. DIALOGUE ON THE CITY Map of project systems Map of hierarchies and polarities

14 15 DIALOGUE ON THE CITY DIALOGUE ON THE CITY

Plan of the Martesana-Adda area. Province of Milan. pecially in such a dense and compact con- mentation of the territorial coordination with Trezzo d’Adda the problem of the de- Map of the transformational potentialities of the territory text as the Milanese. I don’t know where plan, was unique and in some respects velopment of the plots of building land along the blame lies. Perhaps with the recent re- splendid. It even managed to produce a the A4, then handled through a single of- form of urban planning, which did not have plan with three scenarios and associated fice. And in the more recent plan for Vera- the courage, in handing over all responsi- special projects and strategic policies. Per- no Brianza we pushed for the municipality bility to the regions, to tell them that the fect. But what happened? Today, after all to coordinate its planning with the higher municipalities are not all the same, that these years, nothing of that plan remains, bodies and the neighbouring municipalities, the territories are not all structured in the because the law changed in the meantime first through integrated programmes and same way, and that it is therefore not pos- and the procedure of the territorial man- then through the traffic plan. But it was our sible for there to be just one instrument, the agement plan seemed so fast and unham- plans that assumed the responsibility of ad- same for all, large and small alike, in the pered by control that the very mayors who dressing a question otherwise overlooked in hands of the municipality alone. If we add sat around the table all called us in to de- the confusion of the province and its inca- the attacks now made on the provinces sign their own little pieces or territory, their pacity to understand the evolutionary phe- from all sides, as though they alone were own back yard and vegetable patch of nomena of the territory. to blame for Italy’s financial woes, you will transformations. MF And its failure to develop a tool of gen- understand that no intermediate level is MDV What should we have done? Not eral coordination in urban planning capa- justifiable in this atmosphere. It is a mis- draw up those plans? Or do them differ- ble of developing guidelines for economic take. I will always maintain this and we ently? and then territorial and social development. have seen it for ourselves in our plans and MF I’m convinced that we were quite right It is hard to understand why there should our everyday experiences. The intermedi- to do them in that way, precisely because be such limited awareness of these ques- ate dimension is the only one that makes our experience of the area plan made us re- tions. I have often wondered why. Local in- inter-municipal coordination and planning alize that no plan can exist by itself and no terest? Advantage? Laziness? The situation possible and the only one that makes it municipality can see itself as an island. in other countries shows, however, that it possible to hold the pieces of territorial de- MDV That’s true. In the plan for Vaprio d’Ad- is precisely coordination and joint action sign together. We showed this years ago. da we addressed the entire question of the between a number of territorial bodies that The experience of the plan for the Marte- road system, the crossing of the Adda and can and do give birth to incredible experi- sana Adda area, capable of bringing twen- the insertion of special functions in dia- ences of development to the advantage of ty-eight municipalities in the east of the logue with the neighbouring municipalities all the parties involved. Just think how province of Milan together around the same and their expansionistic ambitions. In the many opportunities for development have table and conceived as a tool for imple- plan for Grezzago we addressed together been born in so many of the cities we like

16 17 DIALOGUE ON THE CITY DIALOGUE ON THE CITY

to visit, from Amsterdam and Hamburg to sion of its built-up areas but fails to pro- importance, because I have seen constant PGT (Territorial Management Plan) for Verano Brianza commercial operations, as they created (Monza and Brianza). Strategic framework of the United States. We have tried to work vide the right balance of economic devel- mutation over these years of the areas transformations for the San Giuseppe district neat little urban episodes – a bit flimsy, as within this perspective in our plans, espe- opment, it fails. where we live and have worked, both in happens in America – far away from the cially in drawing up the provincial plan of MDV Working in a municipality helps you Italy and in the United States. It is true that city centre, from the heart and the con- Novara, even though it was a short-lived ex- understand which and how many difficul- there has been a transformation of resi- nections. Well, I’ve had to think again. To- perience. Territorial planning cannot but be ties the implementation process of a plan dential settlements, but I am very far from day I regret the slightly snobbish, old concerned with development that is sus- or project runs up against, starting with the thinking simply that I have lived in an age European attitude I had then. Though sep- tainable, balanced, social acceptable and plan’s ability or otherwise to attract in- of change. I believe that nothing more in- arated from one another, though isolated in not at the expense of components like the vestors, rally forces and obtain consensus, genuous could have been said during the a shapeless sprawl, episodes of urbanism environment, land and all the finite re- if this does not happen in a context with an 1980s about the end of expansion and the do have an effect. They bring quality and sources. Without development no territory ongoing positive trend and dynamics of de- transition exclusively to an age of trans- they attract even only a small part not of can hope to continue along its path. In- velopment. Why should investors work in formation. Many sites have indeed been the territory, which continues to be scat- credible though it may appear, many plans a dead area that produces nothing? Why transformed, many cities have changed the tered, but of the people, the life and the ex- are avowedly opposed to development be- should they go on investing? The plan must face of some of their most central areas, changes present there. The territory is thus cause they see this solely in terms of in- drive the development and progress of the but the territories have gone on growing at centralized and decentralized at different creased building. While we have managed economic forces of a context, and this can the same time. The more evolved contexts speeds. It finds episodes of aggregation in these years to produce plans with little only happen, for reasons of coordination have understood this and tried to stop or and increased density but then returns to growth or a great deal of growth depend- and in order to try to do it even better, in at least to govern this phenomenon, where- distance and rarefaction. This is what the ing on the size of the municipality, the con- an expanded context like the metropolitan as others have done less and some noth- city is now at the metropolitan level. text and the conditions, we have always area. If this happens, as it has in many of ing at all. The metropolitan areas have in MDV Consider Milan. It’s the same to some worked for plans that take development as our municipalities thanks also to shrewd fact increased in size. Many places have extent here too. The development of As- their primary and central aim. I believe in and intelligent mayors, it generates the dy- seen not only growth but also increased sago, the areas of transformation follow- this, as you know. Otherwise, the territory namics of smart growth we have seen re- density, which we can this time attribute ing on from the era of urban redevelopment stops moving and dies. You too, with your peatedly in Rozzano, Missaglia and finally to the recent transformation of consolidat- plans, and tomorrow the railway stations. experience in municipalities, mostly at the – we hope – in Cassano d’Adda, so strong ed areas once underused. And so, while While these are certainly not capable of decisions’ table, should know this and as to produce new urban phenomena pre- urban contexts grew on the outskirts, the of the transformation project was to in- for relations. We were among the first to redesigning the city completely, as the agree with me that a municipality comes to cisely in those somewhat scattered terri- volumes constructed increased inside them, crease the urban sense of the area; re- take an interest in New Urbanism and its plans of expansion once succeeded in do- a halt when there is no development. More- tories. and not necessarily in the centre, some- placing disused factories with a little ability to undertake precisely this kind of op- ing, but are able to increase the urban over, if a municipality intends to launch MF You have touched on a central point and times generating new episodes of central- catalogue of urban objects like squares, eration. I at least often found myself think- episodes or reduce the areas where there policies for the transformation or expan- one to which, as you know, I attach great ity: new small phenomena in which the aim promenades, public buildings and places ing that they were somewhat useless is nothing urban. This is what we tried to

18 19 DIALOGUE ON THE CITY DIALOGUE ON THE CITY

ly in that point and around that particular Inzago (Milan). Project for the creation of a new Portland, Oregon, USA. Beaverton. Transit-oriented sion of the position occupied by the area cooperative social housing settlement. The central development of residential complexes around sequence of functions. piazza, compositional fulcrum of the project and focal the public transport stop. Functional mix, volumetric within the city’s overall system and the MF How can we measure these effects? point of local relations concentration and compact composition of the system of functions and weights that can constructed space How can we now measure this prolifera- be embedded into it. tion of urban episodes? Or rather, what is MDV You’re right. I too believe that it is im- it that make some transformations really portant to apply this reasoning not only to new urban centralities and others banal the areas of transformation. There has been instances of speculative reconstruction? I a fairly clear shift of focus in the plans we have thought a lot about this lately, be- have worked on over this period. Eight years cause I really believe that this is the most ago, due also to the impetus of the reform interesting phenomenon to work on now, of urban planning and the new regional and the one upon which we have concen- law, we were all attracted by the different trated over in these years as planners and approach to the areas of transformation, architects. I have very often thought that thanks also in Lombardy to the transitory we should read with greater attention, not provisions for integrated action plans. Now least between the lines, the studies of Pe- that the areas of transformation have been ter Calthorpe or Andrés Duany, on the sub- conceived in some way, our attention must ject of the Transect, for example. We need return to the historical centres, the already to understand, for example, how to define constructed contexts, the many central ar- a set of indicators serving to measure the eas of now somewhat lifeless districts built manifestation of urban phenomena. I have in the 1950s and ’60s. Many commercial en- thought of analyzing more closely the idea terprises have fled to shopping centres or of a walking radius, which they estimate closed down due to the lack of a future and as about 800 meters, because we could an economy to support them. Many ser- identify the crowding of things and events vices no longer serve anyone. Thus it is do with the transformation of the centre struction of a new town hall was conceived within that radius so as to establish a café, tobacconist’s or newsagent’s. You struments required to address not only the that entire sections have lost their urban of Roncello. In a meaningless sea of resi- in line with this philosophy and will lead whether a urban phenomenon exists in that know, if we managed to understand this consolidated, constructed and existing city quality. We must, through the reasoning dential buildings, erected all together and one day, when completed, to a different case. Or connect it with the presence of at more clearly, it would also help us to work (which we often do not know how to revi- you have developed, try to restore this, al- all in a hurry, the operation of transform- view of the municipal territory, centralized least some functions that tells us whether on our plans and on the system of rules talize) but also the city to be transformed. beit in the awareness that the city being ing the historical centre with the con- and endowed with new meaning precise- there is a particular concentration, such as that we develop for documents and in- For this, we must always have a clear vi- built is different from before. We now have

20 21 DIALOGUE ON THE CITY DIALOGUE ON THE CITY

the phenomenon referred to here is more Trecate (Novara). Initial development for renovation ten cause us to relegate design, form and working on. The master plan enables us to and in elevation. The form guides the of the Cascina Pellizzara complex. Layout of the or less what can be seen in all the consol- central boulevard attention to composition to the lowest ask questions of the context, the people, the processes of decision-making and imple- idated cities, at least in the western world. rungs of the ladder. Just think how many users, the actors and the operators, not mentation. There have been cases where How many times now in our travels have times this has happened in our urban-plan- about the process, dynamics or instruments the design has triumphed, where many we realized that change has taken place ning projects. Remember how many times but about the physical transformation that forces apparently opposed to it have been and that these are the new images around we designed the multifunctional centre in they may or may not like. It is about streets, convinced of its correctness and given way. which metropolitan areas are consolidated? Trecate? From the initial idea, from the squares, areas, green spaces and buildings There have been cases where the design How many times have we come across curved boulevard capable of embracing all that the master plan speaks. Parts are has had to yield, forced to change by par- episodes of absolute urban quality far from the buildings in a single sweep to the street moved around and others are inserted sole- ticular requirements, constrains, rules or a town or from the most consolidated dis- that was then built by our client, always try- ly in order to define a different arrange- calculations. It is an instrument that has tricts of the city? In addition to recognizing ing to save as much as possible. It was so ment or because they change the conditions enabled us to obtain agreement, to fire the this system, understanding that our met- hard to get him to understand that some- inside the group called upon to carry out the imaginations of the parties concerned, both ropolitan areas are structured in this way, thing more interesting could have been operation, but it is understood that we al- professional and otherwise, about the and interpreting it in a positive way and to achieved through design. ways start from the physical point, from transformation of a part of the city, that the benefit of our work, we must of course MF I believe it’s a mistake to think of de- the arrangement of the parts. How many enables us finally to understand whether remember that we have a task to perform, sign and implementation separately. If we times have we dismantled and remade ours the rules we are drafting for a manage- one we have put into practice in our work go on thinking that the design serves to master plans? From Cassano d’Adda to Trez- ment plan or a set of regulations will work. over these years, namely to design. We give form but in reality it is the instruments zo and Lainate: every time we have used How many times have we anticipated pro- must give form to these transformations. I or phases of implementation that give sub- the master plan to construct the process, jects testing the working of the rules in our am convinced, as you know, than our role stance and govern the process, we will go control the response of the parties involved, plans? is to design. on making a mistake. In our work and in my understand and insert the needs of the end MDV We have used this type of instru- a metropolitan region, inside which we will the softer and less active parts correspond MDV It is very hard to think that design, as studies, we have seen the master plan as users, ensure compliance with the urban- ment very often in our plans. Our focus on never have the same frequencies, the same increasingly to the environmental system. we understand it, should still be the es- a possible solution to this useless separa- planning regulations, from constraints to the formal transformation of the city, our de- distances, the same concentrations of MF And so you realize that the concept of sential part of our operations. Above all tion. Through the master plan we have the application of environmental norms, sire always to include attention to form things. We will have urban episodes of metropolitan area changes a great deal. I because many things push us in the oppo- shown our ability to develop a design giv- without ever losing sight of the physical and to the “designed” end result in the greater strength and relevance, and mo- don’t know whether it is because we con- site direction. Regulations, the need to work ing precise formal answers that are clear, appearance and the formal result to be born planning perspective of the contexts in ments of less intensity and relevance. But tent ourselves with what has happened. I with instruments that do not accord pri- evident and above all legible. With this de- out of it. It is an extraordinary instrument, which we have worked, has made us real- we will have to be clever in ensuring that wouldn’t like our attitude to appear de- mary importance to design, precise re- sign, the master plan organizes its response one that belongs to us, that embodies most ize that in actual fact the instruments at our the urban phenomena are able also to at- featist with regard to any suggestions for quirements and the great difficulty of to the primary question of the form to give strongly our thinking on the city through its disposal do not provide stimulus in this tract the weaker parts round them, and that reform or change, but I think I can say that getting concerns and institutions to think of- to the transformation or the area we are forms and its layout at the ground level sense. You are right to say that for many

22 23 DIALOGUE ON THE CITY DIALOGUE ON THE CITY

years the wholly Italian dispute between and teaching in New York, as well as com- we move a little better and also to have a Trecate (Novara). Definitive development of the project for renovation of the Cascina Pellizzara advocates of the plan and advocates of the pleting my studies there, simply blew my more balanced view of the phenomena sur- complex. While the central boulevard organizes project was contrived and futile. The city mind. I remember, however, that even as a rounding us. the less important spaces, the initial composition gives way to exploitation of the area and visibility is built through transformations and new child I was always drawing houses and MDV It is precisely the rational balance from the road things that follow one another, so let us buildings. I think it is our duty, as archi- with which this subject is addressed in find the best possible instrument to imag- tects and urban planners, to understand many north European countries that sur- ine, share and construct them. That’s all. At that the city has been the hub and the dri- prises me. Berlin and Hamburg are large the same time, however, working on this ving force of our way of life, of our culture and growing cities with very strong recent every day, I think that it is essential for a and our civilization, for at least four thou- dynamics of development, and yet what is plan to anticipate questions of form and sand years. I don’t like the arguments, inside and what comes from outside ap- design within its framework. In our region which are admittedly heard only in Italy, pear to interweave very well indeed and at least, the existing instruments leave a between champions of the city and those with great equilibrium. Nobody talks about great deal of space for the design of trans- who think we should all live as though the the advisability of maintaining and ex- formation to be regarded as the central hills of Chianti were everywhere. The city panding the urban environmental system. phase around which to construct both the has its own degree of anthropization, which It is taken for granted that urban biotopes, package of norms, rules and provisions to is obviously at the highest level, but since urban forests and green buffer areas exist. support the existence of that design and the I am very familiar with places like Tuscany, And nobody talks about the need to rebuild path for its implementation. where we have worked and where I return the city’s disused central areas. Consider MF We have worked in Italy and in other very often, I can assure you that the city is the transformation of Haven City in Ham- countries, above all the United States, over a very strong presence also in the green burg and think about what we have had to this period. We have realized how our cities hills of Chianti. Look at the aerial pho- hear day after day in connection with the are changing but above how much we love tographs and the growth projections for redevelopment of the linen mill in Cassano cities. I don’t think I could live anywhere in the Tuscan urban systems between Flo- d’Adda. Why don’t we understand it here? the world other than in a city. It is the hu- rence and Arezzo, along the Val di Chiana, Why don’t we understand that the city is man creation that fascinates me most, to between Florence and Lucca or along the the driving force of our development and which I have devoted and will devote my coast south of La Spezia and see how many that what we must focus on with all our championed the city. We have applied our- can contribute to the virtuous production of tribute to the creation of a place in which entire life. I am deeply fascinated by every isolated green hills you find. In short, if we strength are urban phenomena from small selves and worked so that every part of our quality. This is the point, and this is what quality is born out of the stimulation of redrawing and every image that speaks to accept once and for all that it is the city that to large, regardless of their scale? activities, from plans and projects to poli- I would like anyone reading and leafing lations between the local scale and the me of the city, that tells me about the city we must take into consideration, we will MF You’re quite right. I think that our work cies and tools of implementation, even in- through our anthology to understand. We broader scale around it, between open and makes me dream of it. Living, working begin to understand the contexts in which demonstrates precisely this. We have cluding our little works of interior design, have worked so that every project can con- spaces and built-up areas, between inside

24 25 DIALOGUE ON THE CITY DIALOGUE ON THE CITY

Hamburg (Germany). Redevelopment of Hafencity Cassano d’Adda (Milan). Redevelopment of the areas. Building densities, spaces for relations, open Linificio factory area. View of the internal boulevard spaces and environmental systems. A new urban environment constructed on the basis of types of consolidated spaces

and outside. The common feature of all our the functioning of that extended slice of every time we address a constructed envi- ing it. This is what our work is: construct- No, what I would like is for our work to be works is this: the stimulation of relations, territory. Even though the instruments do ronment we have gone on beyond the ing relations through design and support- seen precisely for what it is: a contribution contacts and exchanges between our focal not require it, even though the cultural con- boundaries of inner and outer walls. Work ing our ideas and proposals by securing to the day-by-day construction of virtuous point and what surrounds it. It is our duty text is awkward and little inclined towards on an apartment in a condominium de- them as much as possible to a concrete lo- relations and connections capable of pro- to think that every time we work on a con- such exchanges, this is what we have to do signed and built by Luigi Moretti on Corso cal system that legitimizes them, by reducing new quality. text, no matter how small and limited, we precisely because the creation of relations Italia in Milan meant addressing a special specting the rules and contexts that we MDV Above all, my partner, let us not for- really have to address also what lies a few enables us to increase the opportunities light and airy urban vantage point in what find for what they are and what allows get that ourwork has been and is themost metres further on. The urban management for the creation of virtuous places where the was a revolutionary context for the 1950s, them to be altered in order to evolve. This interesting thing that we could have done plan of a small municipality or the traffic quality of the design is spread over the where the evidently speculative operation process gives birth to quality. At the same and that we will go on doing, observing plan of limited urban area must in reality quality of the intensity of these relations left, however, an architectural masterpiece time, we are far removed from those who the city from above and below and always be part and parcel of the broader organi- and contacts. This is the essence of the to be approached with the same courage attempt extreme and daring forms solely in being sure that we are on its side. zation of the territory and help to improve city. Even in our projects of interior design, as Moretti showed in proposing and build- order to shock and make an impression.

26 27 Imagination and Design in Urban Planning

Urban planning is a very particular activity lic use and advantage. It is, however, not still more in other countries, the city is again in Italy. It involves conviction that planning equally evident how technical knowledge in the forefront and constitutes the key the development of residential settlements and knowledge of the channels through channel for phenomena of economic growth is a matter of paramount importance and which planning must develop can drive both or decline (it is significant that the interna- that it is so both for the public administra- the public and the private sector to operate tional crisis we have all lived through in re- tion of cities and for those who work in correctly. Not only in the negative terms of cent years was born out of phenomena as them. It involves working in particular con- action by the public sector to restrain and incredibly earthly, urban and territorial as texts in the midst of forces that are not al- limit the thrust of the private sector or by property speculation bubbles) and pressures ways friendly, speculative pressures and the private sector to bypass public con- for territorial transformation as well as ex- partisan interests, and generally in condi- straints, but also and above all in the pos- pectations of growth and rebirth after the tions where it is difficult to share the deep- itive terms of understanding how the path crisis. It is the city that retains the leading er meaning of planning action. Italian of planning can in reality construct scenar- role as mankind’s greatest invention to rep- planning today is, however, the result of ios and visions, stimulate territorial pro- resent itself, its ability to imagine, invent years of very important cultural interest and duction, increase the positive effects of and build, its urge to live together and cre- debate in relation both to the instruments every transformation for both the parties ate relations. It is the city that confirms it- used to manage the planning of cities and involved, and contribute to the balanced self as the most convincing image of the to the structure that cities and the territo- and sustainable evolution of settlements, human way of living and that channels ry in general should be given. Between pres- their inhabitants and the environment. Our ideas, drives and reforms of collective life, sures for growth as the result of private activities over the last ten years have tak- above all as regards the sustainability of interests employed for the construction of en place precisely in the midst of these op- the urban framework itself, concerns about settlements and attempts to impose ap- posing drives and in a panorama not the excessive growth of some urban con- proaches of greater breadth and public char- necessarily informed and aware of the im- texts and love for what cities preserve with- acter, the discipline has now developed a portance of the dissemination of technical in them as bearing witness to the past. The particular vision in its everyday activities. It knowledge. city is therefore in the midst of a great many is evident that settlements, at least in most As never before, but in actual fact con- interests. For this reason, even in a context of Italy, can only be managed through the firming an anything but hidden or imper- as difficult as the one we have had to face, definition of a planning instrument and its ceptible trend, this very period has, however, the object of our work has always proved implementation through tools of a more op- seen recognition of the city as the most im- so interesting and important that it is pre- erative character serving to balance private portant form of the aggregation of people cisely engagement in urban planning in this transformations with public benefits or pub- and their activities. In Italy, in Europe and way that enables us to invest our efforts and

28 ideas in the city and pay less attention to pect with greater determination at the very the smaller contexts historically providing the associated difficulties and friction. Even outset. the territory with support have grown and in the particular period that cities have been What comes next? This is precisely the ques- expanded in turn and taken on a different going through in Italy but also elsewhere in tion that the activities of the last few years structure. We have worked on this subject Europe and the United States. have considered in depth, not least as a rein recent years in our activity as planners and The city has been read and described for sult of taking place primarily in places af- identified two aspects of great importance many years in terms of a model of constant fected by transformation and located in in these areas. First, they are historical and positive evolution in which, after the hybrid contexts between larger agglomera- nodes of a polycentric but hierarchical or- phases of post-war reconstruction and tions and the less built-up areas within met- ganization of the territory with a very sub- growth during the 1950s and ’60s, it then ropolitan areas of greater or lesser building stantial agricultural and environmental began to transform itself, rebuilding set- density. These places seem to express with heritage. Second, they have becomes con- tlements left free by the disappearance of greater clarity the directions in which ur- temporary nodes of a metropolitan struc- various functions. This very period is wit- ban phenomena are moving. Both in the ture that is still hard to interpret and in nessing a whole host of transformations of sharing of the terms and paradigms through which the environmental heritage is not al- areas once extensively used for factories which urban planning works and in the re- ways recognizable. and production in general, replacing func- al, practical activity of planning, urban con- Working as planners in these areas, we tions no longer in use and increasing the res- texts are addressing the territorial dimension have been prompted to recognize this sit- idential function as well as services for the with greater investment after years of ex- uation and focus on two primary aspects ca- inhabitants of urban areas. Everywhere in pansion in both larger and smaller nuclei, af- pable of structuring the territory as a whole Europe and the United States, these areas fected by the phenomena of urban expansion in a more fruitful way: on the one hand, of transformation have enabled cities to under way both in comparatively consoli- recognition that the recent transformations transform themselves, increasing their vo- dated countries, like those of the west, and and ongoing evolution of these areas are cation as places of residence for people even more in countries of recent develop- capable of developing urban episodes of equipped with facilities, services and green- ment. This is the territory that has in actu- great importance even in contexts that are ery. The evolution of the city and the deal fact been affected by the emerging urban less urban than the major cities; on the oth- scription of this evolution have led to phenomena in the last few years, both be- er, reappraisal of the value of open spaces recognition of the phase we are living cause the central cities have increased in im- and investment in the possibility of pre- through as one of transformation, ongoing portance and scale, with increasing serving what remains with active functions or nearing completion for the more evolved involvement of the surrounding area, and of importance for human activities. Our contexts and those that addressed this as- because of the more interesting fact that plans have worked on these two aspects

29 IMAGINATION AND DESIGN IN URBAN PLANNING

Territorial Management Plan (PGT) for Liscate (Milan). Design of green systems and open space. Upgrading of areas of the South Milan Agricultural Park

with great attention. The production of ur- of urban planning as regards both provi- above all the supra-local tools have worked ban places and the structuring of open sions and their implementation. The terri- over this period to assign the free and less space are two activities that make it pos- torial management plans in Lombardy and intensely urbanized territory the role of ac- sible to define the nodes of the territory the instruments developed in other regional tive connective tissue. Through provisions with greater strength, both the towns with contexts or other countries have led to iden- for infrastructures designed in more terri- a long history and those of recent devel- tification of transformations of territories as torial and less engineering-oriented terms, opment, and the territory that surrounds a way to increase their urban character the constitution of inter-municipal spheres them, not as negative – awaiting con- precisely in pursuit of urbanization as an in- for the preservation of open space, and a struction in order to become positive – but dispensable element for people to identi- more active and sustainable vision of the as an enlarged “plenum” rich in resources fy with that context, again in virtue of the territory, the plans produced have sought to and potential if seen as the active con- initial consideration, namely recognition of assign once exclusively agricultural territory nective tissue between the territorial nodes. the city as the major organizer of the spa- a role of connecting the built-up areas, rein- The metropolitan dimension has been res- tial dimension of human relations. At the terpreting it as a container not only for olutely addressed through the instruments same time, the management plans and preservation but also for all the activities,

30 IMAGINATION AND DESIGN IN URBAN PLANNING

Roncello (Monza and Brianza). Redevelopment of including those of a typically urban nature, tory towns around the city of Milan, have between the new and existing spaces, and central areas. The new town hall and central piazza that can be expressed through sports fa- rediscovered historical, economic and social the alternation of residential and service cilities, places for cultural activities, ser- dignity as elements of a more deeply struc- functions. In this way, they have given new vices and environmentally significant places tured territory more intensely designed for meaning to the once lost centres of towns like areas for the production of biotopes relations. For this very reason, they have and begun to offer an alternative to repet- and spheres of environmental regeneration endeavoured through plans to imagine a itive urban spawl. The Inzago settlement of in an active vision of open space. different future with a more active role in cooperative building thus addresses the The plans developed have experimented on relation to the territory and the ability to idea of creating a new section of the mu- smaller urban spheres with the capacity to express centralities, functions and services nicipality and imagines a new square ca- imagine different structures and geometries created or susceptible in some highly ur- pable of attracting buildings and stimulating for their immediate future. Above all, they banized settings. The plans and plans of new relations between inhabitants. The have addressed the transformation that the implementation drawn up have thus made new design for the civic centre of Roncello position and nature of these places can unit possible in many cases to design new considers the significance of a centre for a dergo in relation to the different role that places capable of expressing a strongly ur- very small town that has grown over the the metropolitan territory can take on. Many ban character through the forms construct- years only through the addition of residen- of these contexts, e.g. satellite and dormi- ed, the organization of spaces, the relations tial functions and envisages a succession of open spaces and spaces for relations of great breath. The perspectives and scenarios of the plan for Verano Brianza envisage a small centre for every district in such a way as to lend new meaning to the territory as a whole in opposition to the customary image of growth through sprawl. The new developments of territorial urbanization thus combat the monotony, repetition, anonymity and sprawl that have distinguished those territories until now. It is possible to reorganize functions and relations around these new territorial centres to the point of imagining a territory no longer at-

31 IMAGINATION AND DESIGN IN URBAN PLANNING

tracted by a single major urban reality, as more than function and meaning. The ter- A different organization of the territory is just in the case of Milan and many other cities, ritory of the South Milan Agricultural Park a short step away. The plans drawn up over but with a polycentric distribution of dif- around the municipality of Cassina de’ Pec- these years, the processes that these plans ferent urban elements connected with one chi is seen by the Territorial Management are designed to manage together with the another as in a single city, not rarefied but Plan not only in terms of the protection and parties involved, the objective attained and certainly discontinuous, not separated but defence of a heritage that has miraculous- what has been proposed and constructed certainly endowed with focal points of such ly escaped urban sprawl but also in active all show that a territory can be interpreted intensity as to give meaning to the territo- terms as a vast area available for the de- and planned in accordance with a different rial system and make it even richer than velopment of urban functions in green and structural vision: no longer in negative terms the central city. The plans developed work open space. The old farmhouses thus be- with respect to the power of attraction of a for this reversal in line with the most recent come the centre of the town – a town that single context but in positive terms, har- views of the territory and the most recent had no centre – and accommodate the civic nessing the forces and dynamics that the ter- proposals for the reorganization of areas of centre and many other public activities. ritory, independently of its major city, urban sprawl, which seems to have been the Some areas accommodate new sports cen- possesses and is able to express. The per- only future for too many western countries tres and revitalize the system of hamlets spective is post-metropolitan. The sequence for too many years. scattered through the context of the park. of distributed centralities makes it possible The territory plays a key role in this per- The territory around the municipality of In- to inhabit a vast territory as though it were spective. If the search for new urbaniza- zago considers the creation of a local park a city made up of episodes of concentration is capable through plans and projects of supra-municipal interest as a key ob- tion and parts of greater slowness and of producing new episodes of sufficient jective not only of the Territorial Manage- emptiness, a region studded with salient strength to refocus attention inside rather ment Plan but also of the dialogue to be points in which functions and use generate than outside contexts, it must also be ca- initiated with the neighbouring municipal- systems of open spaces and vital spaces of pable of demonstrating that the alterna- ities. This dialogue has already succeeded relations, and relaxed in natural spheres of tive of rebalancing the weights is better in obtaining agreement on a variant for the value that are used and protected. This is than the current alternative of spreading only existing road, thus demonstrating how the image in which the work have invested construction all over the territory. Thus freed an urban-planning instrument can enable and through which the plans and projects from the pressure of growth through sprawl, towns with a traditionally parochial atti- have endeavoured to secure an advance in the territory can be seen once again not as tude to talk to one another and develop urban planning. a void to be filled but as central connec- shared innovative visions of the overall ter- The instruments available have of course tivity, active and capable of encapsulating ritory. been used, first and foremost the law

32 IMAGINATION AND DESIGN IN URBAN PLANNING

Cassina de’ Pecchi (Milan). Design of Cascina the reality of a specific project, above all Bindellera. Centre of municipal territory inserted into the South Milan Agricultural Park and new town when based on perspectives of redevelop- centre ment, transformation and the creation of episodes of quality. Secondly, we have focused on understanding another fundamental problem and equip- ping our production to provide help and stimulation in the search for a solution. The passed by the Lombardy Region in 2005 ning undertaken by Lombardy and other re- reform of the instruments of urban planning and implemented in the following years. gions has also displayed some weakness- and the general reform that has taken place Apparently, and with great courage at the es. We have worked on these over the last in urban planning over the last few years beginning, the transition from a slow, long, few years, seeking to understand how the have slightly accelerated a general frame- restrictive and exclusively regulatory in- lack of expanded planning frameworks, not work and an approach to urban planning strument to a set of more streamlined tools necessarily corresponding to a supra-local that for so many years, even in the presence with shorter temporal horizons designed to body (be it the province, the park agencies, of changes, did nothing to alter the basic accelerate decision-making procedures and the local communities or the region) but in structure of planning. The accumulation of the approval of urban planning provisions line with the territorial realities identified knowledge and practice in the bodies re- afforded a glimpse of the possibility of ur- (e.g. the metropolitan city), is one of the sponsible for the planning (primarily mu- ban planning focusing primarily on the im- most important problems and capable of nicipalities and supra-local agencies in Italy) plementation of provisions, thus reducing crippling the best possible planning through prevented the reform from instilling new the uncertainty that accompanied the old lack of coordination. We have thus equipped technical skills and realization that a change town planning scheme for years between our plans not only with broader vision but in speed was indispensable. In addition to the provision and what was actually put in- also and above all with tools and opportu- human resistance to change, the natural in- to effect. In actual fact, with the loss of the nities to ensure that fruitful dialogue be- ertia of certain contexts led in many cases initial impetus, a continuous series of ad- tween municipalities and planners could to failure to understand the renewal of in- ditions and modifications to the original be stimulated through the invention and instruments and the renewal of the perspec- framework of the law, and the general slow- clusion in plans of projects capable of com- tives within which they would operate, and ing down as regards planning and provi- bining the interests of various bodies and above all to take a different approach to sions undergone by urban contexts due to institutions. In order to ensure coordination the city and its structural organization in the general crisis, the reform of urban plan- worthy of the name and concentrate it on relation to the territory. The plans and pro-

33 IMAGINATION AND DESIGN IN URBAN PLANNING

jects produced over these years have en- Verano Brianza (Monza and Brianza). Urban Traffic Plan. Development of the central road, from deavoured to increase and disseminate an inter-municipal relief road to a vital boulevard technical knowledge of greater complexity in urban planning. Plans and projects have sought to broaden their spheres in an effort to understand the tools with which the technicians and those responsible for implementing their provisions would address them. In the same way, we have taken care to equip our plans and projects with a broader array of tools for regulation and implementation than actually requested in an attempt to create technical knowledge that is more widespread, more pervasive and more capable of conferring dignity on a discipline wonderfully made up of invention, the observation of reality and technical ability to handle the rules, consisting entirely as it does of the interweaving of the planning vision, projection towards the future, and the reality of the codes and norms of the present. In the midst of all this, the use of master plans together with general planning tools between planning and architectural design has been used to provide a framework for is an important investment for us. Over – as a point in which a number of aspects provisions for the transformation of an area these years and in the projects developed, could be forced to coexist: urban planning or the vision of a system (made up of vari- we have shown great belief in the evoca- and architecture as well as the lightness of ous areas and objects) and in order to an- tive capacity and anticipatory possibilities vision and the heaviness of rules. Both in ticipate verification of the functioning of of the master plan, seen precisely because plans of territorial management and in plan- the rules of the transformation. Two of the it is an intermediate instrument – midway ning instruments in general, the master plan cornerstones of urban planning are ex-

34 IMAGINATION AND DESIGN IN URBAN PLANNING

pressed through the master plan, namely of reading them as systems and discover- surrounding space, be it countryside, a park design and rules. ing the most dynamic ways of giving form or other settlements. Only by designing re- We have assigned an increasingly pre- and substance to those systems in terms of lations is it possible to design the territory dominant role to design over the years. It rules and implementation. The design of and to understand how it functions. The is through design that we have expressed systems and the design of the city in terms plans drawn up by the masters, from which our idea not only of space but also of spa- of systems enable us to structure urban all we have learned, often start precisely tial organization, of implementing provi- spaces precisely with a view to the urban from the overall design in search of the sions in order to regenerate it, of structuring quality that we have seen give importance completeness of their vision. Important and functions and uses, of the alternation of to settlements and their position in the ter- indeed historic plans are imprinted in our spaces and so on. An urban-planning design ritory. memory precisely through the image with expresses many things and many dimen- It is also to design that we have assigned which the overall design endowed their pro- sions. It has been capable for us over the over the years the task of representing the visions. Thus it is today that the plans on years of speaking about constructed space, overall form of the settlements addressed: which we have worked, e.g. the plans for open space and the space of relations, of a thorny question upon which a great deal Liscate and Verano Brianza, have succeed- expressing the form of the volumes of con- has been said and written over the years, ed in expressing an overall image capable structed space and the functions accom- also recently, and one that apparently clash- of representing a project to be aimed at and modated within it, and at the same time of es with the vision of a territory consolidat- that if put into effect, even in forms and planning the sequence of open spaces, both ed over time as rarefaction and sprawl. It periods other than those envisaged, is ca- public and private, and outlining their abil- is, however, precisely the focusing of at- pable of defining different relations and a ity to cohere in a system or remain use- tention on the power that settlements can different organization of the settlement. Puglia region. Guidelines for road design. lessly separate. It has been capable of have in hosting new centralities that has Rules give urban planning its structure and Urban sections and relations between roads, open spaces and spaces for relations expressing relations and demonstrating links made it possible to understand the renewed have been the object of a great deal of study and connections between the various importance of the overall shape of the set- over the years. Plans are made up of rules, spaces. In short, it has been capable of en- tlement. Not a precise, complete and closed but we have found ourselves operating in visaging and illustrating the extraordinary al- form – because such an idea does not be- a particular cultural context where the rules ternation of spaces of relations that makes long to our culture, to the structuring of the have created suffering – legitimate or oth- urban contexts for us the human creation of territory we inhabit or to the dynamics of the erwise – in those who have approached the greatest interest. The use of design has territory’s evolution – but a relational form city, and where failure to obey them ac- made it possible to discover connections capable of defining the parts through which counts for much of the history of Italian ur- and relations between the parts to the point a settlement is structured in relation to the ban planning. The reform of urban planning

35 IMAGINATION AND DESIGN IN URBAN PLANNING

shifted its focus on rules so radically as to Lainate (Milan). Integrated Plan of Operations (PII) for areas along the motorway. General site plan lead in many regions even to a change in the name of the general instrument of planning so as to eliminate precisely its regu- lative connotation. The plans still speak about rules, however, and it is through rules that projects are put into effect. We have examined this question significantly over the years and realized that rules cannot be written by one party and obeyed by the other with the same ideas and respect. Those who lay down the rules and those who write them start from two different positions and have two different aims. The projects developed have sought to reverse the point of view and place the objective to be attained in the centre. Be it an envisaged transformation or an existing slice of city to be arranged, the final vision to be attained dic- tated the rules and the master plan used as a tool made it possible to try them out. Nor is it a question of rigid rules or flexible rules. The discourse based on this dichotomy all rules connected with the design and the remain as a fixed basis and ensure an equi- too often opens the door to tussles between form to be pursued by means of a specific librium to be attained in any case. those who seek to punish by imposing tough transformation, rules capable of adapting to Between design and rules, our plans and rules and those who seek to escape control the period and the ongoing dynamics as projects have thus worked over the years by advocating weak ones. What is needed well as the dialogue established between above all in search of urban quality, con- are rules of performance, capable of adapt- the various parties. The absence of this di- vinced as we are of the centrality of urban ing to the conduct of the parties involved on alogue is a possibility that affects the evo- contexts both for their ability to offer condition that the end result is attained, lution of the rules, which must, however, mankind stimuli and relations, and for their

36 IMAGINATION AND DESIGN IN URBAN PLANNING

Revision of the Territorial Plan (PTP) of the province “post-metropolitan” structuring in a broad- of Novara. Table of the degree of impact of constraints, norms and rules on local transformations er dimension capable of finally embracing and structure the territory and no longer constituting a destructive alternative for both sides. We have endeavoured in this way, albeit within the confined sphere of apparently local dimensions, to broaden our horizons and encompass the most recurrent themes in the dynamism displayed by urban contexts in the world. This dynamism and this con- fidence in the ability of urban contexts to act as the driving force of many economies and the point of reference of many soci- eties are associated with the new dignity that their surrounding territory must assume in a finally sustainable balance between city and non-city, taking us out of the dichotomy, away from the image of urban sprawl of a few years back, and towards the construction of a polycentric territory rich in urban episodes and connected by a structured and respected environment.

37 Architectural Design and Construction

Giving birth to architectural projects direct- plans. In these cases, the genesis of the have always been convinced that the city is struction of urban episodes. New transfor- (from the garden city on), and demonstrates world. If this is so, and if we agree to speak ly out of experiences and processes of ur- building coincides with the genesis of the the human creation of greatest power. I am mations that involve operations of an ur- its strength in being what the newly de- about the city as the central expression of ban planning makes it possible to follow an urban-planning provision and advantage is crazy about cities and cannot stand the ban character with squares and buildings veloped countries have assiduously striven human construction (with apologies to iso- idea from start to finish all the way through taken of the opportunity to derive the max- thought of being far away from an urban closely grouped around open spaces all lead to build ever since their wallets were filled lated buildings and the countryside), then the difficulties of private or public decision imum benefit from the coordination of urban context, from the wealth of things, people, us to think that proximity and vicinity are in- to bulging. The city thus continues to be we must agree that the city is the stage making. Many of the projects we have de- planning and architecture. The question of events, opportunities, objects and relations dispensable elements for the correct and the central element around which we all upon which buildings appear: as soloists or veloped over the years have been directly the freedom of architecture with respect to that only an urban environment can offer. In stimulating organization of human activi- recognize the validity of human organization. members of the chorus but in any case on commissioned by clients involved in path- the constraints of planning or the legitima- time, and above all in relation to the ties. The city thus again permeates the very As clearly written in dozens of books and a stage. For this reason, I am firmly con- ways of urban planning upon which we have cy of planning with respect to the unruli- changes and transformations of recent places – such as suburbs – created in or- essays, the city continues to be the driving vinced that the expressive freedom of ar- worked, in addition to some public works de- ness of architecture is perhaps as old as years, the city has asserted itself increas- der to escape from the traditional city in force of the economic, social, political and chitecture can only be born in the context signed and built in contexts where we were the world or in any case not much less. Its ingly as practically the only form of human accordance with different cultures and ideas cultural development of the developed of the city, or its surroundings, and respect in any case familiar with the urban frame- most recent form juxtaposes the correct- organization. Apart from villages and Missaglia (Lecco). Integrated Plan of Operations (PII). work. For the attention that we have always ness of developing planning pathways ca- markedly rural or isolated contexts, the city I Platani. View of the central sunken road focused on the process generating the trans- pable of regulating what is generated by is the form of organization towards which formations with which urban planning and the architect’s pencil and the full validity of human groups of greater or lesser size tend. architecture are concerned, this is a very architectural projects justified by their in- The countries that have taken the path of fortunate, as it makes it possible to place ternal rules of composition with no reference development focus on the construction of the buildings planned on a different terrain to an external normative framework. As stat- cities in order to invest in a different econ- made up of more stimuli and opportunities, ed, the debate is age-old and has resur- omy and make manifest their new power as well perhaps as more problems. Direct faced in history very often, also in recent and spending capacity. The consolidated knowledge of the rules makes it possible times. It is perhaps always triggered by the countries would never abandon their con- to apply them and use them correctly, not same question of which should give shape stellations of more or less interconnected as constraints but as technical specifica- to the city: architecture, which interprets by cities, and even the countries that have suf- tions serving as a starting point for design itself the natural rules and the requirements fered most from the beginning of the cen- and creation. The terrain of urban planning of the context in which it takes place, if cor- tury until today (or rather yesterday) from in which we have embedded our buildings rectly undertaken, or urban planning and urban phenomena markedly born in order to has sometimes been prepared by urban- those whose profession it is to draw up the escape the compactness and proximity of planning instruments that we ourselves have rules and design the whole. the city (I refer to urban sprawl) are wit- drawn up, as in all the cases where we have Over the years, since we began to work in nessing an ever-greater number of events gone on to design buildings envisaged by our planning and indeed since I was a child, I and opportunities conducive to the con-

38 39 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

for the same. The architecture we have un- struction of space and stimulation of rela- While many contexts today are noisy, Missaglia (Lecco). Sections of residential units dertaken and for which we have worked is tions between people, functions and spaces. crowded, heterogeneous and chaotic, a din markedly urban in its way of inserting itself Our architecture is born in this particular of voices all trying to shout the loudest, this respectfully into a context, establishing re- conceptual framework. While agreeing to be is rigour that instead expresses itself in cor- lations with the same (opening, closure or an expression of the rules of an urban en- rect, composed and orderly language and even neutrality), and necessarily creating vironment, it is therefore rigorous in its for- seeks with its composition to make the best opportunities for new relations to be gen- mal expression. The formal rigour that possible contribution to the city and the ur- erated, virtuous connections between built- distinguishes what we have conceived and ban system in which it is situated. In con- up space, open space and the space serving created thus corresponds to the most cor- crete terms, it strives to stimulate innovative for relations, as well as enrichment – albeit rect interpretation of the rules, the norms and virtuous relations between people, minimal, limited and circumscribed – for and the context in which the architectural things, environments and nature. the entire urban system in which it is em- works are located while at the same time In this way, our architecture can take a dif- bedded. We have admittedly worked during forging a simple and honest link with the tra- ferent approach to various themes. More these years precisely in contexts of a very dition of Italian architecture, from Ratio- serene in compositional choice and more marked urban character, either because they nalism to the present, through the best honest in the solutions put forward, it can are already part of the city or because they works of the 1950s and ’60s. In the aware- work with greater attention on the compo- are on their way towards the by now al- ness that precisely because we are rigorous sition and organization of space as an ex- most spontaneous concentration that many and precisely because we are different from pression of the functions to be performed contexts are undergoing, as stated above, those who design buildings in accordance inside the construction and of the people in- and in which we have been involved. We with a vision and compositional logic of habiting it. The organization of space be- have therefore endeavoured to ensure that their own, our role can only be that of con- comes a central theme upon which The homes in Missaglia revolve around the the homes open up to the outside and pierce tween the individual dimension of archi- the architectural works we have designed tributing to the construction of the city in architectural design expresses itself. Path- fulcrum of the central fireplace. While there the ground, using differences in level to tecture and the organic dimension of urban and built can help – through a reading of the which we are located. Formal rigour is thus ways, lines of force and predominant di- is little new in this, modules of flexible shift the floors and increase movement be- design as well as coordination between complex rules of the city, both urban-plan- expressed through the adoption of a vo- rections work on the geometric composition space are placed at either end of the main tween rooms. The space thus organized constructed space, open space, green space ning and otherwise – to construct another cabulary already consolidated around us, of environments, on the canons and layout living room to embody the functions that gives shape to the building and – while al- and the space of relations and exchange new piece of city full of relations and stim- made up of balanced volumes, rigour in of environments, once again with the rig- can be performed outside the home. Re- ways recalling the terrain of urban planning between the parts. The project for the trans- uli, in the awareness that the city we like composition and the distribution of façades orous need for the organization of space to working the relationship between inside on which the works stand – designs the formation and redevelopment of the area of most is precisely the one where different and elevations, and the correspondence of work as their starting point but with a few and outside, and using the composition of overall composition of the work, i.e. the a linen mill constructs a network of con- contributions made by different parties in function and form. It is rigour that respects more degrees of freedom, giving rise also the constructed space to increase filtering, master plan, on a larger scale. In this way, nections with the exterior and surround- different periods contribute to the con- the context in which the building is to stand. to innovative relations and configurations. beyond the obvious use of the windows, complete correspondence is attained be- ings. A modern extension of the historical

40 41 ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

centre of Cassano d’Adda, the project en- ings are part of the type but are required to horizons and encompass the network of sys- works are: a contribution to the construction ments of more complex spaces, urban types complex creations in order to enhance the visages pathways, cycle tracks and pedes- open up their layout and reflect their ele- tems not of the building alone but of the of urban episodes in particular spaces, not made up of various things, designed to es- urbanization and proximity of things and re- trian areas as a vast network upon which vations in the urban space around them, planned complex as a whole: the water and necessarily dense, compact or vibrant but tablish relations between things, people lations and to offer difficult, fragmented the open spaces and constructed spaces because it is only through this interplay that waste disposal systems, automobile circu- capable of accommodating places of high and functions, and capable of deriving the and rarefied territories new points of con- converge at the same time to form archi- the city can be constructed. lation and the layout of parking spaces as urban value around which new significance greatest opportunities from the relation be- nection and new significance in the cer- tectural compositions, elements born out Many themes have been taken up and in- well as assessment of the urban weight of can be given to more complex territorial tween open space, constructed space and tainty that the city of tomorrow can only be of the relationship between what is con- tegrated into architectural design over these each building on its own and within the systems. Our architectural works undertake connective space. This has always been the made up of many places with a strong ur- structed and what is left open. The build- years. Reflection on the city as object and complex in which it is planned. to divest themselves of the complexity of objective: to create innovative fragments ban vocation connected and organized with- ings thus interpret and give shape to realization of its complexity necessitate an- Albeit within the rigour of compliance with particular compositional solutions so as to of urban space. We have asked architecture in an increasingly rarefied territory. architectural objects in which the con- swers that are complex, rich and not un- the expanded system of rules, the return to express to the utmost their nature as ele- to submit to being part of more intense and structed part, the architecture proper, is in- ambiguous despite arising from simple the essence of Rationalist architecture, at- tegrated with the design of open space objects. The adoption of principles of sus- tention to the context and what the context precisely because the minimal object of the tainability, which is evident in most of the expresses, and the need to contribute to the design is not the building but the urban re- works, is thus combined with the adoption construction of the urban system with an lationship it creates, thereby taking up the of criteria of their urban and economic sus- important urban episode, the architectural concept of urban typology as the heart and tainability in the conviction that the ques- projects illustrated display their freedom in nucleus of planning. Again in Cassano, the tion of sustainability in terms of urban developing a creative response to the con- public street of shops presents a composi- planning is far more complex because it in- text of reference. Every completed archi- tion of volumes and arrangement of func- volves the appraisal of viability, public ad- tectural work is a creative response. To tions that combine to create precisely this vantage, the sustainability of costs and ensure that modification of the context takes urban type. The central composition be- benefits, and many other variables. Sus- place through the creativity of a stimulating tween the redevelopment of the area of the tainability has unquestionably guided the solution, the projects seek to avoid banal old linen mill and the opening of new spaces choice of building components in the ar- compositions and customary interpretations connotes the composition of a public square chitectural works developed and we have of the site, which can be pierced or raised, for a settlement of markedly urban conno- worked with great attention to the ques- and the surroundings, which are respected tations. A far deeper investigation is thus tion of sustainability in choosing the mate- but enhanced through new forms. Above carried out through architecture of the ur- rials, technologies and solutions required all, there is a focus on analyzing the rela- ban type and the value conferred on the to ensure the best possible performance of tions that each project can establish with the project by the composition through the cor- the building in terms of energy. Efforts have context and making them part of the project. rect arrangement of urban types. The build- also been made, however, to broaden the This is what the completed architectural

42 43

ATLAS OF PROJECTS 1. URBAN PLANNING 1. Vaprio d’Adda (Milan): 10. Verano Brianza (Monza and 19. Florence: feasibility study Municipal Territorial Brianza): Municipal Territorial for the creation of an urban Management Plan (PGT) Management Plan (PGT) transformation agency for (2006–07) (2009–12) the Piagge area (2005–07) 2. Cologno al Serio (Bergamo): 11. Basiglio (Milan): Municipal 20. Puglia: Territorial Landscape Municipal Territorial Territorial Management Plan Plan. Guidelines for the Management Plan (PGT) (PGT) (2009–13) landscaping and environmental (2007–08) 12. Pognano (Bergamo): Variant quality of infrastructures 3. Cambiago (Milan): Municipal of the Municipal Territorial (2009–10) Territorial Management Plan Management Plan (PGT) 21. Inzago (Milan): Guidelines (PGT) (2007–09) (2010–13) for plans for the re use 4. Vignate (Milan): Municipal of farmhouses (2011) Territorial Management Plan 13. Gambassi Terme (Florence): 22. Novara: adaptation and (PGT) (2007–09) Urban Traffic Management updating of the Provincial 5. Inzago (Milan): Municipal Plan (2007) Territorial Plan (2011–12) Territorial Management Plan 14. Gambassi Terme (Florence): 23. Basiglio (Milan): Building (PGT) (2008–10) project for redevelopment Regulations (2013) 6. Liscate (Milan): Municipal of the urban road system and 24. Verano Brianza (Monza and Territorial Management Plan Via Gramsci (2007) Brianza): project for area AT22 (PGT) (2008–12) 15. Canegrate (Milan): Urban (under way since 2013) 7. Novedrate (Como): Municipal Traffic Management Plan Territorial Management Plan (2009–12) (PGT) (2008–12) 16. Inzago (Milan): Urban 8. Canzo (Como): consultation Traffic Management Plan on the drafting of the Municipal (under way since 2010) Territorial Management Plan 17. Melegnano (Milan): Urban (PGT) (2008–13) Traffic Management Plan 9. Cassina de’ Pecchi (Milan): (under way since 2011) Municipal Territorial 18. Verano Brianza (Monza and Management Plan (PGT) Brianza): Urban Traffic (2008–13) Management Plan (under way since 2012) URBAN PLANNING

1. Vaprio d’Adda (Milan): Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2006–07)

Vaprio d’Adda is a municipality situated on a still expanding settlement system Systems, provisions and rules. Atlas of the plan and the river Adda between Milan and Bergamo inherited from past planning. elements of management for major territorial systems on the outskirts of the Milanese The Territorial Management Plan, one of the metropolitan area, far enough from Milan first drawn up in the province of Milan to be located in an environmentally and the Lombardy region in general after characterized context but an integral part of regional law 12 of 2005 came into effect, the system of intense relations developed addressed the questions posed by the by the territory between Milan and territory, developing some strategic Bergamo every day. One of the major traffic directions of overall redefinition. The two arteries passes through Vaprio, where it is backbones were the target of a series possible to cross the Adda. The town has of projects, directly contained in the plan, grown over the years to increase the capable of giving new meaning to the density of its historical structure stretching strategic axis of the road running through along the riverside, confined between rural the municipality, reshaping the boundary settlements and patrician villas, the between town and country to the structure of the modern city, with northwest, and establishing a new phenomena of attraction along the main environmental relationship with the Adda. artery and residential sprawl on the north- The first to try out the new regulations and south axis connecting all the towns along instruments imposed by the law, the plan the river. At the time of drawing up the also sought to ensure the economic plan, the territory was thus fairly compact sustainability of the operations envisaged along the two “backbones”, parallel to and through a mechanism of urban crossing the Adda, albeit with evident compensation capable of supporting the spreading into the agricultural area. At the many public works involved. Through the same time, the industrial plant installed in new plan, Vaprio hoped to transform its the past in many of the municipalities of the position on the edge of a territory centred hinterland was already disused or being elsewhere and construct new episodes closed down due to the shifting and capable of placing the town within the reduction of production activities. network of smaller centres and giving The municipality thus found itself faced a sense to the parts constructed in the with major infrastructural problems, the consolidated fabric, rediscovering its need for overall redefinition of its form and juxtaposition on two sides with the the desire to restore meaning to much of environmental systems of the Adda and its territory, with an undervalued historical the agricultural land. centre that was hard to redevelop and

48 URBAN PLANNING

49 URBAN PLANNING

Strategic axes of territorial redefinition. The strategic choices are structured around three different territorial areas, identifying projects for each of them capable of redefining the relationship between the existing infrastructural, environmental and settlement elements

50 URBAN PLANNING

Reconfiguration of relations with the river. Specific planning criteria to re-establish correct dialogue between the system of natural and historical elements of the river Adda and the urbanized fabric of Vaprio d’Adda

51 URBAN PLANNING

2. Cologno al Serio (Bergamo): Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2007–08)

Located on the agricultural plain south of crossings envisaged by the new system. Strategic vision. Ideas of territorial development that Bergamo, Cologno al Serio exemplifies the The plan operates in this context, seeking intersect with transversal themes: new urban settlement dynamics of recent years in the to obtain the maximum quality for the urban centralities, strengthening of the infrastructural areas of the Po Valley close to the large system, so compactly built as to prove system, policies of environmental protection and towns. Outside the historical centre, still slightly suffocated, and investing in some promotion perfectly recognizable and legible in the areas of transformation to construct new town’s fabric with its form of a well- centralities and a stock of public areas and preserved stronghold, the settlement services, enclosing the provisions for system has expanded through the growth within the boundaries of a new road construction of a closely packed town, system. Above all, however, it invests in a dense agglomeration of low-density the route of the new road built to connect buildings with little greenery due to the the province. An area of transformation, widespread practice of seeking the which also solves the question of a disused maximum financial benefit and avoiding and environmentally problematic agricultural the creation of services and green areas. area, is envisaged in connection with the The compact fabric has spread out in all new road and creates a link between the directions around the historical centre as far settlement territory and the infrastructural as the main artery of communication in the system. The plan establishes a new north (the so called “Francesca” highway) relationship with the open territory and to the point of forming a vertical strip along invests in the resource of the river Serio, state highway 591 with the creation of a not least with the creation of supra- compact industrial district in accordance municipal park to preserve and protect the with the typical provisions made in the environmental heritage. In the same way, 1970s and ’80s (through the Plan for all of the south-eastern and western part Production Districts). Recent times have of the territory is designated as an area for seen the strengthening of infrastructures environmental protection and promotion of envisaged in general for the areas the agricultural activities that characterize connected with Corridor 5 and the the town’s economic system. associated provisions made by the The plan has been largely put into effect provincial and regional authorities. apart from the agricultural transformation The construction of the new motorway area. Connected as this was to the between Milan and Brescia south of the construction of the new infrastructure, municipal territory and the provision for one the strategic environmental assessment of the link roads envisaged in the Territorial monitoring process deemed its a priori Coordination Plan (PTCP) of the province implementation incorrect within an ongoing of Bergamo as a corridor for automobiles process putting the plan’s provisions into and trams transformed the position of the effect so as to observe the dynamics municipal territory, which thus became triggered and establish the strategic central to one of the many territorial programme of operations piece by piece.

52 53 Quality of the urban system. Areas of urban transformation, new centralities, services and areas of public use for reorganization of the settlement fabric

Road system and utilisation of the town. Traffic decongestion and the strengthening of pathways of sustainable mobility inside the residential fabric

Opposite Environmental connective system. Operations of environmental promotion and reconnection at the local scale as well as policies to safeguard the agricultural heritage for the creation of supra-local ecological networks

54 URBAN PLANNING

55 URBAN PLANNING

3. Cambiago (Milan): Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2007–09)

Together with the railway line for Venice, the overall form of the territory. Its policies Strategies for the creation of a centrality. Policies, the construction of the A4 motorway were designed to inject new dynamism into actions and priorities for the urban redefinition and constituted one of the first infrastructural the built-up territory, transforming the management of the impact of major infrastructural corridors of North Italy and has worked in available areas of building land within the arteries time to alter the relations existing in the boundaries as opportunities for the creation agricultural area. Subsequent widening of of small new centralities. If Cambiago the infrastructural strip has increased the enjoys a position of particular infrastructural division and created a rigid, impermeable advantage, it must avert the risk of and impenetrable element splitting the attraction leading to invasion of the territory territory cleanly. Cambiago has a privileged with new weights and new functions, and location with respect to the accessibility concentrate instead on the orderly offered by the motorway but is incorporation of the new potential into the unquestionably invaded by the division, territory. The road that constitutes the further emphasized by the consolidation of western boundary was thus designed as a a production system that occupies sites green bastion attenuating transition looking onto the motorway so as to take between the built-up area and the system advantage of the opportunity for visibility of the agricultural territory, and the areas of and leaves the municipality to cope with all transformation contained within it were problems regarding access by road. called upon to define a more precise urban Moreover, the construction of the new design. Through the policies of the plan, bypass system for eastern part of the Cambiago can thus redefine its position in Milanese metropolitan area creates a the territory and consolidate itself as a further divide in the vicinity of the hamlet small new centrality built up around the key of Torrazza, which still preserves a historical node of the motorway, strongly connected architectural heritage of great importance. with the other systems running through the The plan thus sought to restore the territory, and compactly contained within its connections broken by the infrastructural own boundaries. systems and ensure the compactness of

56 URBAN PLANNING

57 Objectives for the settlement system. The upgrading of existing assets and revitalization of rundown areas as well as sustainability and compactness of the urban form constitute the key principles of the planning strategies

Efficiency of the infrastructural network. Planning elements and actions for the construction of a efficient road system capable of establishing correct relations with the contexts traversed and restoring the relationship between urbanized fabrics and agricultural land

58 Promotion of the agricultural heritage. The plan identifies priority actions for greater use of natural areas of municipal territory, regarding the agricultural areas as fundamental economic and natural assets

Implementation of planning provisions. Feasibility study for the urban development of the ARm6 residential area of transformation

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4. Vignate (Milan): Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2007–09)

The Municipal Territorial Management Plan relationship with the high-quality for Vignate was drawn up at the same time environmental system. Traversed by major as a set of actions and operations flows, the town opens up to the heritage of contributing to modification of the territorial its environmental system. As in other plans context. The major infrastructural upgrading subsequently developed for neighbouring to which the eastern sector of the province municipalities, the riches of the South Milan of Milan has been subjected is evident in Agricultural Park are drawn upon to confer the municipal territory of Vignate. meaning on the town as a whole, The strengthening of the Cassanese and harnessing the valuable green area and Rivoltana highways, respectively north opening its use to the adjoining towns, one and south of the municipal territory, and the of which is Vignate. The Municipal Territorial railway system with the construction of Management Plan seeks to create a special the new high-speed Milan-Venice line have gateway to the park by providing for an area in fact served to consolidate the east-west of transformation and services capable of infrastructural corridor, part of the broader counterbalancing the weight of the policy of strengthening the connections commercial centre previously built on the forming part of the European Community’s Cassanese highway, and to identify some Corridor 5. As one of the many settlement services of municipal interest precisely in sytems involved, Vignate is thus called the area of the park. upon to sacrifice much of its equilibrium Unanimously approved by the majority and and part of the compactness of its minority of the local government, the plan environmental system in favour of harnesses the regulatory framework already infrastructural flow on a larger and broader tried out in some latest-generation scale. The plan drawn up focuses on the schemes by the reformist school of urban overall form of the settlement in an effort planning, recognizing the need for different to rebalance the east-west flow, parallel to rules for the historical city, the consolidated the infrastructural systems, with the city, the city to be consolidated and the creation of an environmental road system agricultural spheres, and seeking to include capable of closing the territory on two sides tried and tested rules in the new set of and avoiding further expansion. The two planning tools. north-south axes permit a different

60 Settlement system and urban structure. Criticalities and potentialities identified and addressed through various policies of protection and promotion with an effective impact on the dialogue between open and built-up spaces

System design. Actions for contextualization of the primary projects of reinforcement and new infrastructures of supra-local character as well as operations to rationalize and buffer the local system

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Policies for harnessing the environmental heritage. Planning guidelines to foster the use and promotion of the South Milan Agricultural Park

Opposite The constructed city: strategies for the Zoning Plan. Objectives and guidelines for correct management of the physical components of constructed and open space

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5. Inzago (Milan): Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2008–10)

The plan for Inzago addressed significant improving the settlement quality of the Planning vision: strategies of the Structural Plan. questions characteristic of the territory in residential village to the south in order to Elements of environmental protection, lines of which the town is located. Situated just demonstrate the inviolability of the open expansion, nodes of the road system and policies for outside the most densely urbanized section agricultural territory. To this end, the plan upgrading of the built-up area so as to improve of the Milanese metropolitan area, Inzago even envisages the granting of a large area dialogue between settlement territory and agricultural is representative of the environmental and of land (about 8 million m2) to constitute the context historical richness of the eastern part of the central nucleus of a local park of supra-local province of Milan. Crossed by the interest, inside which it is planned to Martesana canal and possessing a salvage and preserve a very rich settlement considerable amount of green agricultural heritage of farmhouses. We thus have a land, Inzago has succeeded in preserving its close dialogue between built-up areas and image of quality despite the major agricultural land in which the canal serves phenomena of growth affecting it. It is this as a “blue thread” capable of connecting factor of quality – both settlement quality all the contexts from the historical town and environmental quality – that the plan centre to the countryside. seeks to exploit, envisaging policies and The plan thus takes shape through the actions capable of endowing the municipal three instruments envisaged by the regional territory as a whole with high quality law while at the same time channelling through episodes of virtuous territorial a great deal of energy into the construction production. From the construction of a new of a major territorial information system urban section around the square, the connected with all the sources of territorial redevelopment of a large refuse dump as and municipal data. This important a natural green area and reconnection undertaking has made it possible to of the central municipal territory with the streamline the flow of territorial knowledge offshoots in the south to major and disseminate information drawn from infrastructures, Inzago focuses on making the bodies responsible for management its fabric compact, intensively redeveloping of the territory. all the parts of the historical centre and

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65 URBAN PLANNING The constructed city and open spaces: strategies of the Zoning Plan. Actions, guidelines and rules for management of the built-up area and upgrading of the system of open spaces

66 The public city: strategies of the Public Facilities Plan. URBAN PLANNING Objectives and actions for redefinition of the existing and planned public city: provision of services, efficiency of the road system and quality of pedestrian pathways

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6. Liscate (Milan): Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2008–12)

The plan for Liscate addresses a number of major production centre in the north of the Planning strategies: the five petals. The five strategic questions arising in similar territorial territory; attenuation of the impact of objectives constitute the five “petals” around which situations. The presence of the South Milan infrastructures in general; and the creation the plan develops its vision, boosting the territory’s Agricultural Park as a tool for the of new centralities within the municipal potential and providing a strong channel of preservation of agricultural territory makes territory. Five petals are used as a slogan communication with the citizens and parties affected it necessary for the municipalities and image for the policies through which by the plan concerned to comply with the park’s the plan takes concrete shape, both territorial plan of coordination. Now in strategic terms and by addressing the somewhat dated, this imposes a vision of question of communicating the contents planning that is hardly in keeping with the of the plan to the citizens and bodies dynamics to which the territory has been concerned. Great attention is focused on subjected. As in many other municipalities, mechanisms for the implementation of infrastructures constitute a key factor here provisions, through the use of reward too, as Liscate is affected by the schemes, capable of guiding work on the construction of Eastern new beltway, a new various spheres of transformation and motorway link serving the eastern section governing operations on the existing urban of the Milanese metropolitan area. At the structure through mechanisms providing same time, the presence of the tollgate for incentives and reducing obligations so as to access to this new highway system, highlight the need to invest in the compact connected with the redevelopment of the and concentrated development of the Rivoltana highway, has prompted provisions existing territory. for a variant to the south, which actually It is in this plan that the concept of separates the municipal territory from the economic sustainability was rigorously park. In addition, some provisions for introduced, yoking provisions to the expansion of the territory contained in the operation of the ordinary, everyday old plan have proved incompatible with the management of the territory by local plan of the park. For these reasons, the government and including taxes and plan drawn up addressed the subject obligations within feasibility simulations of of relations with supra-local and sectoral the individual transformations involved in planning through a number of specific the plan. projects, developed also by means of master plans, for the following: reorganization of the area south of the town, between the urbanized territory and the Rivoltana variant; organization of the

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Redevelopment of the town as a place to live. In- depth development of the five planning objectives through a system of actions accorded priority for the territory and concrete suggestions for their implementation

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Rules for the historical nucleus and the system of farmhouses. Analysis, modalities of operation and Guidebook Chart of the operations on the territory’s historical architectural heritage

Bottom Five objectives for Liscate. Strategic lines of the plan

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7. Novedrate (Como): Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2008–12)

The territory of Novedrate is particular. It is probed through mechanisms for negotiation Objectives of the Structural Plan. The nine objectives bounded to the west by a major and reaching agreements. The challenge is identified by the plan exceed the temporal validity of environmental system that constitutes an considerable. At a time of crisis, reduced the planning document, developing on medium/long- interruption of the plain. The historical investment in territorial transformation and term temporal lines and involving different resources centre facing this system is particularly general reassessment of the value of and parties in their concrete implementation confined and overlooked by the rapid investments in construction, the plan bases expansion that has taken place on the once the mechanisms of its implementation on agricultural plain, both residential in the the relationship between private investors vicinity of the historical centre and – still and public authorities, rediscovering the key more evidently – industrial towards the role that the private sector must play in the infrastructural corridor of the provincial construction of the city not least through highway. It is an intermediate territory, mechanisms like the “borsino volumetrico” capable of expressing both the making it possible to exchange property environmental quality of the Brianza rights in the residential areas. In this highland and the more consolidated connection, the plan rediscovers important dynamics of the plain. Attention is thus mechanisms, such as the transfer of focused not on design, for which there volumes from one area to another, and is no space in a territory with such a innovates the same through an effort to structure, but on the regulatory procedure determine the existence of parts of the of the plan. Though small in size, the areas settlement fabric requiring greater or lesser of transformation are addressed using density. Importance attaches to the specific technical dossiers in an attempt mechanism for implementation of the plan, to include prescriptions in a process which necessarily obeys this logic, because of implementation that provides for no it must be able to ensure close scrutiny of prescriptive mechanisms in the plan. the functioning and development of such The parts of the consolidated town are transfers. At the same time, the strategic addressed with criteria of negotiated environmental assessment procedure plays planning. Mechanisms for the sale and a key role precisely as a tool for monitoring monetization of areas for services are taken the implementation of the plan and the into consideration and the relationship transformation of the territory. between the private and public sectors is

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Opposite “Areas in flight”: method. The residual areas of “Borsino delle superfici”: a mechanism for the “takeoff” scattered over the territory – involving both exchange of building rights in residential sections the consolidated fabric and the project areas of that constitutes a crucial tool to permit the use of transformation and services – are redistributed within residual areas of the consolidated fabric often “landing” areas capable of absorbing additions due regarded as marginal from the planning standpoint to their urban-planning characteristics

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8. Canzo (Como): consultation on the drafting of the Municipal Territorial Government Plan (PGT) (2008–13)

Advising the town of Canzo, located in a understanding of the scenario to be Strategic analysis: the longitudinal axis. The central pre-Alpine valley between the two branches designed for such a context driven by backbone on which the system of services and green of Lake Como, on the planning of its different dynamics: the defence of micro- space is concentrated. The plan develops a single territory meant addressing particular issues transformations on the small scale; pathway of projects for the municipal areas along this for a very particular context. The last stop maximization of the private benefits of axis so as to endow the public city with a concrete on a direct railway line from Milan, the some transformations of disused areas on and perceptible structure town constitutes a bridgehead for the the intermediate urban scale; and the system of relations of the plain and the key potential broader, knock-on effects of the point of reference for the entire valley. 2015 Expo in terms of transformation of the Canzo has played various roles over the territory on the large scale. The plan thus years: as an industrial town hosting some invests in the quality of the existing activities of a very particular character but territory, initiating micro-actions to boost connected in some way to the nature of the the quality of the settlement system territory (e.g. the production of bottled (starting with the historical centre) and drinking water); as a holiday resort hosting policies to safeguard the substantial an important system of high-quality villas environmental heritage, choosing to work for the industrial middle class of Milan and on its provisions in the short term and wait Brianza; and as a small residential town for the external tensions to take concrete within an important environmental system. shape as impetus for transformation of the As the plan has discovered, all these territory. Until this happens, the plan will act systems, key points of reference in the as an authentic tool of management, with past, are weaker today and the associated no particular visions that the local context parts of the territory are in difficulty. cannot support, in the form of a strategic The industrial system is hit by problems of map of actions that can be undertaken in connections and accessibility with the rest the everyday course of running the territory. of the productive territory and some of its It thus works actively on the capacity of its activities have been discontinued (including provisions to ensure that the existing the bottled water plant). The villas are territory works efficiently, eschewing run-down or even abandoned and have recourse to particular events and relying on unquestionably failed to develop as a the ability of the territory as it is to generate network and establish relations with the virtuous micro-processes of quality. rest of the town. The environmental system The adoption of a short-term planning has come under attack from recent perspective also makes it possible to keep development but can still boast areas of the situation under observation and avoid great importance like the ecosystem of undertaking actions that cannot be Lake Segrino. The plan requires an implemented within the set period.

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77 URBAN PLANNING Strategic analysis: the central axis. The primary vector of the existing and future public city is the territorial area, which makes it possible to relate two major polarities and develop the relationship between the settlement system and infrastructural axes to the full

78 The system of the historical centre. Analysis of the URBAN PLANNING settlement morphologies, open spaces and architectural values of the historical nucleus in order to guide the norms of protection and promotion of the Zoning Plan

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9. Cassina de’ Pecchi (Milan): Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2008–13)

The protracted work for Cassina de’ Pecchi within the metropolitan territory. The demonstrates that also a tool built for municipality has a great many opportunities speed like the Municipal Territorial to attain centrality, including redevelopment Management Plan can develop on location of the canal, the area of the station and the through differentiated timing. The plan’s town centre, the creation of public services actions are focused on the creation of and sports facilities in connection with the some central places for the territory in full South Milan Agricultural Park, and the awareness of its nature as a very particular transformation of a farmhouse into a new municipality that initially fell victim to the centre in order to rejoin the two parts of great wave of speculation in the 1950s and the town, all initiatives that constitute ’60s and then saw intense building growth specific projects of the plan. Use is made of over the next two decades prompted by a master plan to examine the viability and the metropolitan railway. With very high ascertain the feasibility of these projects density in the central part and low densities and secure the benefits that their in those of more recent construction, it is implementation would mean for the a typically metropolitan area with major territory as a whole. Through design, the territorial axes generating important plan identifies a different role for Cassina, relations between Cassina and its not least in relation to the deeper dynamics surroundings. The presence of the connected with use of the constructed Martesana canal, the metropolitan railway parts of the town, both devoted to public and no fewer than three provincial services and private, non-residential highways (the Padana Superiore, structures. It is a long and evolving plan, Cassanese and Cerca) make the question constructed more as a process than a of infrastructural connections central to the snapshot of the town’s future, in which plan, above all in relation to the policy design plays a strategic role in guiding the in place for development of these systems process under way and implementing the and to the problems expressed by a planning provisions over time. saturated territory precisely in the vicinity of the same. The plan invests in quality for all its components and focuses primarily on the construction of new centralities in order to modify the position of Cassina de’ Pecchi

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The system of services and activities. The primary objective of rationalization and reinforcement of the public city is achieved through a complex mechanism of alienation of areas that ensures the urban and economic sustainability of the plan as a whole

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The mobility system. Redefinition of the infrastructural system takes shape through a series of mobility policies and works of different territorial and economic weight that act in synergy to ensure an increase in the urban quality of the territory as a whole

The environmental system. Identification of the primary existing and planned ecological and environmental connections in favour of complete upgrading of the South Milan Agricultural Park

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Planning indications for implementation. The detailed dossiers developed for every area of transformation furnish important indications to orient implementation towards planning with close attention to the territory

Procedures of implementation. The economic and urban sustainability of the transformations is highlighted in the detailed dossiers of the transformation areas through diagrams that illustrate the specific mechanisms of implementation of the planning decisions

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Economic sustainability of the plan. This key element of the Public Facilities Plan provides the economic framework in support of the planning provisions, indicating the revenues and expenditure generated by the transformations and the redistribution of resources for an upgrading of the public city

Resources for the public city. Estimate of the economic resources generated by implementation of the plan and provisions for an upgrading of the public city

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Planned services: sports centre. Planning indications Planned services: the events area. Planning and suggestions and guidelines of contextual indications and suggestions and guidelines of insertion for the creation of the new municipal sports contextual insertion for the creation of the new centre municipal area for events

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10. Verano Brianza (Monza and Brianza): Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2009–12)

The Municipal Territorial Management Plan then incorporating into the plan the design for Verano Brianza addresses a very and the benefits to be obtained by the town particular territory generated by the intense as a whole in terms of standards and urbanization of central Brianza, completely works. Maps of policies and actions are joined to the neighbouring municipalities created for the districts into which the and traversed by a major road artery but territory is divided in order to increase the endowed at the same time with sense of belonging to a circumscribed unexpected environmental value along the context (thus combating the sense of valley of the river Lambro, and presenting disorientation engendered by settlement residential settlements and industrial areas sprawl). The possible and envisaged that bear eloquent witness to its long operations are spread out not only in the process of urbanization. The territory thus transformative capacities of the plan but appears to present the typical problems of also through the combined development of similar contexts: traffic, a host of disused further instruments, like the plan for the industrial structures, failure to make the management of traffic and parking system. most of the historical centre and external The plan thus takes shape both as an building on a larger scale threatening the authentic road map for the management of minute fabric of both residential and processes under way and susceptible of commercial functions. In examining this stimulation by its provisions and as a tool to situation, the plan is developed primarily as keep the transformations and the results of a tool for painstaking investigation of the the implementation under observation territory, interpretation of the underlying through sound use of the strategic dynamics and observation of the environmental assessment procedure. inhabitants’ quality of life. The existence of Each of these aspects is strongly informed different speeds is thus discovered: on the by design. From the reorganization of the one hand, transformations to be carried out areas of transformation incorporated into on areas ripe for redevelopment for the plan through the anticipation of projects everyday use; on the other, micro- to the overall restructuring of the districts operations on existing fabrics in pursuit of a and the minute level of the traffic plan, level of residential quality not detectable at design expresses the pursuit of quality for a first. The plan is therefore developed as a hybrid, in-between territory not accustomed hybrid instrument made up of different or inclined to see public space as a great actions in different phases. A master plan is resource for the overall quality of the living. used to anticipate (through the tool of the It thus expresses a structure while at the integrated programme of intervention) the same time governing the dynamics and vision, rules and benefits of the policies required for its attainment. transformation of some disused structures,

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A sun for Verano Brianza: the strategic framework. The planning strategies are born out of a particular reading of the territory in terms of “districts”, territorial areas recognizable and recognized at the local level that make it possible to instil a sense of belonging and participation in the population

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The Valle Lambro district: master plan. The Valle Lambro district constitutes the territorial area in which the plan concentrates the primary elements of environmental upgrading and refurbishment of the historical architectural heritage

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The Centre district: master plan. The heart of the municipal territory and the fulcrum of initiatives to upgrade the existing buildings and actions to improve the accessibility system

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The Madonnina district: master plan. Consisting primarily of recent, low-density residential building, the Madonnina district is characterized by a certain number of public structures and the major infrastructural axis running longitudinally through it

Opposite SWOT analysis: Centre district. Analysis of the opportunities and criticalities in each territorial area permits a synoptic vision of the elements on which the plan intends to work in order to obtain a major improvement in the existing level of urban quality. The analysis also paves the way for the Strategic Environmental Assessment process

Objectives, rules and prescriptions. The master plans developed for each district envision the identification of a set of fundamental rules and prescriptions to regulate the areas of transformation, the fabrics of the built-up system and the open spaces and the areas of the public city, providing indications of prescriptive value for correct management of the territory

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Historical nucleus: permitted modalities of operation. Historical nucleus: significant elements for planning. Regulation of the operations permitted for Elements, materials, connections and indications for refurbishment and upgrading of the historical centre harmonious refurbishment of the historical centre on the basis of the knowledge obtained in the preliminary analytical phase

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Areas of transformation of the Territorial Government Areas of transformation and planning indications. Plan (PGT). The areas of transformation identified by Rules and planning indications to guide the PGT in its strategic apparatus are divided by implementation and ensure that each operation functional category with non-definitive indications is correctly embedded in the municipal territory of the areas to be sold

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11. Basiglio (Milan): Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2009–13)

Basiglio is a particular town. Within the vast to be undergoing consolidation precisely on territory of the South Milan Agricultural the territorial axis of Milan 3 with the Park, the historical nucleus of the strengthening of services offered by the municipality is small and clearly agricultural Humanitas hospital and the changes under in structure, consolidated only with some way along the main highway to Milan, recent residential additions. At the same therefore rich in potential and possibilities in time, the predominantly residential area of the aggregation of some new centralities Milano 3 has been built north of this around the consolidated structure of Milano nucleus on the northern borders of the 3 so as to transform the image from a municipal territory, initially as a green garden city on the outskirts to the central alternative to the traditional city and now a urban pole of a broader territory including residential district of considerable size with the boundaries of the neighbouring towns. some service functions and some major Through the plan’s investment in some problems in terms of structure and areas of transformation and its provisions organization. The plan thus addresses a for strengthening the supply of services, territory that is unbalanced if observed Milano 3 can abandon the outskirts and exclusively within the municipal borders. place itself at the centre of its surrounding For this reason, the horizons are territory, offering facilities, services and immediately expanded to encompass both public spaces worthy of an urban centre. the broader nature of the system of the With the mechanism of compensatory Agricultural Park and the rationale of Milano implementation and the granting of 3. The need is realized straight away for the transformation rights only in return for territory to redefine its position and the marked public benefit, the plan makes it conception of its being structured in this possible to solve precise and private way. While in past decades the settlement problems (e.g. the financial contribution to of Milan 3 constituted the alternative both be asked of condominiums for an improved as a model (the garden city in place of the supply of energy in line with the town’s traditional city) and in terms of functioning environmental sustainability targets), to (immersed in the green and connected by make good the infrastructural failings of some public means of road transport), it non-residential functions (by increasing the now constitutes an enclave of greenery and parking space and designing a more construction in close contact with the park efficient road system), and above all to but richly endowed with other functions create a centre of services of broader that are not necessarily confined to serving interest capable of repositioning the its inhabitants. A potential component of nucleus of Milano 3 and enhancing its the post-metropolitan territory that appears urban potential.

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Basiglio, the sustainable town: Poster Plan. The Structural Plan develops its strategic vision around themes of sustainability considered not only with respect to environmental issues but also and above all to more complex matters such as sociality and solidarity

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The six towns. The plan identifies six key themes closely linked to the territory: – the green town, which includes elements of the existing and planned environmental system; – the town of sport, for which the plan identifies policies and actions to strengthen the existing facilities; – the town of culture, identifying a series of structures for the community; – the town of children, aimed exclusively at the upgrading of education services; – the town of solidarity, regarding structures for safety and accident prevention; – the town of environmental sustainability, which sets the primary planning target of improving the energy efficiency of buildings and developing policies to reduce energy consumption

Opposite Roggia Speziana environmental project. The Roggia Speziana, a watercourse running through the agricultural, residential and service areas of the municipal territory as a whole, is the backbone of a broader environmental project for the creation of a Linear Park of supra-local importance to take effective action on deteriorated environmental elements of rich potential

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Areas of transformation: the system of relations. The detailed dossiers on the areas of transformation provide a set of planning indications capable of guiding the phase of implementation towards correct integration of the operation in the context, regarding the territorial peculiarities as the primary existing resources for sound planning

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Planned services: guidelines for implementation. Management of the built-up area. The framework The set of public structures envisaged by the plan is encompasses the mechanisms for management of the governed by the Public Facilities Plan through specific existing buildings and highlights the possibilities in-depth treatment that defines their operational offered by the Zoning Plan: reductions on construction characteristics and insertion in the municipal context taxes, incentive mechanisms and regulation of the building density ratio subject to the attainment of set energy-efficiency standards

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12. Pognano (Bergamo): Variant of the Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2010–13)

A cluster of houses around a small of particular transformations but also raises Operational effectiveness: Poster Plan. The strategic historical centre of agricultural appearance the question of connections between the choices are structured on effective and concrete and a few firms along the main highway agricultural spheres of different territories operative elements such as to generate complete linking up with the rest of the province, and municipalities. rethinking of the existing public city through a Pognano stands in the centre of a section The plan thus adopts a broad-scale complex system of actions on the infrastructural of the agricultural and industrial plain. approach even to the problems of such a system and direct specific norms for refurbishment of The first question regards the advisability of small context while working in operative the historical nucleus. If correctly harnessed, these planning for a territory of this size without terms as an authentic tool for action at the territorial invariants can lead to an optimal level of reference to the surrounding contexts and territorial level. Two key issues connected quality also in the smaller local areas the nature of a Municipal Territorial with this broader perspective are addressed Management Plan for a context structured in detail, namely redevelopment of the in this way. In the absence of actions and historical centre (where the proportion of instruments more suitable to address the disused buildings is very high, not least as proximity of small towns and territories a result of separation from the agricultural with low settlement density, the possibility context by recent residential expansion) and emerges of provisions and actions that are the construction of a ring road to bypass not confined to the specific context of the the settlement system. Combining town in connection with certain issues. operative rules and procedures for the The impossibility of broader and more redevelopment of original structures in the fruitful planning scenarios is compensated historical centre and provisions for the for by the stimulus of working on themes completion and reorganization of the road that can involve other contexts. The road system, the plan lays down a schedule of system and the imbalance between the operations and mechanisms for identifying level of service that the provincial highway both the required sources of funds and the can provide for the industrial sphere and its parties to be involved in the direct negative impact on the town’s residential implementation of provisions. system are central themes precisely in this Demonstrating that a plan can operate dual perspective of action to solve small correctly if it embeds its operations in a problems of local circulation and the scenario of supra-local legitimization, observation of phenomena on a broader whatever the local reality may be, it then scale. The safeguarding of the agricultural addresses them technically in depth to production system makes it possible for the ensure their implementation within its concerns established on the territory to temporal horizons. continue their activities without the threat

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13. Gambassi Terme (Florence): Urban Traffic Plan (2007)

Located in an area of great environmental and form to the functioning of a territory Short-term planning scenario. The short-term scenario beauty midway between the provinces of with a marked infrastructural presence in involves the identification of external gateways, Siena and Florence, Gambassi Terme which connections between the network reorganization of the Torrino area, recognition displays a particular infrastructural situation. and the settlement system prove weak and of Via Gramsci as the southern axis of penetration, With the Volterrana road running right fragmentary. Through careful work on the management of through traffic and upgrading of the through its historical centre, it developed system of access, parking and circulation, central section historically in continuous strips along either it seeks to restore correct perceptions and side in a similar way to many other Tuscan the most appropriate behaviour patterns so towns. The particular geomorphology of the as to foster its integration into the town’s territory involves a slope down to the urban system. town’s main square, which is also a tourist Give the complex situation to be addressed, attraction due to the presence of a spa. the plan is thus given a character and a role After a tragic accident, this situation was identical to those of a strategic plan. regarded as incompatible with the level of It identifies operations to manage not only road traffic and an external variant was specific aspects of traffic and mobility but constructed for supra-local circulation. also aspects regarding the urban fabric, The town thus had an opportunity to rethink identifying the key points of the system and its system of streets and open and public possible areas of cooperation between the spaces as a whole through a general traffic public and private sectors to put its plan, a particular instrument framed by law provisions into effect. and equipped with a series of tools for The general urban traffic plan thus hinges implementation of its provisions. In the on two specific instruments. The first is the plans drawn up over the years, the urban plan of mobility and movements, infrastructural component, upon which the which establishes structural points for the provisions traditionally focus, are always organization of local mobility, pinpointing considered on a par with the urban-planning sensitive areas that require precise projects component, giving the need to address the capable of modifying the existing space efficiency and rationalization of circulation and its layout. The second is the urban and parking on the one hand while redevelopment plan for open space and redeveloping as many spaces as possible space for relations, which makes it possible for public use and ensuring their quality on to identify the overall scenario of reference the other. For this reason, the plans drawn including the physical reorganization of up always focus on design of the layout as public spaces and mobility systems, thus a tool capable of combining the engineering acting upon the habits and behaviour and urban-planning components alike with patterns of the local inhabitants and the the due attention to implementation. users of the functions the town provides. The plan drawn up for Gambassi focuses in particular on imparting hierarchical structure

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Overall planning scenario. On the basis of an Operations on the local road system. Reconstruction Opposite important existing infrastructure, the plan of mobility of the local road system with the road axes, points of Analysis of provisions, potentialities and criticalities and movement redefines the functional model of the access and system of parking places organized of the system. The major potentialities and road system, identifying an overall planning scenario on rational and hierarchical lines. The road system is criticalities of the system as a whole are examined of reference with four component parts: the road organized on the basis of primary functions in relation and reconstructed on the basis of the four structural system, the system of gateways and nodes, the to territorial role and speed of service, and the components identified by the strategic planning system of parking places and the system of strategic gateways in relation to the presence of environmental scenario operations islands and 30 kph areas. The system of parking spaces is divided on the basis of the primary existing and planned types recurrent in the municipal territory

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14. Gambassi Terme (Florence): project for redevelopment of the urban road system and Via Gramsci (2007)

Subsequent to formulation of the urban maximizes the embedding of the road in its traffic plan for Gambassi Terme, the actions context. As this is a public work and and policies envisaged were tried and obviously subject to financial constraints, tested through implementation in a project the design philosophy is not to present the for the redevelopment of Via Gramsci. redeveloped road as a separate The restructuring of this axis pursues the construction but to construct through it and aim of improving the conditions of road its surroundings a complete urban system, safety and circulation, focusing on the an entire urban typology and an object quality of the space involved in the whose design is controlled by the project knowledge that an increase in the design from the ground level to the elevation of quality of road space prompts a change in the buildings. In this way, the project not behaviour on the part of its users and a only shapes the road but also helps to friendlier perception of road space in remould the urban surroundings and pursue general. The project thus focused on the specificity and uniqueness of a single ensuring the safety of the routes devoted artefact made up of the road and the to slower forms of mobility and the surrounding fabric of buildings, harmonizing resolution of conflict generated between use by road users and urban use, and this and traffic by redesigning vehicle regulating the impact of the road system in access points and regulating traffic an attempt to create a single commonly management while adapting its architecture used plateau for the human activities of the to the rules of the highway code, which are area, all gathered together and certainly not oriented towards the creation concentrated in a single redeveloped space. of a high-quality system. It is through the architecture of the road system that the project develops the urban design. The choice of materials, furnishings, lighting and environmental structures

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Areas of operation for the definitive project. The project envisages the construction of a safe and continuous pedestrian system, the reorganization of access points and vehicle passageways, and the regulation of access traffic

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Project details. Materials, sections and paving

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Elements of quality. Attention to detail and the use of quality materials make it possible to highlight key planning elements. The use of Sestino-type paving gives greater visibility to the sensitive points of the pedestrian pathway, such as crossings and intersections, while also contributing to the visual continuity of the pathway as a whole. Through correct use of the materials of urban furniture, the planned pedestrian system is embedded in the context so as to create harmony and urban quality

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15. Canegrate (Milan): Urban Traffic Plan (2009–12)

The territory of Canegrate is typical of the density construction, served by a limited, Poster Plan. A key element in the definition of contexts developed north of Milan. With no inadequate, non-hierarchical network devoid planning actions, the Poster Plan makes all the separation from the built-up areas of its of urban episodes or efficient services for constituent aspects of the territory of Canegrate neighbouring towns, the centre of the built-up areas. The plan identifies the visible and legible. It highlights the parts of the Canegrate is no more than the small different parts of the territory to isolate the territory in need of protection and upgrading, historical centre on the main north-south parts that can only be separated from the thus laying the foundations for the strategic vision highway. The town as a whole is defined territorial network, which must be provided of the plan by the growth of the last thirty years, with a bypass system on the outskirts of devoid of careful planning and developed the town. This focus on the existing through constant, small-scale additions with structures makes it possible to redevelop the creation of plans of implementation and the historical centre in the design of spaces individual property units. At the same time, and micro-systems of relations. The while lacking an important industrial fabric existing and consolidated fabric generated of any great size, the municipal territory is by the zoning plans of previous years is crossed by flows of heavy vehicles from regarded as an area to be protected neighbouring towns. The only decidedly through the creation of woonerfs and positive aspect as regards mobility is the environmental islands with access and use presence of the railway line connecting the restricted exclusively to residents. A bypass town with the rest of the metropolitan area system is designed for heavy traffic and and Milan as well as the plans now under circulation in the centre of the town is way to strengthen and reorganize the rail reorganized. The result pursued by the plan system. is overall reorganization of the road system The traffic plan had first of all to examine, and above all general territorial restructuring analyze and understand the nature of the capable of generating new spaces for municipal and neighbouring territory. As in relations, new opportunities for quality and every other plan drawn up over these an urban system superior to the existing years, a broader horizon was adopted, using one. Since the plan cannot be put into this as an opportunity to drawn up an effect all at once, a system of guidelines instrument with a strong territorial and and tools is defined covering point by point therefore not only specialized character all the solutions to be adopted in order to capable of putting forward solutions to a redesign the road system in territorial terms precise problem through a proposal for with a view to increasing local technical regional planning of greater breadth. knowledge and ensuring implementation of The resulting plan fully grasps the nature of the plan in sections by the public and the territory. The growth of past years has private sectors. resulted in a dense territory, albeit of low-

110 111 The medium-term planning scenario. With a view to correct implementation of the plan, the actions identified are divided into consecutive phases. The medium-term scenario accords priority to the limitation of vehicle speed in the most sensitive areas and redevelopment of the primary stretches of the road system

The long-term planning scenario. The last phase of implementation completes the trajectory developed in the previous phases, giving birth to overall reorganization of the road system. The actions envisaged in this last step regard management of the extra-urban road system so as to keep through traffic out of the urban fabric

112 Roads Typologies Chart. The images show the forms of treatment of the road sections, identifying the types present in the Canegrate system, defining the characteristics of the existing situation and developing a pathway that first applies the basic constructive norms and then arrives at an implemented definition that raises the quality of the axis through redefinition of functions and spaces, identifying sections devoted to specific users, like means of public transport, and designing spaces for parking and pedestrian and public areas

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16. Inzago (Milan): Urban Traffic Plan (under way since 2010)

The overall framework of planning at Inzago highway, already the object of Poster Plan. Drawing its fundamentals from reached completion with the Urban Traffic redevelopment. It is thus possible to rejoin investigation of the territory of Inzago, built up also Plan for overall regulation of the functioning the two parts of the town situated north through the territorial management plan, the Poster of the territory’s road system. (the larger) and south of the highway Plan bases the definition of strategies on recognized As elsewhere, the plan for Inzago expands through the reduction of traffic and the territorial systems and reinforces the characteristics its sphere of responsibility to observe the handling of the primary link with a new of territorial units town’s territorial organization, in this case urban design. The plan is put to the test by with the support of the management plan the north-south crossing, which proves to drawn up shortly before. The traffic plan be of territorial importance as a quick way analyzes the various systems identified and between the northern and southern parts addressed by the Territorial Management of the eastern Milanese plain passing Plan. From the canal system to the precisely through Inzago. Recognizing that historical centre, the municipal territory the town’s fine historical centre and urban presents a rational structure upon which fabric cannot be subjected to the traffic of the plan works with a view not only to the an entire metropolitan area, the plan creation of a functional road system but submits to the attention of the local also to the identification of territorial units in inhabitants, primary actors and stakeholders the various parts of the town, investing in various scenarios for the closure of the the pursuit of environmental and settlement historical centre to circulation and through quality. Taking stock of the decision not to traffic so as to improve the liveability and create any alternative to the existing road quality of the municipal territory by system, preserving the agricultural territory deviating flows that form no part of it. already protected by the management plan The resulting open discussion has shown with the creation of a local park of supra- how difficult it is to reconcile different municipal interest, and seeking in any case attitudes and points of view, not least the to eliminate traffic from the historical defence of personal interests and failure centre, the plan thus focuses on the to understand that urban quality and presence of a bypass north of the town settlement quality are two objectives capable, despite its wholly urban structure, whose attainment can enhance the of siphoning off the east-west through economic, social, environmental and human traffic and lightening as much as possible value of an already rich and valid context the flow of traffic along the Padana like that of Inzago.

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115 Roads Typologies Chart. The images provide a specific vision of the characteristics of the road system in this area with a view to improving the quality of the roadway and better insertion into the context. In specific terms, the project regards the road system along the canal, where priority is given to public space and slow mobility

116 The project: overall view. This key element of the plan encompasses all of the identified planning actions. A fundamental role in the new infrastructural system is assigned to the central north-south axis, the object of various policies to limit crossing. Collateral actions include the overall strengthening, redevelopment and redefinition of the local road system

Specific actions for intersections. The reorganization of the road system includes specific operations on the intersections, including the creation of a surmountable rotunda, a new system of rights-of-way and redrawing the lines of consolidation to as to ensure the continuity of cycle and pedestrian pathways also through the institution of an alternate one-way system

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17. Melegnano (Milan): Urban Traffic Plan (under way since 2011)

The drafting of the Urban Traffic Plan for Melegnano has the potential to organize Poster Plan. Backbones and areas are the Melegnano made it possible to observe and itself as a centrality with strong and marked cornerstones of the Poster Plan, which encompasses study the infrastructural dynamics currently urban characteristics precisely through all of the elements brought out by broad and detailed affecting the Milanese metropolitan area pursuit of the concentration around nodes analysis, translating the plan’s strategic objectives through a dense, consolidated territory rich and polarities that the outspread and largely into images and identifying specificities of treatment, in relations. The construction of the east built-up territory can now undertake. points for attention, resources and potentialities bypass, the completion of work to The plan identifies the historical centre as strengthen the rail system and the general the major driving force of the town’s restructuring of the provincial road system development and urban connotations, and of connection and access to both of these thus realizes that the rationalization of have modified the role and position of the traffic in and around the centre is municipal territory, which forms part of a indispensable. With a system of circuits territorial system of greater breadth. around the most historical and dense Called upon to address some of the nucleus, the reorganization acts like a huge problems created by metropolitan turbine to involve all the surrounding congestion, the plan therefore focuses on districts, thus identifying environmental the metropolitan dimension and makes it islands and areas to be safeguarded. possible for the town council to take part If carried out in this way, rationalization with greater strength and competence in makes it possible to increase the spaces discussions regarding local structures and earmarked for urban and settlement quality. the local repercussions of major works. Reorganization of the fortnightly market, It thus emerges that plans, even when completion of work on the station area, sectoral in character, have a further overall revision of the parking plan and the fundamental strategic role to play if they proposal for gateways of access between prove capable of stimulating debate and the external and internal systems, with exchange of ideas at the various levels of supporting policies such as ensuring the analysis and observation of the greater usability of parking spaces through consequences of all the choices. At the the provisions of precise information in same time, the plan cannot avoid focusing real time, regulation of the times of access its attention on the interior of the municipal to the more sensitive areas with the flexible territory, thus discovering the vitality and use of environmental islands and zones of the overall attractiveness of the services limited traffic, thus recovering an ever- and the commercial and residential systems greater number of spaces and areas of the of Melegnano. Far more than a satellite urban fabric. town of the Milanese metropolitan area,

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119 120 Opposite Central area. Identified and addressed in detail in both the analytical and the strategic phases, the central area of Melegnano is redefined and reorganized by taking into consideration not only the different uses to which it is put but also and above all the characteristics and geometry of the street system

Short-term planning scenario. The project develops in the three temporal spans of the short, medium and long term. The short-term scenario identifies the actions for immediate implementation, as regards both their technical and economic feasibility and the need to resolve the most critical situations. It envisages, for example, hierarchical organization of the street system and the application of marketing principles to parking

Long-term planning scenario. In the long term, the plans for the municipal system are combined with the supra-local provisions for Milan East Bypass, which makes it possible through the collateral works envisaged to redefine the system of municipal crossing and assign them a new urban role

121 Limited traffic zone (LTZ) and town market. The identification of an LTZ in connection with the town market becomes a key element for the management of municipal traffic, as the market constitutes a strong attraction at the supra-local level capable of generating major flows of traffic that the plan is designed to manage

122 Plans for the parking scenario. Rethinking and managing the traffic in the central area of Melegnano means taking direct action on the parking system. The plan thus identifies differentiated levels of payment for parking in relation to proximity to the historical centre and recognizes the importance of parking areas to serve the railway station

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18. Verano Brianza (Monza and Brianza): Urban Traffic Plan (under way since 2012)

As in other contexts, the drawing up of the immediately identifies a hierarchy making Poster Plan. Construction of the Poster Plan Territorial Management Plan for Verano it possible to take full advantage of the constitutes the key phase of the planning process in Brianza was followed by the Urban Traffic characteristics of all the roads. On the one that it makes it possible to outline synoptically the Plan, thus identifying the tool to give hand, it envisages strengthening the two priority objectives and strategies identified also concrete shape to the provisions for access points to the major traffic artery, through the development of an in-depth analytical reorganization of the town’s urban spheres thus favouring its use also for internal phase, pinpointing the initial indications for and to pursue objectives of urban quality. purposes. On the other, the main road is reorganization of the infrastructural system The major artery of the provincial highway seen as vital and capable of supporting the runs by Verano, touching its settlement town’s strategic functions while providing fabric on the west and north sides. access to the various sectors into which No fewer than two access points make it it is divided. The road is redesigned, possible to use this artery also for north- rethought and reshaped as a central south movements and avoid going through backbone, traffic is regulated but not the municipal fabric, but this does not eliminated, and the system of the functions happen. The main road, classed as a priority is made accessible with greater rationality. provincial highway before the construction Greater attention can thus be focused on of the bypass, runs through the most pedestrian use of the historical centre, consolidated territory, passes close to the freed from the weight of some through historical centre, and touches upon all of traffic that the main road can instead the town’s major services. It could be seen absorb. The plan has also been used as a as a vital backbone of support for the tool to resolve the incompatibility of the town’s strategic activities, but this is presence of a factory on the road by the prevented by the interference of too many river Lambro. Since the aim is to enhance demands expressed by too many users. the environmental value of the axis of the The road along the valley of the river river, fostering the integration of green Lambro could be a green artery for use of areas with the previous industrial and the valley, but this is prevented by the agricultural settlement system, a series of presence of a factory whose heavy lorries traffic-calming measures are envisaged with are a plague on the road. The plan works on policies to mediate between the presence all these potentialities, discovering that the of a factory and the municipal desire to use quick but short-lived development the artery in a different way so as to ensure experienced by many of these contexts has maximization of the area’s environmental not even resulted in a road system of value. The plan thus serves as a channel of sufficient geometric breadth to dialogue and mediation between different accommodate functions, uses and users in parties, illustrating alternative scenarios, ever greater numbers with increasingly building up consensus on the solutions, and specialized and differentiated requirements. taking responsibility for their Working on the overall geometry of the implementation. network and its precise design, the plan

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Central axis. Identifying the critical aspects and Short-term planning scenario. The short-term scenario territorial potentialities, the plan pinpoints the focuses on improving the accessibility of the central fulcrum of the infrastructural and settlement system area by strengthening the cycle tracks and pedestrian of Verano Brianza as the heart of specific operations pathways and creating an initial ring devoted entirely aimed at upgrading and protecting the existing to slow mobility. At the same time, it involves action historical structures and the structure of the public to organize and ensure the safety of crossings and city, which are often affected by different uses and intersections users

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Medium-term planning scenario. The second phase of Long-term planning scenario. The most distant phase implementation identifies the most sensitive areas for in temporal terms envisages operations of greater which protective policies are required, including the technical and economic complexity, like upgrading the historical centre and residential fabrics. The major main thoroughfares and restructuring some important points of municipal access and the areas requiring the intersections. The system of cycle tracks is completed creation of 30 kph zones are therefore identified. through the definitive creation of a safe and The system of cycle tracks expands into new areas of continuous network all through the municipal territory the city and a solution is proposed for one of the most problematic intersections

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19. Florence: feasibility study for the creation of an urban transformation agency for the Piagge area (2005–07)

Located on the outskirts of Florence on the and the identification of innovative and way to Pistoia, the Piagge district consists experimental models of intervention mainly of large public housing complexes capable of joining the various levels of the with structures and services for commerce planning now under way. and small businesses. The area is The Guiding Project envisages both characterized by a rigid framework of “rationalization operations” for the district hydrological and geological constraints and “target operations” for the city of and problems connected with underground Florence as a whole. The two types of pollution due to the presence of operation are characterized by very different unsupervised rubbish dumps. levels of complexity and feasibility, which The composite cross-section of the the study interpreted and measured. population resident in the district has made The cornerstones of the Guiding Project are demands over the years for a marked reinforcement of the transversal systems increase in public space and incentives to that connect the residential area with the foster the participation of private concerns banks of the river Arno, the creation of a in the process of urban redevelopment. longitudinal system of vehicular connection The Florence city council ordered a parallel to the river and to the Pistoiese feasibility study for the planning, creation highway, and gathering the free areas and management of redevelopment together in one large urban park. operations in the district. The Guiding The study interprets this system of Project for Redevelopment of the Piagge proposals as a device for the regulation of District, drawn up by the architect urban transformation and experiments with Giancarlo De Carlo, the Strategic Plan the use of the plan and the design for the of the Florentine Metropolitan Area and management of an intense Guiding Project the Structural Plan of the City of Florence expanded to encompass many different constitute the organic frame of reference territorial realities and themes. To this end, for the feasibility study. it maximizes its strategic nature and The study focused on implementation capacity to generate precise and specific of the provisions of the Guiding Project actions on the territory.

General plan of operations and green systems

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Project axes and actions

Polarities and services

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20. Puglia: Territorial Landscape Plan. Guidelines for the landscaping and environmental quality of infrastructures (2009-10)

The guidelines drawn up constitute a the territory around it, and working on the Coastal road of natural beauty. The types identified manual of operations to improve the composition of territorial typologies as a run through coastal areas of high environmental value landscaping and environmental quality specific object of the project. along coastal morphotypes of quality connecting of infrastructures in the Puglia region in The project thus envisages two systems of important historical and cultural elements, seaside connection with the drafting of its Territorial reading. The first, Infrastructural Typologies, resorts, parks and nature reserves. The planning is Landscape Plan (TLP). regards the identification of ten oriented towards protection of quality views, The purpose of the guidelines is to give infrastructural categories capable of preservation of the natural order of territories largely the TLP a guiding role for the tools of interpreting the historical, cultural, untouched by anthropization, the refurbishment of implementation hierarchically subordinate residential, morphological, environmental building complexes and the use of natural areas to it, identifying all the actions and and settlement characteristics of the through substantial work to embed the infrastructure components that should be taken into contexts involved as well as the objectives in the environment consideration in order to endow the of quality to be attained in the work of Environmental corridor. The roads that run alongside region’s existing and planned infrastructures upgrading. The second, Territorial or through transversal or longitudinal elements of with landscaping and environmental quality. Morphologies, regards recurrent and ecological connection (greenhouses, ridges, The project decided to maximize the recognizable systems of networks, marshland, rivers and streams) are addressed on planning and operative component of the settlements and environments criteria designed to reduce the impact of guidelines. The risk of supra-ordinate characterizing the various parts of the infrastructures on ecosystems and especially as instruments is failure to make sufficient landscape of the Puglia region. regards their effect as a barrier to the movement impact on the territory and thus be The territorial interpretation thus defined of animal species and a source of acoustic, luminous disregarded in small-scale, everyday made it possible to draw up guidelines, and atmospheric pollution. Infrastructures upgraded operations through distraction caused by an actions, operations and projects for in this way become key elements to establish and excess of problems or local influences. deployment point by point on the individual strengthen environmental network functions within For this reason, and in order to draw functional landscape profiles recognized or the territory attention to the instrument produced, the jointly all along the infrastructural axis. plan provides a wealth of instructions, The toolkit offered makes it possible to suggestions for planning, designs and provide an active instrument of support for solutions for local contexts to use directly territorial planning decisions of use in the in the construction of roads. Above all, dissemination on the territory and in it expands the project’s sphere with territorial practices of a synoptic planning provisions, schemes and designs that also technique capable of enhancing the affect the territory surrounding the landscape and rethinking the connective infrastructures, thus shifting attention from role of infrastructures in territorial systems. the individual road to the composition of

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Linear production/market road. The type of road identified runs through low-quality production areas. Upgrading involves the planting of trees, which work on the one hand to mark the structure of the existing landscape and make its morphologic characteristics visible, and on the other to create a screen for buildings and open production areas

Upgrading of a coastal road. The road in question runs through densely built-up areas of low urban quality largely devoid of public services and facilities. The project seeks to create public spaces for parking and public transport. Trees and safe pedestrian crossings are used to upgrade points of access to the sea and make them recognizable. There are also provisions for the restoration and maintenance of the morphological features of the landscape

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Historical access road. The primary axes of urban penetration, characterized by the presence of physical or visual elements marking the entrance to the town, such as tree-lined avenues and panoramic views, are taken into consideration. The planning criteria for the type indicated are oriented towards the protection and enhancement of the integrity and recognizability of urban gateways and fronts through direct action to redefine margins, halt the processes of urban sprawl and spread, and reduce impact

Road of environmental interest. The road runs through rural contexts of natural interest. Its upgrading involves both the creation of views of important morphologic elements and the planting of trees to screen low-quality industrial and agricultural buildings

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Road through a rural landscape with infrastructures. The road in question runs through rural areas of mixed urbanization. The upgrading involves the planting of trees to conceal industrial buildings and areas as well as agricultural areas occupied by temporary greenhouses. It is planned to strengthen weak mobility in the residential fabric through the creation of pedestrian crossings in the vicinity of bus stops. Rows of trees are to be planted where possible to mark out the road system

Park road. The upgrading of this particular road, which runs through landscape areas of considerable interest, involves division of the roadway so as to improve safety at critical points or emphasize views of the landscape. Wherever the park road runs through small towns, provision is made for systems of deceleration such as raising the roadway with the insertion of green areas and elements of urban furniture

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Road of linear settlement fabrics. Roads that run through continuous linear settlements of a predominantly residential character, contexts characterized by low density in which agricultural connotations have given way to elements typical of the urban outskirts. The upgrading involves operations to reduce the joining of neighbouring towns through the redevelopment of interstitial agricultural areas and work on the roadside

Pendulum road. This type of road system includes links between towns in the hinterland and the coast road. The upgrading involves strengthening the pathways of slow mobility and reinforcing the nodes between orthogonal roads through the insertion of green roundabouts, pedestrian crossing systems and panoramic piazzas

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21. Inzago (Milan): Guidelines for plans for the re use of farmhouses (2011)

The territory of Inzago has a large stock of Every farmhouse is analyzed in terms of its General analysis of the complex. The preliminary farmhouses and agricultural structures existing structure and assessed as regards phase involved application of an in-depth analytical within a vast system of green, free and typological and geometric consistency. method designed to develop a general reconstruction cultivated areas, many of which are Its historical composition is examined of every complex involved and examine its primary included in the local park of supra-municipal in order to distinguish the original nucleus functions and typological structure interest proposed by the Management Plan. from worthless additions and its typological The policies formulated by the plan are functioning as evaluated with a view designed to maintain the vitality of the to understanding and suggesting how fabric of farmhouses, both with natural and where to supplement the existing functions of support for agricultural structures not only with new ones but also activities and through conversion with new functions they can host together for residential purposes, thus offering with all the associated residential services a different type of settlement pattern and activities. and interrupting the tendency towards The interest of the instrument lies precisely urban sprawl with high consumption in its particular nature as investigation, of building land. anticipation, simulation and provision, The guidelines are drawn up as a confirming once again the great strategic intentionally hybrid instrument made up value of design in order to envisage both of rules derived directly from the transformations and govern the quality they management plan (such as the urban can contribute to the context. The broad planning rules on indices, covered surfaces, use of nomograms defines the materials spheres of transfer and standards) and of and solutions admitted and excluded in morphological rules to guide the projects accordance with a logic of overall design of implementation to be drawn up for every and attention to the context of the structure. The particular nature of the farmhouse that the renovation project will instrument prompted the use of preliminary necessarily have to respect. Many of the architectural drawings in order to anticipate tables included were constructed also with the appraisals that every detailed project the purpose of providing back-up material will then have to undertake and in order to in the search for financial support or aid in a ascertain the viability of the urban planning logic of overall service of the design and rules derived from the plan. the instrument produced.

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Present state and relationship with context. Every rural complex was broken down in terms of the major parameters of analytical investigation to provide information on its state of preservation, architectural value, system of access and relations with open space, which are crucial to guide the planning phase

Opposite Photographic reconstruction of façades. Direct surveying of every rural complex led to detailed recording and photographic reconstruction of the façades of the buildings, thus providing crucial material for developing the guidelines. The specific functional divisions of the structures were thus identified as well as the existing additions and accessories

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Qualitative appraisal of architectural elements. The matrix summarizes a qualitative appraisal of the architectural elements of each farmhouse and establishes the level of coherence with respect to the historical rural context involved

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Meta-planning phase: preliminary criteria of operation. The information obtained in the fact- finding phase was used to develop the first guidelines for action on the farmhouses concerned, identifying in each case the elements to be preserved and enhanced, the spaces to be converted or refurbished, and the structures to be demolished

141 Functional division: initial state. Functional division of the rural complex in its initial state

Criteria of functional and structural redefinition. The matrix identifies specific planning indications and pinpoints areas for renovation and functional conversion with respect to the present state

Opposite Planning phase. Planning elements and functional reorganization of the rural complex

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Survey of materials. Materials and finishes to orient the operations of functional renovation and refurbishment

144 Sound practices. Solutions advised and operations permitted for harmonious renovation of rural complexes

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22. Novara: adaptation and updating of the Provincial Territorial Plan (2011–12)

The definition of an adequate strategic framework of support in devising suitable framework on the territorial scale strategies of territorial development. necessarily entails the creation of a cogent Great strategic importance attaches to the fact-finding component capable of capturing upgrading of maps. The adaptation of the and representing the essential peculiarities territorial plan is based on a strong and of a territory. The drafting of the latter is in direct relationship with the municipalities fact, and above all in the territorial planning in a territory where the implementation of a vast area, a fundamental and of provisions proves very difficult precisely indispensable step for the identification of due to the existence of various levels of planning themes with the strength and rules and regulations. The instrument capacity to express an objective and a clear produced is thus designed as a map of and unequivocal strategy for a territory of action in close contact with the activity of provincial scale. ordinary municipal planning and of support Based on this principle, the updating of the for the coordination that only the large scale fact-finding component of the Provincial can exercise. The design of the tables thus Territorial Plan of the province of Novara assumes a strongly strategic character, involved a precise reading of the territory capable in the completeness of the making it easy to understand and manage information found and presented of its peculiar characteristics. All the selecting themes and viable projects ready constituent elements were observed in for use around which it is possible to build detail, not only in physical terms but also up agreement amongst the parties from the social, economic and normative involved. Only in this way is the potential of viewpoints. From the regional and the tool expressed and evident. At the very interregional scale down to the provincial moment when the role of the province level, the various norms that discipline seems to be unclear, the instrument has the management of territory were been developed to give renewed strength reconstructed together with the to the components of design, order and characteristics of the infrastructural system management of phenomena that in all its components, defining their coordination can provide in a particular hierarchical order, the components of the region like Piedmont, where the framework environmental system, identifying in detail of planning and instrumentation dates from all the environmental constraints and assets different periods and no longer corresponds that constitute the natural structure of the to the present-day conformation of the province, and the peculiarities of the socio- territory. In addition, the strength and economic and settlement structure, all with courage of the instrument as regards the a view to constructing a global and all- coordination of planning and decision inclusive analytical and fact-finding making for the territory are clearly evident.

146 Analysis of the Regional Landscape Plan (PPR). The natural, environmental, historical and cultural components identified by the PPR are summarized in the knowledge base with respect to the prescriptive level assigned by its normative framework: guidelines, directives and prescriptions

147 The infrastructural system. The knowledge base reconstructs the structure of the provincial road system and identifies its functional hierarchy with respect to the rules of highway code, taking into consideration the elements of the railway system and connections in the regional and interregional context

148 Environmental system of the Regional Landscape Plan (PPR). The investigation identifies the key structural elements of the regional environmental system, pinpointing the project areas and the planned zones of environmental upgrading as well as the existing large areas of environmental support

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23. Basiglio (Milan): Building Regulations (2013)

Subsequent to approval of the Territorial sound planning. The regulations are not, Management Plan, the municipal however, oriented exclusively towards the administration of Basiglio decided to have rules of sustainable construction. They also new building regulations drawn up. define the working of the energy fund These are divided into three sections, the mechanism provided for by the Territorial first devoted to the set of subjects taking Management Plan, with separate rewards part in building initiatives, the second to the for operative procedures, the use of key administrative processes and environmentally compatible materials, procedures, and the third to identifying the improvements on the minimum qualitative primary technical and aesthetic parameters values identified and the integration of that govern actual building. different solutions. Finally, they establish A large part of the building regulations is criteria for the transformation and planning also devoted to the description and of public and private space and the ratio of identification of specific actions as regards built-up areas to open space. Basiglio, and improving the energy efficiency of the the Milano 3 district in particular, by virtue existing buildings. This is essential in order of its morphology, composition of green to give concrete effect to the idea of a areas, and unified, recognizable buildings, sustainable town promoted by the require operations that respect their municipal administration and developed by present-day peculiarities so as to avoid the regulations through prescriptive norms, losing the features that characterize them advice and good practices capable of and make them recognizable. governing and guiding the operations of new building as well as the renovation and maintenance of existing edifices. The question of energy efficiency is addressed on the basis of specific study of the numerous international and national experiments with sustainable districts and sustainability, thus providing concrete examples that can serve as a stimulus for

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Incentive mechanisms. The schema shows the modalities of allocation of the Energy Fund introduced by the Territorial Management Plan (PGT) and the mechanism of access to incentives on the basis of the envisaged modes of operation, use of environmentally compatible materials and meeting the minimum requirements set in terms of the energy efficiency of the buildings

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24. Verano Brianza (Monza and Brianza): project for area AT22 (under way since 2013)

The project for area AT22 regards the involved concrete experimentation with the Planivolumetric plan. The volumes generated by the definition of the rules for a complicated use of an urban-planning design to develop individual lots into which the project area is divided zone included in the Territorial Management the functioning of the rules in depth. are organized and rationalized by means of a single Plan of Verano Brianza. Design simulations were used to examine master plan designed to coordinate the activities of This is an area of production included in the the modes of implementation for the area, the different parties involved and to minimize the plan for the purpose of redeveloping a part monitoring the behaviour of the individual consumption of land. The project envisages the of the territory occupied over the years by parties concerned and envisioning the concentration of volumes in buildings aligned with small businesses and buildings through a results of the design as a whole on the one another and with the existing and planned process typical of the region, thus causing basis of their greater or lesser capacity to frontage on the street and a high environmental severe fragmentation of the settlement operate in terms of building concentrations. standard through the planning of large green areas system. The division into countless small The design thus governs implementation, serving also to attenuate the visual impact of the new plots of land and the density of the monitoring the schedules and also deciding buildings. Running alongside the planted areas are production system have had major which works and which burdens for the new cycle tracks and pedestrian paths designed to repercussions on circulation, which is municipality are to be guaranteed as well as extend the existing system of slow mobility but also crippled by the presence of many access their quantity and the plans and procedures to link up with the circuit of cycle tracks envisaged at points and a confused, non-hierarchical and to be adopted. the supra-municipal level. At the same time, the disorganized road system. Implementation is thus related to the ability presence of passageways for motor vehicles ensures The presence of some vacant lots of to the parties concerned to grasp the an adequate level of infrastructure, which is building land prompted the Territorial importance to acting in accordance with a necessary in order to connect the new activities with Management Plan to redefine the area as coordinated design of public character but their context of reference. Unlike the circuit of slow a whole and attempt an approach that has strongly linked to the real and effective mobility, the system of road transport penetrates the always proved complex in Italian urban possibilities of private concerns to put its built-up fabric, thus avoiding the positioning of planning, namely the transfer of building content into effect, overcoming the parking places on the perimetric road system rights from one area to another so as to traditional separation of provisions and concentrate construction in some places actual implementation by anticipating at the and free others. This transfer procedure time of formulating provisions all the typical makes it possible to define the places problems and difficulties as regards their where buildings must be erected, thus implementation. concentrating the areas for the parking The overall design born out of this has no spaces and facilities required by an particular compositional merits. The nature industrial area and those for the of the area, the complexity of the site and concentration of green spaces at the points the very ordinary character of the context best served by the road system. Above all, permit nothing more than an orderly design it makes it possible to draw up a single set susceptible of correct implementation and of rules for transformation and guide the above all capable of guiding the parties individual operations within a single project involved over time and persuading them to in step with the progress of construction. comply with urban-planning and The difficulty of the area and the particular morphological rules that are new for the nature of an instrument of this kind context.

152 URBAN PLANNING

153 The project is seeking to create a field of production Opposite and trade, without compromising the quality and Planning indications. The focus in terms of efficiency of public spaces often ignored in the design architectural composition is on the integration of of similar areas. The two large car parks, the south built-up and unbuilt areas through the planning of one at service of the shopping complex, the second volumes obeying a precise compositional order as one, central, that serves all of the production regards the alignment of façades and the imposition buildings, avoid the design of on-street parking, so as of a general criterion of design. This should serve to not to hinder traffic, and leave space for the ensure recognizability as a unified operation rather mitigation and green spaces pedestrian, often ignored than a sum of different parts in accordance with the drive for general coordination that accompanied its Functions and operations. The building volumes inside conception. Priority is given in particular to a the area of transformation are predominantly morphological approach that harnesses layouts and connected with production (in purple), located on the positions deduced from the anthropic context of northern perimeter of project area and served by the reference as generating lines for the structural planned link road. A shopping and hotel segment is arrangement planned envisaged on the Via Comasina in a more attractive location as regards visibility and accessibility. Architectural conception. The construction of The production plants are to be served by three public homogeneous volumes governed by precise parking spaces screened by trees and located inside compositional criteria is envisaged also from the the built-up fabric, never directly on the road architectural standpoint. Even though the expressive possibilities are limited by the functional vocation envisaged, an attempt is made to regulate the vocabulary through a simple but rigorous formal repertoire. The composition of façades is organized in horizontal sections with a base differentiated by colour and material from the main part of the building, where the primary openings are made for access and the loading and unloading of goods, and the upper section, where the window frames will be as uniform as possible in materials and colour. With a view to meeting the requirement set in the dossier on the planned area, the buildings will also need to meet the standards for the upper level of energy class B, a prerequisite for development of the planned SLP

Road system and compositional rules. The road system and compositional aspects are conceived so as to reduce the impact of the new segment on the surroundings while at the same time fostering connection of the built-up fabric with its territorial and anthropic context of reference. For this reason it is planned to build a link road inside the site to serve all of the production plants internally. The street sections are developed so as to ensure alignment of the façades also along the new main road, as emphasized by the line of the canopies of the buildings located along it. The hierarchy of the elements planned is regulated by criteria of scale and requirements imposed on the parties responsible for execution so as to ensure compliance with the criteria of homogeneity and uniformity in force throughout the area

154 155 1. Carrara: pedestrian access 8. Pozzo d’Adda (Milan): 15. Cassina de’ Pecchi (Milan): to the beach (2005–06) enlargement and restructuring feasibility study for a new 2. ARCHITECTURE 2. Cornaredo: shopping mall of an industrial building (2010) sports centre (2011) (2007) 9. Inzago (Milan): public plan 16. Missaglia (Lecco): 3. Trezzo sull’Adda (Milan): for cooperative residential residential Integrated Action Bureau of Productive Activities buildings (2010–11) Plan (under way since 2011) procedure (SUAP) and 10. Rozzano (Milan): building 17. Missaglia (Lecco): Integrated Action Plan (PII) for commerce and services residential buildings on the for the Tollgate and Furnace (under way since 2010) area of the Integrated Action areas (2007–10) 11. Cassano d’Adda (Milan): Plan (under way since 2011) 4. Lainate (Milan): projects and plans for 18. Essaouira (Morocco): Integrated Action Plan (PII) redevelopment of the area of preliminary project for villas for a new centre on the A8 the disused Linificio on sea (2012) (2008) Canapificio Nazionale factory 19. Kiev (Ukraine), metropolitan 5. Rozzano (Milan): (under way since 2010) area: feasibility study for Integrated Action Plan (PII) 12. Peschiera Borromeo (Milan): public housing projects (2012) for the multifunctional plan for redevelopment 20. Minsk (Byelorussia), area of Via Manzoni of the Cascina Deserta (under metropolitan area: preliminary (under way since 2008) way since 2010) project for a shopping mall 6. Roncello (Monza and Brianza): 13. Arcene (Bergamo): master plan (2012) Integrated Action Plan (PII) for environmental restoration for the new town centre and residential development (2009–12) of a quarry (2011) 7. Verano Brianza (Monza and 14. Cassina de’ Pecchi (Milan): Brianza): Integrated Action feasibility study for Plans (PII) for the Core, redevelopment of the Cascina Montegrappa and Borgonovo Bindellera (2011) areas (2010) ARCHITECTURE Project plan. The pedestrian pathway develops around three linear layouts on an irregular design. There is a stopping area at the end of each linear stretch

1. Carrara: pedestrian access to the beach (2005–06)

The project for access to the beach at space and redefine their frontage or modify The end result is evidently marked by the Carrara pursued two aims, not only a new its appearance aesthetically. This was by no different purposes for which it was design for the pedestrian route together means easy for such a consolidated context conceived. It was thus decided to forgo the with the necessary urban furnishings but pervaded by a very low sense of quality. use of materials or urban furnishings of any also and above all the creation of a tool The master plan strategically stimulated particular quality and rely on the overall capable of resolving the chaos generated participation in the project of various urban quality control of the operation in the over the years by the combined presence parties, working on the design and the knowledge that this opening made it of the harbour, inner harbour activities and proposals for urban furnishing. In particular, possible not only to ensure the safety of a commercial structures connected with the it displayed the ability to employ a project dangerous crossing for the many users of beach. A situation typical of the condition of apparently restricted to urban furnishing in the beach but also to develop, through use many Italian shorelines, proving beyond the more territorial terms, albeit on the local of the master plan, cooperation between capacity of planning and everyday scale, creating new connections also with different bodies and tools of planning. management to ensure the orderly nearby pathways, designing new squares organization of public areas, access through and offering new viewpoints on the the eastern harbour gateway had become seafront. In addition, the master plan was indispensable to the safety of a pedestrian used to handle relations between the walkway in open conflict with the harbour various bodies involved – the Harbour and inner harbour activities. The project Authority, as primary owner of the areas was therefore conceived as a strategic crossed by the walkway; the Italian Navy, master plan in order both to develop the as owner of some structures there; and overall design and above all to create a tool town council of Carrara – in a particular for dialogue with the many parties involved, condition midway between municipal from the Harbour Authority to the owners instruments of urban planning, special of the commercial enterprises along the instruments like the harbour plan, and local pathway, as they all had to be asked to instruments of implementation regarding sacrifice a small portion of their respective transformations then under way.

Setting. The project area is located in a non-homogeneous context characterized by the presence of the harbour and associated service activities as well as the coastal landscape

158 159 ARCHITECTURE Planning sections and operations ARCHITECTURE

Views. The absence of high-quality materials does not impair the urban quality of the space planned

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2. Cornaredo (Milan): shopping mall (2007)

Due to the location of the new shopping The ground floor presents a gallery with marble similar in colour to the stone facing mall of Cornaredo directly on a provincial overhead lighting, with a hypermarket and are used for the less significant parts at the highway, the plan for the area was used to twelve shops opening off it, for a total back of the building. coordinate provisions at both municipal and length of 290 ft. Great importance was The gallery is paved inside with marble and provincial level. The instrument leading to attached to natural lighting, with skylights decorated with geometric patterns using construction designed the greens areas, the installed in the gallery and the stores, the Botticino, Verona Red and Alpine Green new road system and the supplementary as conducive to human well-being and types of marble. works, such as the new nursery school significant savings on energy. The high glass wall of the gallery, facing envisaged as a qualitative standard. The architectural vocabulary adopted for south onto the road, is protected by a The shopping mall is a compact rectangular the interior and exterior of the building is portico that regulates the incidence of block of 400 x 262 ft with façades 32 ft characterized by innovation and tradition: sunlight during the day. In the evening in height. It was decided to locate it at the innovation with the use of modern during winter it is perceived as a glowing back of the site, allowing for the creation materials and technologies such as transparent window and acts, together with of a green buffer strip of about 64 ft along ventilated façades, insulated windows, the the entrance towers, as a visible sign on Via Milano (SS 11) and a tree-lined free point-fixed glass system and aluminium the threshold of the town of Cornaredo. space for parking paved with Erbablock. cladding; tradition with the use of facing A deep ring of planted green space all the slabs of marble, a natural material with way around the perimeter of the site historical connotations used in two colours, creates a natural environmental barrier that yellow ochre and red earth, which combine connects with the adjacent sites and with the expanses of glass and metal to existing buildings as well as those planned create an innovative chromatic equilibrium. for construction. Vertical panels with a finish of crushed

External spaces and shopping mall. The quality of a project also depends on the careful planning of external spaces. In this case, the need for a large parking area for the shopping mall is combined with an effort to minimize impact and inject urban quality. The choice of materials for the outer shell endows Setting. The project looks directly onto the provincial a building of considerable size with elegance and highway that separates the residential areas to the reduces the risk of anonymity north from the industrial zone to the south

162 163 Elevation on the road. Developed as a long wall parallel to the road with a tower at either end. The gallery faces south and receives natural light through large windows in the centre of the main section

Exterior of glazed area

Opposite Interior. Commercial gallery

164 165 ARCHITECTURE PII Tollgate, master plan. The rational distribution ARCHITECTURE of volumes is the result of careful appraisal of the constraints and limits in the area as well as the paramount need for road construction to connect the tollgate and for adequate spaces to develop the activities envisaged

3. Trezzo sull’Adda (Milan): Bureau of Productive Activities procedure (SUAP) and Integrated Action Plan (PII) for the Tollgate and Furnace areas (2007–10)

The aim of the project for Trezzo sull’Adda Plan then being drawn up. By means of a revolves around different types of functions was to provide a centre and space for mechanism of visualization and anticipation and uses other than those offered by the numerous companies interested in through the use of master plans, the two context. In point of fact, the project establishing themselves on the municipal projects were thus constructed and constitutes an important opportunity for territory so as to take advantage of its combined – both in their conception and in redevelopment also in functional terms particular location, not least in the wake of the compensatory systems they set in of the then primarily residential area of the enlargement and improvement of the motion – with the management policies of Via Cavour, defining its sphere as an motorway. Recourse to the tool of a bureau the municipality and the bodies involved. episode of mostly urban character in which of productive activities was required in For the area around the new motorway some productive functions are order to coordinate the numerous parties Tollgate, the project sought a rational concentrated, including a high-quality involved and define the presence on a distribution of the constructions envisaged production centre and a service centre for broader territory of a major opportunity for in a small space with many constraints with haulage firms parallel to the acquisition of economic development and employment in a view to safeguarding the envisaged areas for the park. As in the area of the a particular context where a considerable agricultural park of supra-local interest and furnace, commercial and logistic activities environmental heritage has survived the the archaeological site discovered in a were excluded. pressure of past and recent urbanization. neighbouring area. The master plan Attention to environmental issues develops Recourse to a strategic instrument capable envisaged a broad environmental buffer in two directions: on the one hand, through of establishing direct relations with all the strip and a distributional layout so as to the definition of a high standard of green actors involved was also indispensable in attenuate the visual impact of the new areas (a buffer zone of 18,000 yd2 and order to make the transformation buildings on the agricultural surroundings. 30,000 yd2 of agricultural land, serving as compatible with the Territorial Management The system of constructions envisaged an initial nucleus for the creation of the

PII Tollgate, location. The project area is located in the vicinity of the motorway tollgate on the municipal outskirts and far away from the town

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agricultural park); on the other, through The permission for structures additional to reduction of the parking lots so as to those already built in the historical sphere create a broad strip of greenery encircling of the Adda furnace was prompted by the the area. need to request in return for landscaping of The complex of buildings is given a the quarry to the rear, ecological restoration markedly urban character precisely in order of the area, and the transfer of a large to highlight the potential of the area, restored agricultural area to enhance the located near the tollgate, in relation to the compactness and size of the green heart territory as a whole. As a new centrality, it of Trezzo sull’Adda. The master plan thus has a strong presence of public areas and experimented with mechanisms of areas of public use, both constructed and compensatory transfer, obliging concerns open, and the composition of an innovative to transfer substantial areas of land in functional mix combines functions of a return for building along the provincial more markedly urban nature with functions highway. Wide green strips and large buffer of a territorial kind, thus experimenting zones avoid the typical “shop-window” precisely with one of the territorially effects of construction along the roads in distributed urban nodes provided for the past. Here too, efforts are made above by the project. all to identify a functional mix capable of The area of the Furnace presents different enhancing the area’s vocation in both local environmental requirements. and territorial terms.

Furnace location. The project regards an isolated area halfway between the towns of Trezzo sull’Adda to the east and Busnago to the west

Furnace, master plan. The master plan focuses on the search for planning solutions oriented towards attenuating the transformation through a precise choice of types of tree for the various requirements of impact minimization, setting and environmental restoration

168 169 Furnace, sections PII Furnace, elevations ARCHITECTURE

Furnace, master plan. The transformation of the Furnace, view territory is defined by a process the plan of which undergoes change and evolution while always maintaining a recognizable structure

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4. Lainate (Milan): Integrated Action Plan (PII) for a new centre on the A8 (2008)

The Integrated Action Plan (PII) transforms level and constructing a small, new urban of sprawl devoid of quality as a centre an unused area on the A8, from Milan to centrality for the territory of Lainate. Thus capable of gathering together the scattered Varese and Malpensa, not far from the avoiding the construction of containers elements and of hosting territorial functions 2015 Expo area and close to the Lainate devoted exclusively to major functions, the in a fabric able to establish dialogue with motorway tollgate. Apparently one of the project draws a map in the form of area of the local scale and offer it opportunities for many spaces of little use and no strong urban character with a wide, tree- new centralities. Only thus is it possible to environmental or settlement quality, the lined central boulevard and large public maintain the inherent large-scale role of the area actually possesses great potential. spaces. Buildings of the envisaged types infrastructural corridor of the motorway Located between the Malpensa airport stand on either side: hotels, commercial while respecting the nature of the contexts and the Expo, close to the city and near areas, personal services, a conference and offering them an increase in settlement the two nuclei of Lainate, between the centre and functions on a smaller scale. quality. main settlement and the area of Grancia The aim is to create an urban area of and Barbaiana, it can play a major role as linkage between Lainate, the motorway and a gateway to the town, as a central urban the separate parts of the town in which the node of the Lainate settlement system and, buildings contribute to the construction of above the local scale, as part of a larger and a markedly central and urban context. more complex territorial system stretching Provision is made for large greens areas from the airport to the city. The risk was and pedestrian zones, and connections with of repeating one of the many operations the pedestrian and cycle systems to and exploiting the shop-window effect offered from the town are ensured by restructuring by the motorway, above all because of the the viaduct over the A8. great attraction to be expected as a result The project therefore addresses the role of of the construction of the 2015 Expo areas like this along the motorway in a complex and the associated provisions for context that is only locally and apparently fast transit between Malpensa and Milan. decentralized. It avoids the risk of being It was decided to install some functions of drawn excessively by the motorway and Planivolumetric plan. The area, upon which the territorial scale, drawn both by the Expo the associated territorial values, and follows motorway has a marked effect, is organized in terms and by the large-scale nature of the context the more prudent path of contributing to of an orthogonal design that the arrangement of the in general, establishing dialogue at the local the creation of a new centrality in a territory plans of the buildings makes readily recognizable

Setting. The operation concerned a small, marginal area delimited all along its perimeter by the road infrastructures of the Lainate motorway tollgate

172 173 Elevations. The buildings are arranged in the space so Initial master plan. Despite the volumetric as to give visual predominance to the hotel structure differences, it is easy to identify the structure of the south of the area area’s design. The tree-lined avenue, parking areas parallel to the motorway, orthogonal arrangement of Elevations. Initial version buildings and large public spaces constitute the compositional elements that give the operation its structure

View

174 175 ARCHITECTURE General plan. The alignment of the north side along the watercourse and the curve of the main façade on Via Manzoni

5. Rozzano (Milan): Integrated Action Plan (PII) for the multifunctional area of Via Manzoni (under way since 2008)

The Integrated Action Plan (PII) for Rozzano weak in the expression of quality, but with otherwise, and a second sphere of support is designed to participate in the the city one would like to expect along the for the Humanitas hospital complex in the redevelopment of unused, underused and road. Unbalanced by the presence of the shape of a residence and guest-quarters. To low-quality areas along the axis of Via shopping mall in the north and the the rear, on the two remaining units, the Manzoni, which has taken on ever-greater Humanitas hospital complex in the south, project confirms the existing residential territorial importance, especially in the last Via Manzoni has the potentiality to become uses with provisions for moderate few years. Connecting Milan, Rozzano and a road of quality services, both public and expansion in relation to the housing already Basiglio, it constitutes a continuous private, so as to enrich an economic and constructed. The PII thus participates in prolongation not only of the road urban fabric that is very weak but crossed redevelopment of the territorial axis of Via connections between the city and the by more than considerable flows and Manzoni, making a substantial contribution hinterland but also of the built-up area. The forming part of the major territorial axis in terms of public works with the developments along it include some key between Milan and Basiglio through restructuring of three crossroads, especially episodes in Milanese urban planning with Rozzano. the main one towards the centre of public housing projects located too far from Given the need to eliminate the wood, the Rozzano, the environmental restoration of the city, private building sadly typical of an PII adopts a compensatory approach and the Pizzabrasa stream, which runs along the era, and shopping malls capable of reduces by nearly half the volume of north side of the settlement, and upstaging many central areas, like Rozzano, construction provided for by the city redevelopment of an old industrial parking impoverished and devoid of any particular planning scheme, which envisaged far lot south of the area. The project is meaning. The section along Via Manzoni is more extensive building in the area, therefore conceived as an instrument for a succession of industrial, commercial and including very large industrial and revaluation of an area capable of intense disused areas, including the one addressed commercial structures. Reducing this by dialogue with the territorial role of the axis, by the Integrated Action Plan. On the nearly half, the PII engages in dialogue with transforming small-scale local uses into corner with Via Brodolini, the area was the municipal and provincial authorities to others of a more appropriate character so occupied by a dense wood made up of identify areas of reforestation within the as to generate quality and intensity of trees and bushes planted in the 1950s but municipal territory amounting to interest along the road while adapting never pruned and left to grow wild. Already approximately twice the area of woodland infrastructures and services at the same earmarked for construction by the existing lost. It modifies the area’s functions and time and providing abundant compensation urban-planning scheme, the area is coverage ratios, recognizing on the front for the losses that construction in any case reconsidered with a view to greater the possibility of constructing an initial inflicts upon the existing environmental dialogue not with the existing city, which is sphere of private services, commercial and system.

Location of the project area. The transformations envisaged by the Integrated Action Plan (PII) are located along Via Manzoni, a primary axis connecting Milan, Rozzano and Basiglio as well as a corridor where many important service and commercial functions have been concentrated in recent years

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View from the south

View from the west along the north side. Upgrading of the Roggia Pizzabrasa watercourse

Overall planimetric and volumetric plan

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View from the north

Opposite West elevation

North elevation

East elevation

South elevation

180 181 ARCHITECTURE Elevations. The profile of the new buildings is ARCHITECTURE harmonious and fits into the context of the town. The tower of the town hall is juxtaposed to the church bell tower as a new landmark of the municipal territory

Town hall, elevations and sections. The building is made up of two distinct sections, one horizontal and the other vertical. The project proposes a mixture of 6. Roncello (Monza and Brianza): Integrated Action Plan (PII) elements typical of a historical town centre, such for the new town centre (2009–12) as the arched portico, and more modern elements like the façades of the tower

Roncello is a small town in the northern the south side (already the object of a structures, first and foremost the town hall sector of the Martesana Adda area in the redevelopment project) and the space and belfry, express the centrality of the area east of the province of Milan. Formerly behind it as well as various more peripheral and the importance of the functions they devoted entirely to agriculture, Roncello has areas. Its purpose is to increase the accommodate. The open areas connect all undergone the same fate as many other availability of free, public areas equipped the corners involved in the project with towns in this part of the territory, with for social relations and thus increase public those of the existing territory, which takes strong residential expansion around a small interaction between the inhabitants. on new meaning only in this way. historical centre of clearly rural appearance. To this end, it alters the zoning of the areas The buildings not erected on the project This growth has not allowed the territory involved, transferring building rights from areas are shifted to more recent residential to develop adequate structures and the the central areas to the outskirts so as to contexts, which also see an increase in breadth of the expansion has not proved free land and design a new series of publics green space and connections with the able in itself to shape the public structure of spaces. The focal point is the construction system of cycle paths. The project thus the municipality. The small square on which of the new town hall and refurbishment of engages in dialogue with the territory and the church stands is certainly unable to the small library. The project reflects on the offers it the possibility of a small new bear the weight of the new part of the nature of the construction of a public area centrality of monumental character with town, and the building of the new town hall and a new public building in a stylistically forms capable of giving new significance it on a site away from the old centre has chaotic context. For this reason, it works on its surroundings, again by harnessing the increased the sense of impoverishment in the essential characteristics of the town as potential of the territorial and urban terms of public space and places of public built up over the years, taking up key approach to the architectural project. interest and importance. elements like the main square, the belfry Designed to offer a continuous series of and the portico as well as characteristic spaces, places for relations, structures for architectural features like the fretted brick public use and green areas, the project façade, the shallow pitched roofs and the involves a number of central areas near the arcade. The result is a major complex of church square, the farmhouse that closes restrained monumentality. The public

Setting. The PII (Integrated Action Plan) provides for various projects regarding both central and peripheral areas of municipal territory. In a town devoid of communal spaces, the possibility of reinventing a central area offers a key opportunity to endow the system of public gathering spaces with continuity and an organic character

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Master plan. The project envisages renovation of the Materials for the tower. The use is envisaged of Bird’s eye view of the public space in front of the View of the park existing courtyard and the building in front of it. traditional materials, like brick, copper and wood town hall View of the public space with a closing element Two new L-shaped buildings are also inserted to the View of the piazza in the foreground west to accommodate the new public functions and a residential building to the southeast. The public space is designed as a void with respect to the solids of the buildings planned. The centrepiece of the entire project is the tower of the town hall, the meeting point of the linear axes of the public spaces, buildings, tree-lined avenues and vistas

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Residential building. Simple, linear volumes are endowed with variety by their materials and the handling of the various external elements such as terraces, windows, staircases and roofs

Residential building, elevations

Materials. Wood, plaster, brick Residential buildings. Within the peripheral area to the east, the PII (Integrated Action Plan) envisages the construction of six residential buildings with three storeys above ground. The choice of materials and compositional elements unifies the different parts of the project

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7. Verano Brianza (Monza and Brianza): Integrated Action Plans (PII) for the Core, Montegrappa and Borgonovo areas (2010)

The desire of the municipal administration as an instrument capable of visualizing the Master plan of the Core PII (Integrated Action Plan). to anticipate some choices of the Territorial transformations and morphological effects A functional mixture characterized by three units. Management Plan and immediately test its of the rules defined by the project itself, the The first, situated in the northwest segment of the capacity for response to transformation three projects were designed on the basis area as a whole close to the new roundabout, is stimuli took concrete shape in three of more general morphological, typological, distinguished by the presence of a one-storey Integrated Action Plans (PII) drawn up infrastructural and urban-planning rules. commercial structure with a maximum height of six parallel to the Territorial Management Plan. Engaging in dialogue with the needs metres. The other two, residential in character, are Great importance attaches to the attempt expressed by the territory, they base their separated by a public space that permits correct to anticipate choices already present in an choices on the content of the Territorial dialogue between the project and the consolidated urban-planning scheme. The experiment Management Plan, which therefore urban fabric already in existence made it possible to test the system of includes the impact of the rules, regulations rules, regulations and design set up by the and precise urban-planning decisions (such said scheme and ascertain the capacity as indices and construction volumes). In both of the context to respond to the addition, the use of a master plan made it project and of the bodies involved to put it possible to present and build up consensus into effect. Finally, it also made it possible on a simulation whose construction was in for the plan to monitor the effects of the turn made possible precisely by compliance projects and their implementation or with the precise rules and insertion into the otherwise so as to absorb any negative general urban-planning context. and maximize any positive aspect. The use The three master plans regarded the of a master plan for the three projects also transformation of three different areas. made it possible to anticipate the formal The Borgonovo quarry, a wholly typical implementation of the projects. Precisely case of exploiting underground resources, due to the essence of the master plan is situated in the western sector of the

Location of the areas involved in the PII (Integrated Action Plan). The Core and Montegrappa areas are situated close to the town’s residential fabric south of the Via Valassina. The Borgonovo area is on the outskirts in the southwest

188 189 Compositional materials and elements

Perspective view from Via IV Novembre. Regular, sharply defined lines and forms characterize the façade of the building. Terraces and loggias endow a minimalistic solid form with lightness. The use of wood and the presence of roof and terrace gardens contribute to the creation of a structure with high aesthetic and architectural standards

Sections and elevations showing the “stratified” Elevations. The elevations show the volumetric composition of the two residential buildings. variation of the residential buildings sloping down The different heights of the buildings make it possible towards the public space of the project, thus ensuring to create large terraces and a sort of architectural the harmonious insertion of the structures into the “breakdown” that enlivens both of them context and embracing the open spaces

190 191 Opposite Model unit. Plans, elevations, section and view. The commercial space on the ground floor on the main road and the residential part on the upper floors

Overall views of the project

Detail of the materials used for the façade. Use is made of traditional materials such as plaster, copper, brick and stone

Overall view. Insertion of the proposal into the existing built-up fabric

192 193 ARCHITECTURE Overall planimetric and volumetric plan

municipality, close to industrial areas and and a less rigid relationship with the the border with neighbouring municipalities Comasina highway. The project for Core but above all to the axis of the Comasina took full advantage of its position, highway, handling a major flow of traffic concentrating the volume of construction and capable of attracting substantial in a tall building and a commercial complex commercial developments. Core is an so as to leave space for the major abandoned industrial district of great infrastructural work required to restructure potential situated in the north on the town’s the connection with the Valassina highway. main road (Via Nazario Sauro) close to the The project for Montegrappa necessarily north exit the Valassina provincial highway. envisaged ordinary architecture, albeit of Finally, the much smaller area of Via good quality, in order to give new meaning Montegrappa is embedded in a small-scale to its position in the ordinary residential settlement system generated in recent fabric of the town’s eastern sector. years by the urban sprawl of the eastern The Territorial Management Plan approved sector of the town, devoid of quality, public the projects’ provisions and incorporated structures and green spaces. All three them in its own planning, taking advantage projects provided for large quantities of of the experimentation made possible by works, spaces and public structures, and the rules in order to structure the system each focused on a specific theme. for the management and implementation The project for the Borgonovo quarry of other similar projects, which together addressed the new industrial system defines the areas of greatest transformation envisaged with a substantial cycle lane and redevelopment of the territory.

Location of areas involved in the PII. The area of the Borgonovo quarry at Verano Brianza

194 195 Planimetric and volumetric plan and elevations Overall view of project in the northern section of the southern section Planimetric and volumetric plan and elevations Overall views of project in the southern section of northern section

196 197 ARCHITECTURE Planivolumetric plan. The project regards the building ARCHITECTURE of a new structure containing storage spaces and offices to serve the existing industrial buildings, to which a new outer shell of organic profile is added to serve as a unifying element for the complex. The new building is aligned with provincial highway 180, thus differing in compositional logic from the surrounding settlement and vigorously emphasizing the new 8. Pozzo d’Adda (Milan): enlargement and restructuring construction. The open space is reorganized and made of an industrial building (2010) more functional, including a ramp for access to the basement floor, some street-level parking places and a large green area

The complex at Pozzo d’Adda, located in an The project envisaged two different Structured as a tool capable of managing industrial context on the 525 provincial systems: a construction to the south construction on an area straddling the highway from Milan to the Vaprio bridge capable of housing the production and territory of two different municipalities, and wholly lacking in quality, was made up processing units of a company namely Inzago and Pozzo d’Adda, the of three connected and staggered buildings manufacturing installations for trade fairs project developed a particular pathway with following the slope of the road, albeit in a and exhibitions, and enlargement of the a view to direct implementation and context of buildings aligned instead with system of offices on the west side towards obtaining rapid agreement among different provincial highway 180. Requirements of the road. The new volume is enveloped in a bodies called upon for a contribution production and expansion of the activities single uninterrupted skin capable to lending towards the enlargement and restructuring carried out inside it as well as homogeneity to the whole, both the of an existing parking lot in the industrial reorganization of the company’s premises existing part and the new, and of using the area in return for the indirect public benefit made it advisable to take advantage of the space between the new building and the of the operation. The architectural project building land made available by the old to conceal facilities such as the space thus once again broadens its horizons and Territorial Management Plan of Inzago just for waste disposal. This skin thus thickens presents itself as a tool for the over the boundary of the area. The the outer shell to the point of endowing it implementation of provisions regarding not enlargement of the built-up area thus with volumetric substance and giving the only construction but also urban planning. offered an opportunity to rethink the complex a new image. The existing part complex as a whole, not least in relation to and the new are connected by a new the possible restructuring of highway 525 staircase unit that handles the flow with the opening of a new front and between the expanded spaces and access. provides the new point of access.

Territorial location. The project area is situated on the outskirts of Pozzi d’Adda in the existing industrial district along the 525 highway. The strategic position of the buildings concerned suggested a planning strategy aimed at enhancing their symbolic value and visibility through the expansion and reconfiguration of the façades

198 199 ARCHITECTURE Elevations. The fragmented front of the existing Plan of ground floor and first floor. The new building, buildings is unified by means of a fluidly moulded situated alongside the tertiary workshops, has two shell of painted sheet-metal panels capable of linking floors that serve the existing factories as a storage the industrial buildings in one architectural sweep. depot. The upper floor is expanded to include The new building, characterized by a simple formal a section for offices and reception facilities, which vocabulary, is taller than the existing ones but adds use part of the roof of the new building as a terrace no elements of physical and expressive complexity with plants

200 201 Construction section of the new building and overall views. The new building is made entirely of prefabricated elements with a flat roof. The new shell of painted sheet metal functions as unifying element for the various structures inside the project perimeter by virtue of its highly distinctive shape of marked visual impact. The choice in terms of form and material marks a deliberate departure from the vocabulary of the existing structures and adds an element of complexity to simple and otherwise inexpressive edifices

202 203 ARCHITECTURE Planivolumetric plan. Drawing inspiration from the northwest alignment of the building, the project disrupts and alters the structure of the context by creating a new line of transversal alignment. The distances between the buildings thus avoid areas of shadow and increase the exposure to natural light

9. Inzago (Milan): public plan for cooperative residential buildings (2010–11)

The Territorial Management Plan of Inzago members. The town council and the plan urban sense of the development. The park earmarked the area on the northeast side of sought to focus attention on the nature of occupies the southern part of the area, the centre for the construction of public the operation and its possible role at the where ecological restoration is envisaged housing to be carried out by the territorial level, above all due to the fact that for the streams and canals. A main road cooperatives that have historically operated the cooperatives presented a project wholly provides vehicle access without running on the territory and made up for the lack of closed to the territory and the surrounding through the area. A cycle track and a exclusively public policies. The town council settlement fabric, where the green spaces pedestrian path run through the buildings and the plan envisaged a project for the were all fenced-in and private, and the and are alone allowed access to the main area capable of boosting the quality of the buildings turned their back on the square, to which they give shape through peripheral and marginal northeast sector, agricultural territory and the settlement modification of design. With water, trees slightly rundown above all due to the system to create a small and entirely and urban furniture for seating, the square presence of a less recent public housing defensive enclave. The plan developed comes to life and equips itself to become complex of shabby appearance facing onto completely reversed this perspective, the central hub of the settlement. The cycle the project site. The area is characterized seeking to place the architectural project track organizes the parts and the pattern by the rich environmental system typical within broader urban-planning horizons, to of the paving is altered to mark its passage. of these contexts with the presence of establish dialogue with the territory, and The shapes of the residential buildings are streams and canals. The proximity of above all to address the town’s constitutive calculated to enhance a more dynamic agricultural land gives greater breadth and characteristics. The square, the park and volumetric composition, highlighting the focuses attention on the need to respect the built-up area must work towards the major angles and heights looking onto the these characteristics. construction of a small new centrality square and sloping away towards the The project thus took into consideration capable of enhancing the settlement quality exterior. these aspects and some strong constraints. of the eastern sector and opening up the Developed in the form of a guiding master Attention to the requirements of the new development to the territory. Above all, plan, the project includes some prescriptive cooperatives prompted discussion on their the new settlement must fully belong to norms for aspects such as the alignment habitual practices as regards construction the important tradition of public housing of façades and the position of the square and customary conception of building complexes and cannot be allowed to sink and the green space so as to avoid any projects in very dogmatic and traditional into the anonymity of urban sprawl. distortion of the architectural approach terms that unquestionably work only A central square attracts buildings to look and its urban-planning nature during because they always have worked and only onto it and share their inhabited and implementation. because the results could ensure a certain illuminated façades, reducing the area level of performance and appeal for occupied by construction and increasing the

Location of areas involved in the project. Project site in the eastern section of the municipality of Inzago

204 205 ARCHITECTURE Elevations. The façades on all sides show the extent ARCHITECTURE to which the project pursues movement and the overlapping of visual planes. Solids and void are juxtaposed and the higher parts of the buildings are balanced by the lower

Overall view. The photovoltaic systems installed are indicative of the focus on sustainability and environmental aspects that informs the project as a whole

Elevations. The façades accentuate the variety of Materials. The construction materials are carefully modules devised, displaying a harmonious blend chosen with a view to making the building energy- of higher and lower sections and the use of light and efficient, environmentally sustainable and self- opaque surfaces sufficient. Exterior insulation systems and sustainable materials like wood also enhance the building’s image and aesthetic quality

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3D views. The image gives a complete idea of the project for private and public spaces. Paving and green areas interweave to create a wholly usable space

Infrastructural detail. The central roundabout ensures correct distribution of the flows of access to the buildings

Green areas. The sustainability concept includes 3D view of the central buildings. Perspective view of correct planning of green space. Public and private the central green backbone and the central buildings green areas interweave and complement one another characterized by façades that vary in terms of to become an integral part of the compositional compositional modules and colour design of the district as a whole 3D view of public space. The base of the buildings in direct contact with the public space to create an environment of high residential quality

208 209 ARCHITECTURE Design of Blossom Market interior. The aisles and display units constitute thematic islands with the goods on show rather than traditional rows of shelves. The use of different display systems, such as raised platforms and containers, creates a new approach to the sales space and fosters greater interaction with the goods and their qualities 10. Rozzano (Milan): building for commerce and services (under way since 2010)

The largest unit of the redevelopment double skin. With a double arch originating It was decided to conceal the parking project for the area along Via Manzoni in the southwest corner of the building, the spaces. Precisely in order to increase the regards the building with the largest surface façade opens up to increase its volume territorial revaluation of the area, these are area of the section as whole. Taking and thickness to such an extent that the housed in two underground storeys, whose advantage of the particular location windows are inserted into this thickness, construction presented no few challenges between Via Manzoni and Via Brodolini, the not directly flush with the façade, and face with respect to the overall building system project envisages a building with two north rather than west. The same windows of the area. Here the watery terrain of the particular elements: a sharp and prominent design a continuous vertical cadence lower Po Valley presents layers of sand and point visible from a distance, serving as a to accompany the eye in transit along Via mud with clay only at the bottom. landmark for the crossroads and Manzoni, its thickness being marked also A complex system of bulkheads, 82 ft in establishing dialogue with the territory by the continuation of the glazed surfaces depth, made it possible to create a cavity brought into communication by the road; at the top with the construction of of about 14,400 yd2 to house the two- and a broad, gentle curved side on Via skylights. The thick façade opens up to storey car park with a foundation slab about Manzoni capable of evoking the more accommodate the points of access to the 3,28 ft in thickness to counter the winding course it once followed, marked by commercial surfaces, the importance of the considerable thrust of the water table. the presence of a small and ancient bridge entrance being indicated by its height, and The building is constructed in accordance over the Pizzabrasa stream. These two folds to end in the point near the stream. with the class A energy standards through features make up a particular façade The other façades are more subdued in the use of particular devices to insulate the of great impact and visual significance. character, again with the repetition of the façades and the installation of photovoltaic Though constituting a territorial landmark of rhythm of thicknesses along the north side solar panels on the roof, concealed by the importance, with respect to the functions to accompany the building’s second public taller top of the façade, as well as systems housed by the building, predominantly façade looking onto the environmentally to harness geothermal energy with the commercial together with large surfaces restored and redeveloped areas by the construction of heat pumps and shafts. devoted to supporting services, the façade stream. While the east and south façades This complex edifice performs the various presented the defect of facing southwest are smooth and homogeneous, the east roles derived from its location and genesis, and thus being fully exposed to the sun in includes some service structures such as and expresses them through the dynamic the afternoon, thus posing a major problem loading and unloading areas. Environmental handling of volume and the composition of for the public activities carried out inside. minimization along this side, close to the the façades. The west side, in addition to bending in surviving areas of woodland, includes the accordance with the former course of the construction of a green dune with a canopy road, is thus hollowed out and given a for growing plant species.

Location of areas involved in the project. Operational area 1 along Via Manzoni and Via Brodolini in the municipality of Rozzano

210 211 Plan of basement -1. Garage, stairway and Plan of basement -2. Garage, stairway and mechanical rooms mechanical rooms

Roof plan. It is possible to distinguish the three Plan of ground floor. The gallery with the entrances sections of the main body, the roof of the mezzanine from the south and west, the sales area and the and the canopy of the short-term storage area for areas used for storage and services dispatch. Garage, stairway and mechanical rooms

212 213 ARCHITECTURE Elevations. The main façade presents a rhythmic Building sections. The lighting systems are clearly ARCHITECTURE arrangement of vertical modular elements interrupted seen through the interplay of open and closed by the closer rhythm of the entrance and the hiatus of sections of the façade the long sign. The side façades mask the service exits with a contrasting interplay of light-coloured walls and larger expanses of dark colour

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View of the south entrance by night. The use of lighting emphasizes the primary compositional elements

Construction. Assembly of the prefabricated structure

Longitudinal cross section. The large foundation slab and the prefabricated structure of the underground garages and the roof

Main entrance, detail. The large window is fitted with vertical aluminium sun baffles that recall the modular rhythm of the façade on a smaller scale

216 217 ARCHITECTURE Overall plan of the final solution, designed to explore the area’s potential, for implementation of the rules of the PGT (Territorial Management Plan) and verification of the volumes located there. The design develops a complex system of relations between open spaces, spaces for relations and constructed spaces both at the local microscale and at the macro level of relations with the rest of the municipal 11. Cassano d’Adda (Milan): projects and plans for redevelopment territory of the area of the disused Linificio Canapificio Nazionale factory (under way since 2010)

The Linificio Canapificio Nazionale complex area of great local interest and territorial on which the project focuses in order to at Cassano d’Adda is a very particular area value belonging to a long series of similar express its character and potential with embedded in the context of the towns and disused industrial systems along respect to the local context, by maximizing anthropization and industrialization of the the river. A heritage that merits the utmost the image of the extension of the historical course of the river Adda, between industrial attention and the highest possible level of centre with new constructions, and to the areas founded about a century ago, planning with a view not only to salvaging territorial system, by taking advantage of hydraulic works to channel the waters of the buildings and associated areas but also the canal to define all the linear elements, the river, dams and power stations. to harnessing the environmental aspects, including the green system, cycle tracks A particular landscape rich in history and the relations with historical centres and in and pedestrian connections. The project remains of hydraulic and industrial general with the settlement system of the thus takes shape, expressing the area’s engineering and endowed at the same time Adda. This is, however, run by the North vocation to accommodate a settlement in with particular environmental value, Adda Park, a body that has failed over the the form of a prolongation and extension of increased by the abandonment of industrial years to address redevelopment with the historical centre of Cassano capable of activities under way for some time, which the degree of courage required to prevent constituting a centrality of markedly urban has allowed nature to gain the upper hand the destruction of the heritage through character and strong territorial attraction in over the buildings. In the case of Cassano, waste and the ravages of time with no the knowledge that urban life involves the former industrial area is constructed on overall breath and vision. Though endowed a mixture of functions and compact a platform nearly at the level of the canal with this courage, the project developed aggregation of volumes. Three pathways of the linen factory, which draws its waters has repeatedly been at risk over the years constitute the project’s backbone and the from the Adda, passes through the power of drowning in the muddy waters of public basic structure of the settlement. First, station and the lock, and joins up again with administration and being deviated from its a pathway along the canal, with the the Adda downstream, thus drawing the true purpose of redeveloping a major reconstruction of the longer disused boundaries of the Borromeo island. heritage and doing justice to its twofold role Corderie building to give new volume to a The platform is lower than the settlement at the local and territorial levels. It took off symbolic place for Cassano and the entire of Cassano, spread out over the terrace on again with inclusion in the Territorial context of the Adda, capable of the plain overlooking the valley of the Adda, Management Plan of Cassano d’Adda and accommodating a cycle lane and a but close to the historical centre, higher up attained its definitive form and structure pedestrian pathway of sufficient weight to but nearby, and to the heritage presented ready for implementation. attract public spaces and central places by the centre on the edge of the terrace, Proximity to the historical centre and the beneath the rebuilt factory roof. Second, a starting with the castle. We thus have an presence of the canal are the two elements central pedestrian pathway of many uses

Location of the site for redevelopment of the Linificio factory at Cassano d’Adda (Milan)

218 219 ARCHITECTURE Plans, from basement to roof, of the renovation of the central structure of the Linificio

and functions in the form of an urban the heritage of the linen factory earmarked as New Urbanism in the USA, it modulates promenade, like a riverside or waterfront, for conversion and together accommodate the volumes carefully in relation to the with shops, leisure facilities, cafés, the most important public functions. urban-planning scheme in the conviction restaurants, residential buildings and private New accommodation facilities for Cassano that urbanity is attained through a blend of service functions clustered along the main are hosted in the most historical complex, structures, public networks, spaces for living street, the true backbone of the through which a central pathway is relations, open spaces, constructed spaces, settlement. Third, a greenway that gives constructed to connect with the territorial uses and functions. It also designs surfaces shape to the project with the design of a pathways leading to the linen factory and with materials connected with the local major backbone along the canal, which the adjacent steel-frame building. tradition, the industrial past of the area and overlaps with the Corderie pathway, shapes Gymnasiums and wellness centres increase the contemporary requirements of energy the park, and branches out through the the public leisure facilities in the area, saving and environmental performance. built-up area to expand the environmental opening up to the green areas and the park Larger and smaller buildings engage in value of green areas in the midst of and taking advantage of the water as an dialogue with the public pathways, squares constructed space. element characterizing all these functions. and green space, almost as though to Key importance attaches to salvaging the A public square linking this section and the acknowledge the greater importance of the buildings that have survived neglect and park is located in the most symbolic and public space and systems in a context decay. The historical nucleus of the Linificio central place of the entire area so as to abased for too many years by the ravages Canapificio Nazionale, a splendid two-storey gather its inhabitants and users precisely of time and a misconceived approach to building with a steel frame and outer shell in the point of most importance. management of the territory. The Linificio of masonry once occupied by major The architecture seeks out a particular will take shape as a major area of machinery, and some small buildings of vocabulary. Establishing dialogue at a transformation capable with its urban lesser importance with the markedly distance with approaches focusing on the character of renewing the role of the town industrial character of the period make up urban character of new settlements, such and increasing its overall quality.

Volumetric simulation of the central area with refurbishment of the historical structures of the Linificio factory, the addition of new buildings and the design of open space. The central backbone makes it possible to design a single pathway capable of connecting both the new spaces and the renovation of the historical central structure of the area

220 221 ARCHITECTURE Cross-sections of the renovation of the central Sections and elevations of the renovation of minor ARCHITECTURE structure of the Linificio and the context structures in the central area of the Linificio

222 223 ARCHITECTURE Elevations and plan of the renovation both of the General plan of areas of volumetric concentration, ARCHITECTURE minor structures to house apartments, offices services, public use and roads and studios, and of the water tower General plan of the systems of open space: green avenues, parks, gardens, paved pedestrian areas and green spaces belonging to the residential units

224 225 ARCHITECTURE Master plan. The plan for the Cascina Deserta farmhouse is designed to preserve the typological characteristics of the old rural settlement through restoration of the courtyard buildings, which will retain their original residential function, and the functional conversion of the icehouse in the north into offices. The open spaces are designed so as to establish clear 12. Peschiera Borromeo (Milan): plan for redevelopment links between the different structures involved, of the Cascina Deserta (under way since 2010) emphasizing the generating position of the built-up fabric with a tree-lined pedestrian pathway. The major axis along which the residential buildings are laid out culminates in the apsidal edifice, which will thus become the fulcrum of the new settlement and house a tertiary-sector complex. The east boundary of the area is reinforced with The Cascina Deserta at Peschiera of the territory precisely by the increased south is consolidated and repeated to the a row of closely-planted trees to screen the Borromeo is located on agricultural land weight of the highway and its ongoing south so as to have two adjacent but residential section from the provincial highway, while protected by the South Milan Agricultural expansion within the broader framework separate courtyards connected by the the southern part of the project area is developed Park between the rear of the Idroscalo (an of the strengthening of Milanese central section of the buildings. The highest as a park with large expanses of greenery artificial lake constructed as a seaplane infrastructures, the farmhouse is given a degree of environmental quality is pursued. airport) and the town. The broad expanse of new role by a plan for redevelopment of its The courtyards and surrounding area are space and the richness of the structures for settlement purposes. treated as green areas of public or private environmental system endow the area with Careful historical reconstruction has made use in full continuity with the agricultural great potential. The Cascina Deserta has it possible to give new architectural dignity system. The stream and spring regain their the typical forms and structure of the and form to many buildings maimed over full environmental dignity. The parking area Lombard agricultural context, opening out the years by unauthorized operations that and roadway are placed underground out of around a central courtyard and designed in have altered their nature and volumetric sight. The architecture reinterprets the full accordance with the geometry and composition, in addition to reconstructing typological characteristics of Milanese layout of the agricultural system. Work the image and composition of other agricultural buildings. Brick walls, arches carried out over the years with no historical buildings in a state of collapse or and porticos, shallow pitched roofs, authorization and certainly no respect for abandonment. The old ice house, built like openings and open parts make up simple, the complex and the natural environment a chamber with an apse in the northern unadorned volumes capable of expressing under the pressure of the earlier building part, and the main building, attributed the settlement character already inherent frenzy has altered its character and added to Piermarini, give dignity to the whole in the Lombard farmhouse, where working new sections. Fortunately, the presence of and give some idea of the importance and living areas are accommodated the Agricultural Park has protected the it once had. together in a sequence of open and surrounding areas from major The project rids the farmhouse of the constructed spaces with relations transformation, even though some service- unauthorized additions and buildings, concentrated in the open central section. sector operations to the north of the bringing the complex back to its truest The project minimizes the degree of farmhouse have reoriented the territorial historical nature and scale with the utmost urbanization so as to preserve the system towards the Rivoltana highway and respect. The courtyard structure still visible agricultural character of the farmhouse in the Linate area. Midway between the between the ice house to the north, the the midst of greenery and avoid the risk of agricultural system of the southern part long building to the west, the central betraying its very nature under increasingly of the plain and the tertiary development of storage facility, the main house on the strong pressure from the north and the the Rivoltana, crushed towards the south corner and the unauthorized buildings to the Rivoltana system.

Territorial setting. The project is located inside the South Milan Agricultural Park alongside provincial highway 160 in the vicinity of the Gambarone watercourse. The area includes a building complex of rural character, which will be salvaged entirely through a project of conservative restoration. The considerable environmental value of the site and its proximity at the same time to the Rivoltana highway and the city of Milan constitute elements of great strategic interest

226 227 General plan. The courtyard building typology and the Longitudinal profiles. The project adopted a Perspective view of the operation. The plan restores ARCHITECTURE internal layouts of the individual buildings are conservative approach to the original architectural the original characteristics of the settlement, maintained in accordance with a respectful approach characteristics in both typological and physical terms, underscored by its planimetric layout and distribution. to the historical matrix of the complex. At the same restoring the original vocabulary of the exteriors of It aim is both renovation of the buildings and the time, the project is distinguished by an effort to the buildings. The residences thus present the planning of a space for public use of marked restore the original characteristics of the settlement distinctive characters of rural buildings, with façades environmental value through the reorganization of developed through intense archival research that marked by regular windows and doorways, light- internal pedestrian pathways underscored and made it possible to distinguish and refurbish the coloured plastered walls and tiled, pitched roofs reinforced by the green element original architectural elements and eliminate later additions to the complex

228 229 ARCHITECTURE Master plan. The compositional rules are developed ARCHITECTURE around a low-impact system of greenways and cycle tracks that follow and interrelate the lines of the ancient centuriation of the countryside and the future design of area development. The predominance of green areas plays a fundamental connective role for the settlement and endows the project as a whole with environmental and landscape quality 13. Arcene (Bergamo): master plan for environmental restoration and development of the quarry (2011)

The environmental restoration of the to ensure the safety of the sides are the layout of the area and the lines and Arcene quarry involves a very large area complicated and expensive operations. structure of centuriation. Like the small between the Treviglio-Bergamo railway line For this reason, the project maintains plots once created during the phases and provincial highway 144 to the south, its economic feasibility in proposing the of colonization or land reclamation, these partly used as a quarry and partly unused. creation of a settlement, part on the quarry macro and micro networks divide the areas The site’s strength is the presence of the area and part on the adjoining land used earmarked for housing, with longitudinal railway, being made accessible by the for services, and taking advantage of its sites capable of structuring the constructed regional rail service and quick connections particular position and link with the part with the minimum consumption with Bergamo. infrastructures. The location endows the of land. Like a project for a new town, The environmental restoration of a quarry is project with both local and territorial the plan permits the construction of a subject of particular interest in the plain breadth, its major measurements being a new settlement, a small “colony” near between Milan, Bergamo and Brescia. drawn from the territorial axes and its minor the railway line, through reclamation of the Exhausted older quarries and newer ones measurements from the ancient boundaries quarry area for the countryside and the opened also in relation to the works under of centuriation. Developing a functional mix settlement system. way to improve the region’s road and rail that includes housing, shops, services and infrastructures are present in the plain and an ample amount of green areas and sports impair its agricultural continuity and regular facilities, the complex is equipped with surface level. Their restoration is no easy a system of low-impact streets, mostly task, above all in financial terms. through furrows in the ground, and a The reclamation of areas of extraction, system of green trails and cycle tracks infill to restore the ground level and work capable of establishing relations between

Territorial context. The high level of accessibility offered by the context, relations with railway lines of regional importance and supra-municipal road connections endow the disused extraction site with major potential for transformation

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Configuration, planimetric and volumetric layouts. Configuration. Study of the geometry and travel times Concept of complex and residential unit of the historical centre

Road system and underground utilities. The Three-dimensional modelling. Bird’s eye view with infrastructural system is planned on the basis of a opening towards the railway station precise hierarchical and functional structure: axes and accesses of the cycle tracks and pedestrian pathways and first-level nodes, axes and accesses of passageways for vehicles and intersections between the slow mobility and vehicle systems where attention is focused in particular on the safety of the more vulnerable user

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14. Cassina de’ Pecchi (Milan): feasibility study for redevelopment of the Cascina Bindellera (2011)

The project for redevelopment of the inhabitants. The restoration project adopts Master plan. The image presents the compositional Cascina Bindellera takes on a territorial role the vocabulary of the traditional farmhouse idea for development of the area designated to house of great importance in the parallel path while adding crisp, solid, neutral volumes usable public spaces for the town. The planning followed by the town’s Territorial so as to maintain a clear distinction of green space becomes a key element for correct Management Plan. The farmhouse is between existing and new structures. dialogue with the agricultural areas of the context located in the protected area of the South The external space is designed to Milan Agricultural Park, barycentric between accommodate many functions of a public the hamlet of Sant’Agata and the main character and above all in connection with territory of Cassina. It thus occupies a plans for a greenway to connect the town position of particular importance if the void and the hamlet. of the agricultural system is regarded as the Study of the architectural characteristics true centre of the municipal territory. In the of farmhouses makes it possible to develop absence of a real, consolidated historical a project adopting the correct designs and centre, with only a few areas around the materials in full compliance with the town hall and the station regarded as regulations of the Agricultural Park. central, and with the particular division The tool used is the master plan, which between Cassina and the Sant’Agata, the anticipates the provisions the Territorial farmhouse can become the new green Management Plan, tests the strength of the centre of the town. The project thus desire for transformation, and visualizes its reinterprets the remnants, takes advantage effects through a concrete project. The of their form, and provides for restoration of master plan thus contributes to definition of the structures and open spaces with some the town’s areas of transformation, works additions capable of reconstructing the together with the Territorial Management compactness of the overall volume and the Plan in order to understand its strategies integrity of the area’s shape. The farmhouse and visualize the results, and stimulates is earmarked to accommodate functions of the qualitative redevelopment of the town’s public interest and events for the local places of primary interest.

Setting. The Cascina Bindellera farmhouse is situated in a key position within the agricultural system and has the potential to become the fulcrum of the public city of Cassina de’ Pecchi

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Opposite Elevations and profiles. The profiles indicate the slight increase in volume proposed with a view to redefining the overall layout of the area. The renovation of the farmhouse draws inspiration from the morphology of the context

3D views. The compositional design concentrates the envisaged volumes so as to create a large courtyard embedded in a park designed and organized in terms of themes and activities. Long rows of trees join and connect the various points of the area. The use is proposed of traditional building materials with a view to restoration in not only physical but also visual terms and reinforcing the identity of one of the town’s few historical elements

236 237 ARCHITECTURE Master plan. The project envisages the creation of fields for various sporting activities. An access road will be constructed on the side adjoining the town to connect with the north through the insertion of a roundabout. A tree-lined dune along the road serves both the attenuate the impact and as a site for structures of the sports centre such as stands and changing rooms 15. Cassina de’ Pecchi (Milan): feasibility study for a new sports centre (2011)

Like the project for redevelopment of the as a green dune is actually created to house it possible to build up the necessary Bindellera farmhouse, the feasibility study the parking spaces and mask the consensus around real visions. In precisely for the new sports centre establishes close construction of the stands of the sports this sense it has played a key role in dialogue with the provisions of the fields while engaging in dialogue with the assessing the feasibility of the solutions Territorial Management Plan. One of the nearby boundary of the South Milan proposed, not only stimulating discussion latter’s strategies is to upgrade the system Agricultural Park. The north side along the on itself but also presenting a concrete of services, investing in particular on those Padana highway is redesigned as a gateway picture of what is required in terms of already existing, increasing the supply and to the town, increasing the amount of funding, commitments and the use of constructing them in the form of new public space and creating a landmark for public areas. centralities capable of serving the town and the territory and the change in character. neighbouring areas. Situated on outskirts of The resulting structure is aligned on the the municipal territory of Cassina close to hard edge of the west side and open to the the South Milan Agricultural Park, the countryside to the south and east. Here sports centre is designed to perform two too, the project is conceived and illustrated functions in the project: providing the town through the use of a master plan, a tool for and its inhabitants with new sports facilities developing a project, anticipating its formal and constituting a small urban gateway to choices and volumetric provisions, and the most dense and central part of Cassina. assessing the results expected from the To this end, different spaces of different implementation of planning provisions. weight are designed to house different The master plan illustrates and expresses functions. The west side is constructed the choices of the Territorial Management with greater severity only in plan view, Plan, makes its solutions visible, and makes

Setting. The area of study is adjacent to the town of Cassina de’ Pecchi south of the provincial highway

238 239 ARCHITECTURE Elevations View of the tree-lined dune ARCHITECTURE

240 241 ARCHITECTURE General plan. The project comprises fifteen Plan of the lower ground basement level. The project ARCHITECTURE residential units inside a large private park. The focuses particular attention on safeguarding the buildings are laid out in accordance with the natural landscape through numerous measures aimed at slope of the land so as to offer each villa a particular preservation of the natural element and the view over the green spaces inside the project harmonious insertion of the buildings into their perimeter and the thickly wooded strip along the environmental context. For this reason it was decided perimeter road system west of the area. The course to construct a sunken internal road system and leave of the newly-built cycle track and pedestrian pathway the ground level for the private gardens and 16. Missaglia (Lecco): residential Integrated Action Plan of steel and wood stretching through the forest of communal green areas. Large opening are made (under way since 2011) plane trees is designed so as to preserve all of the along the sunken passageway so as to ensure the existing trees and enhance the landscape of the site natural lighting of communal spaces

The project area is located in Contra, a The design is based on a private sunken attention is focused on the design of the hamlet of the town of Missaglia, on a hill road system, partly covered, partly open pathways, examining the solutions best between Via Battisti and Via Agazzino and partly lined with vegetation, providing suited to the middle-class residence, about sloping down towards the west. It is part of access to the private residences, which which so much has been said in the recent a much larger holding that includes late have their own garages and parking places past. The materials express the sense of 19th-century villas and agricultural estates along its length. The houses fall into the the place with the use of brick, wood and with vineyards. The urbanization under way category of the extra-urban villa and closely stone but also large windows opening up to in Brianza over the last seventy years has follow its characteristics as established over the outside, which is again regarded as an almost spared this corner, where the small time. While just a few works of the 1970s integral part of the residence, equipped size of the hamlet and the wealth of and 1980s experimented with a vocabulary with a swimming pool and in dialogue with residences maintain a character of great borrowed from traditional and agricultural the planned gymnasiums. The settlement overall quality. The project was drawn up in buildings, the construction of extra-urban is innovative also as regards energy, as the opposition to one already submitted by the villas in these contexts was generally buildings are registered as class A, and owner of the area to the local authorities, developed with the broadest freedom of particular devices for the recycling of water. which found little favour, probably because expression but not always with results The interiors are designed in accordance of its recourse to forms of planning of high quality. The houses envisaged thus with the Acanto philosophy in pursuit of the traditionally employed for areas of no return to the centrality of the living space correct Italian style in line with the stylistic particular settlement quality or opening onto a garden, organized around choices of the exterior. environmental merit. the fireplace and protected by a wide roof. A long cycle track is created to the south The project included within the Integrated Given the slope of the hill, the living room, of the project area as a continuation of the Action Plan took a completely different kitchen, study and utilities room are placed Contra cycle track. approach, taking advantage of the slight at the level of the garden with the unevenness of the terrain to define an bedrooms, bathrooms and wardrobes on innovative system and attempt to open up the upper half-floor and the laundry room, the view to the west for all the residences. cellars and garage downstairs. Particular

Territorial setting. The new settlement is located along the south boundary of the town of Missaglia in the locality of Contra in a territorial context of great environmental importance. The project is integrated with the natural surroundings through a linear design and particular attention to of the existing trees

242 243 ARCHITECTURE Longitudinal profile. The morphology of the project General cross section along the sunken roadway. ARCHITECTURE site made it possible to take advantage of the lie of The design of the façades adopts a simple, minimalist the land and design the villas so as to ensure that vocabulary capable of integrating traditional elements each has an unimpeded view of the surroundings. like exposed brick and stone paving with the context Moreover, the residential units are reciprocally and reducing the impact of the planned new staggered so that the living rooms look out onto the buildings on the natural character of the site. wood of plane-trees, thus adding a further element of At the same time, the architecture reveals close merit to the architectural project attention to composition and details of construction

244 245 ARCHITECTURE General plan of the lower floor ARCHITECTURE

General plan of the ground floor and the development of green space and gardens

17. Missaglia (Lecco): residential buildings on the area of the Integrated Action Plan (under way since 2011)

The residences planned return to the bathrooms, study, open gymnasium tradition of the large extra-urban villas with connected with the outside and the pool, a great deal of space outside that were built and utilities room. The upper half floor to all over Brianza from the 1960s to the end the rear houses the master bedrooms and of the 1980s, offering an alternative to guest rooms with bathrooms and wardrobe. urban life. Given the whole variety of styles The house is thus divided up in relation to used for their construction, the project for functions and times of the day with no Missaglia takes up the attempts made in separation of space but rather fluid the 1960s by various great masters to movement around some key points such create a recognizable style, studying various as the fireplace. typological characteristics and materials While the project provides for class while at the same time analyzing the A buildings of the maximum energy organization of the internal pathways and efficiency, the use of facing materials such the layout of spaces in the middle-class as wood, stone and brick permits direct residences of the period. The villas are thus dialogue with tradition and respect for the large, laid out on two levels plus a third, setting. In the choice of materials, facings and engage in constant dialogue with the and furnishings, the interior design exterior through large windows, outside developed by Acanto returns to the tradition facilities such as swimming pools, ponds of the Milanese middle-class home on and large covered paved surfaces. They are which the masters worked so much, organized around a large fireplace, the reviving a handling of space and a taste that compositional fulcrum and key element of are not easy to find in other contemporary the plan. The basement level houses the works, far removed from architectural garage, parking spaces for visitors, facilities fashion and more in line with the history and cellar as well as a small patio adjoining of style. the laundry room. The house opens up to the outside at the garden level and develops around the fireplace, including the living room, dining room, kitchen,

Territorial setting. The residential project area lies inside the perimeter of the PII close to the wood of plane trees from which it takes its name (I Platani). The aim is to attain a high degree of integration between anthropic and natural environment, built-up and unbuilt space. The villas stand in a green area where the natural component retains its dominant role

246 247 Types of building. The villas are designed in two Types of building. The villas are designed in two ARCHITECTURE different types that are equivalent as regards different types that are equivalent as regards facilities and surface area and share the same formal facilities and surface area and share the same formal vocabulary. The internal layout opts for large spaces vocabulary. The internal layout opts for large spaces with views of the surroundings that receive light from with views of the surroundings that receive light from large, full-height windows and skylights positioned to large, full-height windows and skylights positioned to serve the corridors and the rooms in the centre of the serve the corridors and the rooms in the centre of the house. The design of the interiors opts for high house. The design of the interiors opts for high standards of quality and envisages numerous standards of quality and envisages numerous accessory spaces such as built-in wardrobes and en accessory spaces such as built-in wardrobes and en suite bathrooms for all the bedrooms characterized by suite bathrooms for all the bedrooms characterized by top-quality materials and finishes top-quality materials and finishes

Environmental section. The presence of floors at different levels and the natural slope of the site make it possible to avoid visual obstructions between the buildings. In addition to raising the qualitative standard of the villas with pleasant views of the natural surroundings through large windows in the living room, this also ensures that all the residential units on the site have a high degree of exposure to sunlight in accordance with the overall energy strategy

248 249 Opposite Construction section. The design of the villas focuses ARCHITECTURE Sections and elevations. The residential units have particular attention on environmental sustainability, a lower ground level connected with the sunken road, which is pursued through the choice of construction a ground floor and a mezzanine. The spaces are technologies capable of reducing the building’s designed so as to ensure separation of private ecological footprint. In particular, the wall sections like the bedrooms from the living area stratigraphy is characterized by a high degree of through the staggered mezzanine. At the same time, thermal inertia obtained through the introduction of the various parts of the house are integrated in a solid elements such as a facing of full bricks. The unified and harmonious functional layout around the shell is also thermally insulated by means of panels focal point the two-sided fireplace in the living room installed on the outer walls and the roof. The strategy as regards utilities focuses on systems with a high degree of energy efficiency powered by photovoltaic panels for air conditioning, while tanks are installed to collect rainwater and permit substantial savings on water consumption. The residential units are certified as belonging to energy class A through the application of these planning measures and some criteria of sustainable architecture

250 251 View of a type A villa Overview and inclusion in the context ARCHITECTURE

View of a type B villa

252 253 ARCHITECTURE Type A/B. Layout of the ground floor. The project ARCHITECTURE identifies two different residential models sharing the same compositional elements: a central patio around which the various rooms are laid out, a swimming pool, a living area and a sleeping area in a constant interplay of light and shadow opening up to the coastal landscape

18. Essaouira (Morocco): preliminary project for villas on sea (2012)

Located on the Moroccan coast near the swimming pool looking out towards the and so are the interiors, which allow the town of Essaouira, the houses are set sea, and separates the living area from the bright sunlight to flood in and endow in a private area of great importance and rest of the house. The second runs through the space with form and colour. Wood, reinterpret the concept of the private the house from north to south, defines the glass and plaster are the basis and the enclave, inside which the elements of the other side of the patio, crosses the living canvas on which carpets, upholstery, house are arranged, albeit with strong area and leads to a balcony with a view coverings and woodworks as well as the connections with the outside. of the sea. The two paths ensure the objects and furniture bring their varied hues The complex of villas nestles on the coast centrality of the patio and allow the rooms into play in pursuit of an elegant balance looking out over the ocean. The model to have points of references, albeit between architecture and decoration. studied is enclosed by a low wall in separate. The garden, the exterior and the Displaying great respect for the light and accordance with tradition. Inside, two paths patio enter the volumes and divide their the landscape to be seen all around, the that cross make it possible to divide the form so as to make the divisions between villas constitute an initial experimental main body into various units separated by inside and outside disappear in the project for the Moroccan coast and attempt open corridors and covered by pergolas. continuous interplay of open, closed and a more sophisticated model of settlement The circulation of air divides the house into covered parts, thus discovering how than the simple occupation of land along various separate rooms that are private but architecture can be enriched with new the coasts found in so many places. open onto the communal central space, possibilities thanks to climate. which is again covered by a pergola. The interiors are designed in accordance Like the Roman domus and many other with the Acanto philosophy, so that the Mediterranean houses, the villa is choice of materials, coverings, furnishings concentrated around a central patio crossed and particular solutions takes up the local by two paths. The first leads from the tradition but retains the characteristic entrance to the interior, serves the external Acanto style. The external volumes are parking space, skirts and supports the rational in their compositional simplicity

Territorial setting. The site is located in a landscape of quality from which the project draws inspiration, adopting the light and colours of the surrounding territory in order to endow the architectural forms with new meaning

254 255 ARCHITECTURE Central patio. The focal point of the project and ARCHITECTURE fulcrum round which the spaces and rooms are laid out, drawing inspiration from the characteristic residential models of the historical Mediterranean landscape

3D views

Elevations. Arrangement of the buildings and rooms

256 257 ARCHITECTURE Type A. Internal layout. The six-storey residential ARCHITECTURE model displays intense planimetric development around a central nucleus consisting of the primary utilities so that the apartments can look out onto the outside as much as possible

19. Kiev (Ukraine), metropolitan area: feasibility study for public housing projects (2012)

Plans for the metropolitan area of Kiev Here too, particular emphasis is given to envisage new public housing projects using the column of terraces and balconies, innovative techniques of prefabrication. which is repeated on the two sides. The It is therefore necessary to ensure aim is to pinpoint a particular element of compatibility between the demands of the building, both the tower and the block, building production and an architectural and make it a recognizable and repeatable image that does not necessarily express hallmark to be picked up in all the buildings the way in which the houses are and distinguish the complex as a whole. constructed. It is indeed precisely Prefabrication is bent to comply with more architectural design that gives value to the complex compositional rules in the interplay building, which is otherwise addressed with of the plan and the development of the less thought and consideration. Two models elevations, thus making the settlement were designed and put forward, one with more varied in general and the layouts of nine storeys and one with six, reinterpreting the buildings more structured so as to avoid the tower and the apartment block, two the bleakness and monotony of traditional tried and tested forms typical of public prefabricated constructions. The savings housing. The first is planimetrically obtained on construction costs are used for organized around the central core of the greater detail of the façades and better stairs and elevator, with the apartments employment of materials like plaster and arranged so as to take the best advantage brick. The project is set in the framework of of the views on every side. The presence of collaboration with some companies of terraces and openings is maximized in both prefabrication and the country’s plans for plan view and elevation. The second development in the housing sector. repeats the standard block of so many public housing projects but with greater richness as regards the composition of the façades and the expressive qualities of the roof.

Territorial setting. Completely embedded in the metropolitan area of Kiev, the project seeks to stand out with respect to the context by adopting different architectural materials and solutions to put forward new residential models for the country’s urban development programme

258 259 ARCHITECTURE ARCHITECTURE

Type A. Interiors. The model apartment opens onto a Type A. Six-storey model. The project is enhanced large living area receiving abundant light from outside by an ample array of balconies and terraces that and offering a view interrupt the compositional monotony of the prefabricated structures, thus offering new rules Type A. Six-storey model. The project is enhanced conducive to the creation of a varied and pleasant by an ample array of balconies and terraces that settlement interrupt the compositional monotony of the prefabricated structures, thus offering new rules Type B. Interiors. The model apartment develops conducive to the creation of a varied and pleasant around the dining room, which becomes the heart of settlement the apartment separating the living and sleeping areas

260 261 Opposite Type B. Nine-storey model. The second type is characterized by original composition of the façade and expressive richness of the roof, with particular emphasis placed on the exteriors so as to ensure the recognizability of the settlement as a whole

View of the south elevation of the type B building

262 263 ARCHITECTURE Elevations ARCHITECTURE

Winter garden. The project breaks the typical compositional rules for shopping malls by placing a large winter garden inside the structure and thereby altering its ground floor layout and plan

20. Minsk (Byelorussia), metropolitan area: preliminary project for a shopping mall (2012)

The construction of a new shopping mall in of the year in such a cold region but also strong, central and important structure the metropolitan area of Minsk provided an taking up the tradition of the structures for inside the building offers not only an focal opportunity for reflection on the type of wintertime leisure so deeply rooted in the point for its layout but also a constraint building and its meaning. A now familiar history of these countries. The provision for for future constructions in the area which, type of construction, a new shopping mall a winter garden inside the covered if correctly interpreted, can give orderly generally triggers further development in structure makes it possible to alter the plan shape to the complex and to the territory free areas, causing the known phenomena and layout of the mall, two traditionally of the future. of urban sprawl to which much of our monotonous elements. An entrance gallery thinking is opposed by the conviction that mediates immediately between the space a compact city functions far better. of the garden and the space of the mall. Nevertheless, in a growing country with an It is as though the garden forced its way expanding metropolitan area characterized between the structures traditionally by rapid and chaotic phenomena, the devoted to shopping, thus becoming central building of a structure like a shopping mall in the layout and leaving the sides and can provide an opportunity for reflection on outer areas of the construction to the shops the role of a container of private functions and larger commercial surfaces. The project for public use a context devoid of any other is in any case always for a sort of huge services. For this reason, the project also block surrounded by emptiness and thus expanded to include a large winter garden, with no possibility of establishing territorial not only bringing inside something dialogue or relations with the outside. otherwise unobtainable for many months For this very reason, the definition of a

Territorial setting. The project is located in the metropolitan area of Minks in Byelorussia, a quickly growing city undergoing marked urban expansion

264 265 ARCHITECTURE ARCHITECTURE

Winter garden. Rendering. The entrance gallery mediates between the commercial space and the large winter garden, thus becoming an element of dialogue between outside and inside

Opposite Relationship with context. The use of materials and composition of the façade become model elements for the area as a whole, providing guidance and inspiration for the future development of the context

266 267 1. Milan: apartment, Via Giulio Romano 25 (2009) 3. INTERIOR DESIGN 2. Milan: La Gavetta, restaurant, Via Donizetti 3 (2010) 3. Verano Brianza (Monza and Brianza): wine shop (2010) 4. Siena: apartment, Viale Vittorio Emanuele 56 (2012–13) 5. Milan: apartment, Corso Italia 15 (2012–13) INTERIOR DESIGN Plan as built. The plan as built shows the ordinary INTERIOR DESIGN architectural character of the apartment and the building

1. Milan: apartment, Via Giulio Romano 25 (2009)

The project regarded a classic apartment in the entrance hall and the living room, the a condominium built in 1955 on Via Giulio living room and the bedrooms. In its spatial Romano during the city’s years of growth. fluidity, the apartment presents three Built on the site of a factory forming part of distinct areas: the central living room and the Beruto Plan, the condominium focal point of flow, facing west and exemplifies the typical characteristics of the enjoying the light and warmth of sunset; normal building of the period, as did the the kitchen, dining room, bathroom and design of the apartment before utilities; and the sleeping area with the refurbishment. Regularly divided by a master bedroom, bathroom and two fitted central corridor, the living area looked onto wardrobes. The design focuses on layout, the street and the bedrooms, kitchen and and it is in terms of layout that the flows bathroom onto the interior. and functions are developed. This rational Taking advantage of the space of the approach is then reflected in the materials corridor and altering the size of all the other and colours, which are characterized by rooms, the project worked on the idea of a sobriety and simplicity of style. The project fluid space capable of accommodating a thus experiments with the possibility of number of flows and pathways while reversing the traditional organization of avoiding the sharp closure of doors and apartments and making every room and the walls. The space thus flows, cut only by the function it accommodates also an element volumes designed by the rooms and of connection and linkage so that eliminating the shape of doors and jambs: movement can give shape to the apartment between the kitchen and the dining room, as a whole.

Location. Via Giulio Romano, Milan, within the historical nucleus of the Beruto Plan. The building replaced an artisanal area in the 1950s

270 271 Plan of demolition and construction work. Materials and interior design. The rational planning INTERIOR DESIGN The demolition and construction plan shows the choices find agreement also in the choice of materials intended structure and layout of the apartment and sober, delicate colours to create an pleasant environment Project plan. The project plan highlights the new characteristics of the apartment, identifying three distinct areas: the central lounge, which enjoys the best (western) exposure to sunlight; the sleeping area, including the suite, two built-in wardrobes and bathroom; and the central areas of utilities

272 273 INTERIOR DESIGN Plan as built INTERIOR DESIGN

Project plan. The plan highlights the role central of the projecting counter, which becomes the physical and visual fulcrum of room as a whole

2. Milan: La Gavetta, restaurant, Via Donizetti 3 (2010)

The design of the space for La Gavetta, a The many simple materials used include new restaurant, gave shape to premises for wood, plaster, steel and panels of woven a new catering chain devised around a new straw. The vocabulary is kept deliberately project with a traditional Italian object, simple, recalling the simplicity and the namely the gavetta or mess tin, as its cornerstones on which the gastronomic hallmark. The idea is for the customer to fill project rests. A service area is placed to the a gavetta with hot and/or cold food from rear of the counter to leave room for the the restaurant’s counter. Given the portable toilets and other minimal items of nature of the container, he or she can then equipment required by refurbished decide whether to eat on the premises or premises. Tables are arranged around the elsewhere. The design involved the central counter for those choosing to dine construction of a central counter running in the restaurant. The aim is to ensure that diagonal to the regular layout of the the design of the physical space reflects restaurant, preceded by a circular element the entrepreneurial project. Everything in for the gavette, which are immediately the restaurant echoes its gastronomic visible to customers, and surmounted by project. Every element of the design and a domed fireplace. The centre of the the architecture speaks of the central role restaurant is thus occupied by the central of the gavetta and communicates the feature of the catering project and its innovative underlying idea, thus trademark. The counter projects into the transforming the refurbishment project into middle of the premises its most important an opportunity to present a business part, namely the food and the way in which strategy and a new brand. it can be consumed: the sophistication of gastronomic quality and the culture surrounding the object.

Location. Via Donizetti, Milan

274 275 Plan of the central counter. The focal point of the 3D view. The imposing character of the counter, as INTERIOR DESIGN space is the counter, the form and materials of which reflected also in the choice of materials, contrasts recall a gavetta or mess tin, the object from which with the lightness of the surrounding furniture, the the restaurant takes its name simple chairs and the overall sharp definition of forms. The wooden floorboards are light-coloured and Elevations of the counter. The elevations highlight the laid longitudinally. The natural lighting is backed up variety of spaces and views offered from different by lamps with crisp lines in the same materials as the points in the premises. Key importance attaches to counter the juxtaposition of opaque and shiny spaces and the balance of solids and voids

276 277 INTERIOR DESIGN INTERIOR DESIGN

3. Verano Brianza (Monza and Brianza): wine shop (2010)

The project for the wine shop envisaged social connotation in the context of point for the design of the space should be Plan of the wine shop. The central counter organizes from the outset a space organized around a belonging, this design approach studies the human connotation of whoever is called the space so as to ensure that the pathways are fluid strongly identifying central element capable their behaviour patterns and organizes the upon to inhabit it on a daily basis. This was and highlight the role of the shopkeeper not only of ordering the distribution of all space accordingly. All the pathways spread the first design to be developed in this way, the other parts but also and above all out from the central island in the free and the experience was to give birth for of characterizing the functions to be arrangement of shelves for the display of THE BLOSSOM AVENUE of a peculiar performed inside and outside in relation bottles, with the space of greatest public philosophy characterized by the organization to time of day and context. use for the events to be held on the and design of space around the human By occupying the centre not with the mere premises placed in front. figure and the social function performed by function of the display and sales area but Research on materials made it possible to the same in that particular context. Every with the flow of human activities, the identify types of wood for the display units element of the design is thus related to the project designs a central island in which to and floor as well as a colour scheme for public function of the architectural setting. represent the figure of the person called the walls and lighting system capable upon to manage the space. In this it seeks of presenting a traditional image of the the strong and authentic connotation of a space so as to accentuate the centrality of time when the person running a business the human figure and the knowledge of public use or access in a small town like of which the shopkeeper is the depositary. Verano became an integral part of it, a It is on the central space that the lights, the representative and depositary of a small design and all the pathways of display and area of knowledge and a small world use converge. serving as a point of reference for The daring of the project lies precisely in its customers. Focusing not on function and decision to highlight and focus on the primary purpose but on the nature of professional figure of person running the human figures, of their professions and business in the conviction that the starting

Location. Via Cadorna, Verano Brianza

278 279 INTERIOR DESIGN Plan as built. Situated in a two-storey building that Project plan. The layout is regular and fluid with INTERIOR DESIGN stands out in a context of higher buildings, a large living area developed around the fulcrum the apartment has a regular plan that makes it of a central pillar. The size of the rooms and openings possible to imagine new spaces and perspectives, is redefined to create a central corridor for also taking advantage of the height of the rooms the sleeping area and utilities

4. Siena: apartment, Viale Vittorio Emanuele 56 (2012–13)

The refurbishment of an apartment on Viale the ceiling and transform the traditional developed by ACANTO focuses both on Vittorio Emanuele in Siena addressed the apartment into one with a height of about sobriety and on variety in terms of the question of intervention in an historical five meters up to the central beam. chromatic range, deciding on the context at the gates of the walled city Consolidation of the roof, also in relation to appropriate colour scheme room by room in an area affected here and there by the elimination of many points of support in relation to the light while maintaining the transformations to which Siena was and many internal walls upon which the uniformity with the soft hue of the subjected prior to the Astengo town whole rested, made it possible to design parquet floors and the tiles of the planning scheme of 1956. The apartment is trusses, repeated in four sections, that bathrooms. The final effect is of great and on the first floor of a building classified as become the most important visual element above all unexpected impact on climbing one of the offshoots of the historical of the apartment. The arrangement of the the stairs and seeing the large sheet of centre, i.e. the first to be built also outside rooms creates a fluid, open space with just opaque glass that channels the light from the walls after 1860. Historical in character one clean break between the living and the skylight above the stairwell into the but located outside the city walls, the sleeping areas. The focal point around apartment and gives an immediate glimpse building is characterized by having just two which the space of the living area as a of the innovative interplay of volume storeys on Viale Vittorio Emanuele, with a whole rotates is the main pillar supporting and height. brick facing that ennobles its appearance, the building’s central truss, against which but a number of storeys on the other side the chimney of the fireplace descends from towards the valley as a result of the slope the roof. The presence of this single of the terrain outward from the city gate dividing element, slender and contained (Porta Camollia). Its particular construction though it is, makes it possible without other thus reflects various aspects of the city’s walls to ensure the recognizability and territorial, geographic and historical compactness of three rooms – two living development. rooms and the kitchen – without separating The project offered an opportunity to go or dividing them. much further than envisaged in redesigning Once again, the open plan and the the layout. The extension of ownership also contiguity of rooms make the apartment to the floor above made it possible to raise freely habitable. The interior design

Setting. The building is located on the boundary of the historical fabric of the walled city in a context where alterations and additions have been limited

280 281 Opposite Rendering. The central pillar of the living area, into which the fireplace is inserted, and the use of the roof trusses to create a skylight define a space characterized by variety of viewpoints and clear-cut lines

Construction work. The heights reach a maximum of five metres. The consolidation of the roof and the elimination of some points of support make it possible to redefine the rooms and spaces

282 283 INTERIOR DESIGN Project plan. The project transforms the layout INTERIOR DESIGN of the apartment. Taking advantage of its large size and the central corridor, it positions all the areas that have no need of windows in the centre and the others around them, connected by means of short corridors that are incorporated into the rooms so as to diminish their impact and enhance the fluidity of the spaces

5. Milan: apartment, Corso Italia 15 (2012–13)

The renovation of an apartment at Corso opened up to the home as a whole. Taking organizes the apartment as a whole with no Italia 15 was an opportunity to address one advantage of the particular depth of the division or closure. Two walls of transparent of best-known modern buildings in the building, the project concentrates all the glass close the two ends of the corridor, centre of Milan, built by Luigi Moretti spaces not requiring windows in the occupied by the study and the dining room, between Corso Italia and Via Sant’Eufemia. middle, creating two blocks on either side leaving all the rest free and allowing the The major complex has one building on of the two walls of the corridor, one for the space to flow and change with no Corso Italia, which respects the height of laundry room and a small powder room, impediment in its everyday perception. the existing urban frontage, and a taller and the other for closets, part of the master The interior design project developed by building in the centre of the site, with floors bathroom and a fitted wardrobe. The rest of ACANTO included particular research on 7 to 13 occupied by apartments and those the house develops around these two walls the original furnishing and decoration. below by offices. In addition to enjoying a of the corridor, expanded to contain the Marble, stone, wood are used to define and complete view of the centre and the city, utilities: from the through kitchen between shape the rooms so as to ensure their the apartment on the 11th floor is close to the living room and dining room to the fluid physical solidity and compactness. the axis of pedestrian and vehicle access spaces of the master bedroom, bathroom running from the edge of the site on Corso and dressing room. Small corridors lead off Italia through the middle of the block and the wide, central corridor but are to Via San Senatore, thus appearing to incorporated into the rooms in order to hover in midair over the passageway. reduce their presence and impact and The renovation project changes the layout endow them with the spatial fluidity of the completely, working once again on the apartment as a whole. Now running concept of fluid, open space and also perpendicular rather than parallel to the reinterpreting some important points of façade, the corridor connects the two sides, residential architecture of the 1950s and the side looking east onto Milan Duomo ’60s. The apartment initially presented a and the warmer side looking west onto the traditional central corridor with rooms city, Monte Rosa and the sunset. opening off it on either side. This was The corridor central frames the passageway widened, reoriented by 90 degrees, and like a telescope, arranges the space and

Setting. The apartment is situated on the eleventh floor of one of the most particular and interesting buildings of the Milanese modern period

284 285 INTERIOR DESIGN INTERIOR DESIGN

View from the living area. East-side view towards the Velasca Tower and Milan Duomo

View of the study facing west

Internal courtyard of the building

Plan as built. The long central corridor initially represents the element dividing and serving the different parts of the apartment

286 287 INTERIOR DESIGN INTERIOR DESIGN

View of the master bedroom and bathroom

View of the bathroom of the guest room

Central corridor. Transformed with respect to its Dining area. The clarity and lightness of the chromatic Living area. Through the use of elements of design Living area. Panorama and views from the living area original position, the central corridor serves the choices for furnishings also continue in the dining and furnishings with sharply defined lines and light windowless inner spaces of the apartment such as area, where white predominates in contrast with the hues as well as the careful selection of upholstery, the utilities room and a small powder room. The clear, vivacity of the view of Milan offered by the large the living area creates a pleasant and relaxing light colours of the floor and the doors and walls windows environment where the large bookcase and renowned make the space light and airy Barcelona chairs designed by Mies van der Rohe stand out by virtue of their aesthetic presence

288 289 Biography

Marco Facchinetti and Marco Dellavalle be- urban environments. In the meantime, he tive development that lies at the heart of the gan to work together on joint projects in consolidated his teaching at the Milan Poly- work on which FDA concentrates. In draw- 2003 and founded FDA INTERNATIONAL in technic, where he became a first-level pro- ing up plans, projects, regulations, master 2005. Marco Facchinetti is an architect and fessor in 2007. It was on the drawing boards plans and designs, the firm grasps the prob- graduated from the Milan Polytechnic in of the Polytechnic that he met Marco lematic dynamics of the evolution of the 1996. The last student to graduate under the Dellavalle, his brightest student. discipline of urban planning and the un- supervision of Giuseppe Campos Venuti, to- Marco Dellavalle graduated with a survey completed transition of urban contexts, torn gether with Federico Oliva and Valeria Er- thesis on recent transformations in the Mi- between pressures for internal transfor- ba, he took the path of urban studies and lanese area, examined and interpreted mation and the persistence of strong dy- planning, first in the post-graduate school through the lens of settlement quality and namics of external growth. The firm began of Patrizia Gabellini at the Polytechnic and the sense of habitation in those territories. work straight away with municipalities and then with a research doctorate in urban, Concepts like settlement quality and the re- private bodies in Italy and the United States, environmental and territorial planning at lations between lifestyles and territorial investing on the one hand in the reform of Florence University. He completed his stud- forms were thus highlighted for the first urban planning under way in Lombardy, ies in New York, however, at the Robert F. time together with a reading the phenom- Piedmont, Tuscany and other places, and Wagner Graduate School of New York Uni- enon of urban sprawl under way in that very on the other in developing a different con- versity with a dissertation on the sense of period. The research project and the ques- cept of quality. urban transformations around the strength- tion to be addressed, as formulated by Mar- The growth of the firm led to the need for ening of infrastructural nodes. The consol- co Dellavalle and Marco Facchinetti, were a new structure, born out of reflection on idation of relations with the United States thus grounded on the same assumptions, what had been accomplished in ten years saw a period as visiting professor at the prompting them to work together in 2003 of activity, eight of which very intense. The department of geography and planning of and join forces definitively in 2005 to found major strength is the capacity to invent the State University of New York at Albany. FDA INTERNATIONAL. The firm’s mission processes for the virtuous production of Responsibility for the workshop in urban has been very clear from the outset: to work quality spaces. Within their plans, in de- planning and the course of international ur- for private and public bodies, developers signing planning solutions and managing ban planning from 2003 to 2005 was an im- and investors in the conviction that urban processes and dynamics of transformation, portant experience providing insight into contexts, both small and large, and the city the two partners demonstrate the ability to how the traditions of the practice and tech- in general offer the best opportunities to take advantage of every opportunity to in- nique of urban planning vary in the west- generate development. It is indeed sus- crease the capacity of a project to produce ern world to define and create different tainable, balanced, respectful and innova- quality and embed itself in the context in

290 291 BIOGRAPHY

such a way as to become a point of reference habit it, their vision and philosophy, for ex- also for development on a broader scale. The ample, in the case of spaces for firms and production of territory is the activity that the companies. The ultimate goal is for the firm has shown its ability to perform best, at space thus designed to express the per- both the large and the small scale, and it is sonal brand of whoever commissioned it. on this basis that reorganization was carried ACANTO works on this idea, drawing upon out in 2012 and 2013 with the absorption of the Italian culture of design and demon- FDA INTERNATIONAL and F&D PROJECTS, strating that it can be used in all its variety the New York office, into THE BLOSSOM and depth far better than any other tradi- AVENUE. It is the blooming and blossoming tion to construct the personal identity of of initiatives, ideas and projects over these every space. years that has distinguished the firm, which has demonstrated its supreme quality in seizing opportunities and bringing them to fruition in initiatives for new development in the conviction that the city and its components are the best container and the road the primary organizing element of human activity. THE BLOSSOM AVENUE thus leads FDA INTERNATIONAL and F&D PROJECTS together towards the projects of the future while also developing new initiatives like ACANTO. Founded by Marco Facchinetti and Marco Dellavalle in 2013, ACANTO works to broaden the concept of interior design, understood as a set of techniques for designing interiors, towards a more organic idea capable of involving the possibility of designing space in such a way as to express the identity, of those who will in-

292 4. LIST OF PROJECTS LIST OF PROJECTS LIST OF PROJECTS

URBAN PLANNING 2005 Renovation of the MM2 Station central area Projects for the Cascina Pellizzara commercial Feasibility study for the functional renovation Preparing the framework of strategic actions Consultation of urban planning and (2005) area (2005) and restoration of the Visconti Walls (2005) for the Municipal Territorial Management Plan infrastructures and territorial context – Urban Cassina de’ Pecchi Trecate Oleggio (PGT) (2005) Transformation Study (STU) (2005–07) Pozzuolo Martesana Le Piagge, Florence Province of Milan Province of Novara Province of Novara Client: Town Council of Cassina de’ Pecchi Client: Impresa Tacchino Client: Town Council of Oleggio Province of Milan Client: Ernst & Young Client: Town Council of Pozzuolo Martesana

2006 Strategic plan and design for reorganization Preliminary plan for development of the PEEP Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) Plan of Services (2006–09) of areas PL 4 and 8 (2006) area (2006) (2006–07) (2006–07) (2006–08) Melzo Grezzago Grezzago Vaprio d’Adda Pozzuolo Martesana Grezzago Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Milan Client: Architect Roberto Pozzoli Client: Town Council of Grezzago Client: Town Council of Grezzago Client: Town Council of Vaprio d’Adda Client: Town Council of Pozzuolo Martesana Client: Town Council of Grezzago

294 295 LIST OF PROJECTS LIST OF PROJECTS

2007 Urban Traffic Plan (2007) Urban Traffic Plan (2007) Project for renovation of the Via Gramsci Strategic Environmental Assessment (VAS) Territorial Information System – Municipal Territorial Information System – Municipal Strategic plan – Technical consultation (2007) Cambiago Gambassi Terme urban road system (2007) Planning Document (2007) Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2007) Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2007) Selargius Gambassi Terme Vignate Cambiago Vignate Province of Milan Province of Firenze Province of Cagliari Client: Town Council of Cambiago Client: Town Council of Gambassi Terme Province of Florence Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Milan Client: Criteria S.r.l. Client: Town Council of Gambassi Terme Client: Town Council of Vignate Client: Town Council of Cambiago Client: Town Council of Vignate

Variance to the General Town-Planning Scheme Framework of Aims and Objectives Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (PRG) – L.r. 23/1997 (2007) (Documento di Inquadramento) (2007) (2007–08) (2007–09) (2007–09) Melzo Pognano Cologno al Serio Cambiago Vignate

Province of Milan Province of Bergamo Province of Bergamo Province of Milan Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Melzo Client: Town Council of Pognano Client: Town Council of Cologno al Serio Client: Town Council of Cambiago Client: Town Council of Vignate

296 297 LIST OF PROJECTS LIST OF PROJECTS

2008 Municipal regulations for installation Strategic Environmental Assessment (VAS) Strategic Environmental Assessment (VAS) Strategic Environmental Assessment (VAS) Ascertainment of applicability of Strategic Territorial Information System – Municipal Territorial Information System of advertising structures (2008) Planning Document (2008) Planning Document (2008) Planning Document (2008) Environmental Assessment (VAS) Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2008) Variance to Municipal Territorial Management Cambiago Cologno al Serio Inzago Cassina de’ Pecchi Planning Document (2008) Inzago Plan (PGT) (2008) Pozzuolo Martesana Pozzuolo Martesana Province of Milan Province of Bergamo Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Cambiago Client: Town Council of Cologno al Serio Client: Town Council of Inzago Client: Town Council of Cassina de’ Pecchi Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Inzago Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Pozzuolo Martesana Client: Town Council of Pozzuolo Martesana

Territorial Information System – Municipal Territorial Information System – Municipal Integrated Action Plan (PII) for a shopping mall Preliminary project for the CDX area (2008) Feasibility study for the AS1 area (2008) Variance to Municipal Territorial Management Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2008) Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2008) (2008) Grezzago Vignate Plan (PGT) (2008–09) (2008–10) (2008–12) Cologno al Serio Liscate Lodi Pozzuolo Martesana Inzago Liscate Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Bergamo Province of Milan Province of Lodi Client: Severgnini – Mattavelli Client: Town Council of Vignate Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Cologno al Serio Client: Town Council of Liscate Client: V. Sironi Client: Town Council of Pozzuolo Martesana Client: Town Council of Inzago Client: Town Council of Liscate

298 299 LIST OF PROJECTS LIST OF PROJECTS

Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2008–12) (2008–13) (2008–13) Novedrate Canzo Cassina de’ Pecchi

Province of Como Province of Como Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Novedrate Client: Town Council of Canzo Client: Town Council of Cassina de’ Pecchi

2009 Rectification of Municipal Territorial Updating of urbanization costs (2009) Updating of urbanization costs (2009) Updating of urbanization costs (2009) Guidelines for drafting a resolution in Guidelines for drafting a resolution in Guidelines for drafting a resolution in Management Plan (PGT) (2009) Grezzago Inzago Pognano accordance with the terms of L.r. 13/09 – accordance with the terms of L.r. 13/09 – accordance with the terms of L.r. 13/09 – Vaprio d’Adda Housing Plan (2009) Housing Plan (2009) Housing Plan (2009) Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Bergamo Cambiago Cassina de’ Pecchi Cologno al Serio Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Grezzago Client: Town Council of Inzago Client: Town Council of Pognano Client: Town Council of Vaprio d’Adda Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Bergamo Client: Town Council of Cambiago Client: Town Council of Cassina de’ Pecchi Client: Town Council of Cologno al Serio

300 301 LIST OF PROJECTS LIST OF PROJECTS

Guidelines for drafting a resolution in Guidelines for drafting a resolution in Guidelines for drafting a resolution in Guidelines for drafting a resolution in Guidelines for drafting a resolution in Strategic Environmental Assessment (VAS) Strategic Environmental Assessment (VAS) Ascertainment of applicability of Strategic accordance with the terms of L.r. 13/09 – accordance with the terms of L.r. 13/09 – accordance with the terms of L.r. 13/09 – accordance with the terms of L.r. 13/09 – accordance with the terms of L.r. 13/09 – Planning Document (2009) Planning Document (2009) Environmental Assessment (VAS) Housing Plan (2009) Housing Plan (2009) Housing Plan (2009) Housing Plan (2009) Housing Plan (2009) Novedrate Canzo Planning Document (2009) Inzago Liscate Novedrate Pognano Verano Brianza Cologno al Serio Province of Como Province of Como Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Como Province of Bergamo Province of Monza and Brianza Client: Town Council of Novedrate Client: Town Council of Canzo Province of Bergamo Client: Town Council of Inzago Client: Town Council of Liscate Client: Town Council of Novedrate Client: Town Council of Pognano Client: Town Council of Verano Brianza Client: Town Council of Cologno al Serio

Territorial Information System – Municipal Territorial Information System – Municipal Territorial Information System Guidelines for environmental renovation Variance to Municipal Territorial Management Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) Urban Traffic Plan (2009–12) Municipal Territorial Management Plan (PGT) Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2009) Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2009) Variance to Municipal Territorial Management of infrastructures (2009–10) Plan (PGT) (2009–11) (2009–12) Canegrate (2009–13) Novedrate Verano Brianza Plan (PGT) (2009) Regional Territorial Landscape Plan Cologno al Serio Verano Brianza Basiglio Province of Milan Cologno al Serio Province of Como Province of Monza and Brianza Puglia Region Province of Bergamo Province of Monza and Brianza Client: Town Council of Canegrate Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Novedrate Client: Town Council of Verano Brianza Province of Bergamo Client: Puglia Region Client: Town Council of Cologno al Serio Client: Town Council of Verano Brianza Client: Town Council of Basiglio Client: Town Council of Cologno al Serio

302 303 LIST OF PROJECTS LIST OF PROJECTS

2010 Verification of municipal procedures as regards Strategic Environmental Assessment (VAS) Ascertainment of applicability of Strategic Territorial Information System (2010) Territorial Information System (2010) Register of roads (2010) Updating of urbanization costs (2010) urban planning and TEM (2010) Planning Document (2010) Environmental Assessment (VAS) Mozzo Basiglio Inzago Melzo Melegnano Basiglio Single Office of Production Activities (SUAP) Province of Bergamo Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Milan Procedure (2010) Province of Milan Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Mozzo Client: Town Council of Basiglio Client: Town Council of Inzago Client: Town Council of Melzo Roncello Client: Town Council of Melegnano Client: Town Council of Basiglio Province of Monza and Brianza Client: Accademia SGR

Variance to Municipal Territorial Management Urban Traffic Plan (under way since 2010) Plan (PGT) (2010–13) Inzago Pognano Province of Milan Province of Bergamo Client: Town Council of Inzago Client: Town Council of Pognano

304 305 LIST OF PROJECTS LIST OF PROJECTS

2011 Study of impact of Integrated Action Plan (PII) Partial variance to Municipal Territorial Guidelines for drawing up plans for the Municipal cemetery plan (2011) Feasibility study for new road system for Municipal building regulations (2011) Updating of urbanization costs (2011) access road Management Plan (PGT) (2011) renovation of farmhouses (2011) Inzago Presezzo (locality of Ghiaie) – Bonate Sopra Liscate Liscate Via Berlinguer (2011) Vaprio d’Adda Inzago (2011) Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Milan Opera Bonate Sopra Province of Milan Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Inzago Client: Town Council of Liscate Client: Town Council of Liscate Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Vaprio d’Adda Client: Town Council of Inzago Province of Bergamo Client: Town Council of Opera Client: Vitali S.p.a.

Ascertainment of applicability of Strategic Register of roads (2011) Strategic Environmental Assessment (VAS) Strategic Environmental Assessment (VAS) Territorial Information System Provincial Territorial Plan (PTP) (2011–12) Urban Traffic Plan (under way since 2011) Environmental Assessment (VAS) Melegnano Planning Document (2011) (2011) Partial variance to Municipal Territorial Updating of analytical and descriptive tables Melegnano Planning Document (2011) Pognano River Agogna contract Management Plan (PGT) (2011) Province of Milan Province of Novara Province of Milan Inzago Vaprio d’Adda Client: Town Council of Melegnano Province of Bergamo Province of Novara Client: Province of Novara Client: Town Council of Melegnano Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Pognano Client: Province of Novara Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Inzago Client: Town Council of Vaprio d’Adda

306 307 LIST OF PROJECTS LIST OF PROJECTS

2012 Municipal building regulations (2012) Analysis of commercial system Updating of urbanization costs (2012) Updating of urbanization costs (2012) Ascertainment of applicability of Strategic Territorial Information System (2012) Register of roads (2012) Cambiago Addition to Municipal Territorial Management Cambiago Novedrate Environmental Assessment (VAS) Opera Pognano Plan (PGT) (2012) Partial variance to Municipal Territorial Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Como Province of Milan Province of Bergamo Opera Management Plan (PGT) (2012) Client: Town Council of Cambiago Client: Town Council of Cambiago Client: Town Council of Novedrate Client: Town Council of Opera Client: Town Council of Pognano Cologno al Serio Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Opera Province of Bergamo Client: Town Council of Cologno al Serio

Register of roads (2012) Traffic survey (2012) Consultation on drawing up Municipal Analysis of commercial system Feasibility study for cycle bridge over the Urban Traffic Plan (under way since 2012) Verano Brianza Fino Mornasco, Lainate, Trezzano sul Naviglio Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2012) Addition to Municipal Territorial Management Rivoltana provincial highway (2012) Verano Brianza Opera Plan (PGT) (2012) Liscate Province of Milan Busto Arsizio Province of Monza and Brianza Liscate Client: Town Council of Verano Brianza Client: Lidl Italia S.r.l. Province of Milan Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Verano Brianza Client: Town Council of Opera Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Liscate Client: Town Council of Liscate

308 309 LIST OF PROJECTS LIST OF PROJECTS

2013 Municipal building regulations (2013) Territorial Information System Ascertainment of applicability of Strategic Territorial Information System – Municipal Updating of urbanization costs (2013) Definition of the monetization value for service Variance to the Municipal Territorial Basiglio Partial variance to Municipal Territorial Environmental Assessment (VAS) Territorial Management Plan (PGT) (2013) Opera areas (2013) Management Plan (PGT) (under way since 2013) Management Plan (PGT) (2013) Urban Traffic Plan (2013) Canzo Opera Cambiago Province of Milan Province of Milan Cologno al Serio Inzago Client: Town Council of Basiglio Province of Como Client: Town Council of Opera Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Bergamo Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Canzo Client: Town Council of Opera Client: Town Council of Cambiago Client: Cologno al Serio Client: Town Council of Inzago

Guidelines for the AT22 production area (under way since 2013) Verano Brianza

Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Verano Brianza

310 311 LIST OF PROJECTS LIST OF PROJECTS

ARCHITECTURE 2005 New office building (2005) Functional renovation and restoration Restoration of Cascina Loreto (2005) Preliminary project for tourist complex (2005) Residential settlement (2005) Development of Area B2 (2005) Pedestrian access to beach (2005–06) Trecate of Villa Albera (2005) Oleggio Comignago Oleggio Oleggio Marina di Carrara Oleggio Province of Novara Province of Novara Province of Novara Province of Novara Province of Novara Province of Massa Carrara Client: Impresa CII – Guatelli Province of Novara Client: Bevilacqua Client: Impresa Tosi Client: Impresa Bernardo Cuda Client: Colombo family Client: Autorità Portuale Marina di Carrara Client: Carlo Albera

2006 Factory building Production plant Feasibility study for functional renovation Feasibility study per functional renovation and Building permit (2006) Feasibility study (2006) of a building on Corso Concordia (2006) restoration of the Argenteria Gangi building Romentino Caponago Milano (2006) Milan Province of Novara Province of Monza and Brianza Client: Studio Turrini Client: TAIGRAF Client: DM Project & Affinity Client: Studio Turrini

312 313 LIST OF PROJECTS LIST OF PROJECTS

2007 Shopping mall Settala Strada Cerca area Shed for agricultural activities (2007) Single Office of Production Activities (SUAP) Project for the functional renovation Single Office of Production Activities (SUAP) Single Office of Production Activities (SUAP) Executive plan (2007) Feasibility study (2007) Grezzago for enlargement of the railway freight station and restoration of a farmhouse (2007) Tollgate area (2007–10) Furnace area (2007–10) Cornaredo Settala (2007) Momo Trezzo sull’Adda Trezzo sull’Adda Province of Milan Vignate Province of Milan Province of Milan Client: Agriverde S.r.l. Province of Novara Province of Milan Province of Milan Client: Cotefa Client: Marco Galbiati Province of Milan Client: Immobiliare Dellavalle Client: Iniziative immobiliari S.r.l. Client: Iniziative immobiliari S.r.l. Client: So.Ge.Mar

2008 Integrated Action Plan (PII) Feasibility study Preliminary project for renovation Integrated Action Plan (PII) Integrated Action Plan (PII) Via Curiel (2008) Transformation area ARm6 (2008) of the San Giovanni farmhouse (2008) Former Pirelli testing area (2008) Manzoni-Brodolini area (under way since 2008) Melzo Cambiago Oleggio Lainate Rozzano

Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Novara Province of Milan Province of Milan Client: Area Melzo Servizi Immobiliari S.r.l., Client: Town Council of Cambiago Client: Impresa Bernardo Cuda Client: Della Frera Client: Giuseppe Frigo Alhafin S.p.a., Cogeser S.p.a.

314 315 LIST OF PROJECTS LIST OF PROJECTS

2009 Proposed Integrated Action Plan (PII) Renovation of a commercial building Integrated Action Plan (PII) – Corte della Chiesa Feasibility study (2009) Notification of commencement (2009) (2009–12) Pessano con Bornago Cambiago Roncello

Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Monza and Brianza Client: Gianni Colombo Client: Livio Brambilla Client: Corte della Chiesa S.r.l.

2010 Residential area of transformation ARm10, Multifunctional complex CPE transformation sector Single Office of Production Activities (SUAP) New gardening centre Notification of commencement (2010) Integrated Action Plan (PII) – Core (2010) execution (2010) Proposal AP2 Zoning Plan (2010) Feasibility study (2010) (2010) Building permit (2010) Milan Verano Brianza Cambiago Vaprio d’Adda Bresso Melegnano Desio Province of Milan Province of Monza and Brianza Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Monza and Brianza Client: Silvia Rossi Client: AR.CA S.r.l. Client: Edilbloque S.r.l. Client: Cover Development Client: Künzi Client: Accademia SRG Client: Pilastro

316 317 LIST OF PROJECTS LIST OF PROJECTS

Integrated Action Plan (PII) – Montegrappa Integrated Action Plan (PII) – Cava Borgonovo Enlargement of artisanal building Cooperative building plan – Ecocity (2010–11) Integrated Action Plan (PII) Renovation plan for Cascina Deserta farmhouse Building for commercial and service-sector (2010) (2010) Building permit (2010) Inzago Former Linificio Nazionale factory (under way since 2010) activities Manzoni-Brodolini area Verano Brianza Verano Brianza Pozzo d’Adda (under way since 2010) Peschiera Borromeo DIA – Executive plan (under way since 2010) Province of Milan Cassano d’Adda Rozzano Province of Monza and Brianza Province of Monza and Brianza Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Inzago Province of Milan Client: AR.CA S.r.l. Client: AR.CA S.r.l. Client: VE.AN. S.a.s. Province of Milan Client: Santa Croce S.r.l. Province of Milan Client: Alauda S.r.l. Client: Giuseppe Frigo

2011 Renovation of the former Cantina Sociale Project for conversion of a quarry Renovation plan for the Cascina Bindellera New sports centre Integrated Action Plan (PII) – I Platani Preliminary project (2011) into a residential area (2011) farmhouse Feasibility study (2011) (under way since 2011) Villasalto Arcene Feasibility study (2011) Cassina de’ Pecchi Missaglia Cassina de’ Pecchi Province of Cagliari Province of Bergamo Province of Milan Province of Lecco Client: Town Council of Villasalto Client: Vitali S.p.a. Province of Milan Client: Town Council of Cassina de’ Pecchi Client: The Blossom Avenue Property S.r.l. Client: Town Council of Cassina de’ Pecchi

318 319 LIST OF PROJECTS LIST OF PROJECTS

2012 Multifunctional complex Feasibility study for the former Danzas area Variance to the Rivoltana-Verona executive plan Renovation and change of use – Corso Europa Proposal for execution of residential area of Residential villas (2012) Public housing (2012) Building permit – AP2 plan (2012) (2012) Change of use (2012) (2012) transformation – Feasibility study (2012) Essaouira Kiev Vaprio d’Adda Liscate Liscate Missaglia Peschiera Borromeo Morocco Ukraine Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Milan Province of Lecco Province of Milan Client: Consonni Strade S.r.l. Client: Structurama Client: Retail Development Client: Impresa Italiana Costruzioni Client: Impresa Italiana Costruzioni Client: Compagnia Immobiliare Client: Santa Croce S.r.l. Commerciali Industriali Commerciali Industriali San Ferdinando S.r.l.

Shopping mall (2012) Residential buildings (under way since 2012) Minsk Missaglia

Russia Province of Lecco Client: Structurama Client: CP – Investment S.r.l.

320 321 LIST OF PROJECTS LIST OF PROJECTS

2013 Renovation of a building in the Contra district SmeUP Base Field (under way since 2013) Definitive project for the Palazzetto dello Sport The Blossom Avenue Market (2013) Erbusco sports complex (under way since 2013) (under way since 2013) Missaglia Opera Rozzano Province of Brescia Province of Lecco Client: Sme.UP Province of Milano Province of Milano Client: Compagnia Immobiliare Client: Town Council of Opera Client: Anlus S.r.l. San Fernando S.r.l.

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INTERIOR DESIGN 2007 Working plans for the renovation of an apartment (2007) Sutri

Province of Viterbo Client: Luciana del Giudice

2009 Apartment on Via Giulio Romano (2009) Working plans for renovation of the Marogna Working plans for renovation of the Venturini Working plans for renovation of the Bassanini Milan Mazzei residence (2009) residence (2009) residence (2009) Milan Milan Milan Client: Paglierani Client: Antonio Marogna, Alessandra Mazzei Client: Cristina Venturini Client: Luca Bassanini

324 325 LIST OF PROJECTS

List of Associates

Anzalone Davide Simone Gianatti Mara Bartoletti Lorenzo Giovenzana Lorenzo Battistessa Sara Grassi Mattia Bensi Marco Grossi Jacopo Bonati Nicola Manzoni Francesca 2010 Working plans for a wine shop (2010) La Gavetta restaurant (2010) Borzacchiello Marco Mattioli Guglielmo Verano Brianza Milan Comai Alessio Minardi Francesco Province of Monza and Brianza Client: La Gavetta S.r.l. Client: La Bottega del Vino e dei Sapori De Stefani Luca Morenghi Licia Fenghe Fabrizio Nemet Marco Ferrari Enrico Pignataro Tommaso Ferrero Simona Salata Stefano Fior Marika Sciuto Giovanni Galdi Raffaele Serra Paolo Emilio Gallina Francesca Tirinnanzi Alessandro Galluzzi Massimo Zilla Antonio

2012 Apartment on Via Vittorio Emanuele II (2012–13) Apartment on Corso Italia (2012–13) Siena Milan

Client: Veronica Stocco Client: Marco Facchinetti

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