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The new Milan skyline? It will reduce distances

06 August, Forbes Italia

“You need to plunge into Milan to understand the city, instead of looking at it as a piece of art”, Guido Piovene wrote his Travels in Italy in the Fifties. We wonder what the journalist and writer would think of the city as it is now, with its gardens and buildings which have preserved their elegance, although they’re increasingly surrounded by high-rise buildings.

The time of the economic boom described in the book is long gone, and so are “Milano da bere” and “Tangentopoli”, for the city that has been able of regaining its role as the main driver of the country. Milan keeps growing thanks to the real estate activities without renouncing to the Italian style, co-existing with artistic masterpieces that are appreciated worldwide. The breakthrough was the Expo in 2015, which proved to be a success despite all the debates. As Scenari Immobiliari stressed, that year saw real estate investments in Milan for 3.4 billion euro against the 894 million recorded in 2014. Most of the projects were already in the pipeline, but they didn’t stop. In 2017 the city registered the record of 4.3 billion, half of the investments in Italy. The next challenge concerns the suburbs, as Mayor Giuseppe Sala told Forbes.

How has the city changed after all the recent real estate developments?

Today, we can see the results of 20 of work that has reshaped the city and developed it vertically. Entire neighbourhoods have been redesigned and have become the symbols of the city. Starting from Piazza Gae Aulenti, the beating heart of Porta Nuova. We did not only build, but we also did it well. We’ve built innovative skyscrapers that saw competing internationally-known architects: Cesar Pelli for the Unicredit tower, Paolo Caputo for the Diamond, Stefano Boeri for the magnificent Vertical Forest.

The same happened with CityLife.

There, design achieved the excellence with the buildings by Isozaki, Liebeskind and Hadid. The first two are completed, while the third is under construction. They represent the Milan of the new millennium, growing towards the sky like London, Dubai, New York and the far-east metropolis. Milan is not staying behind.

What are the political guidelines?

We’re working on this transformation process keeping in mind two key aspects: suburbs and sharing. The development of the city must be systematic and include the new as well the old neighbourhoods. We don’t want a city going at two different speeds, but rather a change that embraces the whole city. A project must be presented and discussed with the community in order to be successful.  This is the way to get the public consent and implement the plan in short times.

Architecture is not only technique but also a social project. How do these two factors combine in the development of Milan?

Reshaping a city, turning abandoned areas into new neighbourhoods, regenerating old areas to improve the quality of life is a significant change for the community. Milan, like other metropolises, experiences the coexistence of new areas and neighbourhoods left abandoned for years, from an urban and social point of view. We’re trying to fix it with the new Territorial Zoning Plan, whose operational timeframe stretches till 2030. We’ll have met the objective if in ten years the city will have fewer differences between centre and suburbs, with a good quality of life in all the areas. Then we can say to have given to Milan what the city deserves, namely its rise in the international context and the regeneration of the problematic areas.

How will Milan be like in the medium-term?

If we look at the city as a whole, it will be greener and better connected, thanks to the new metro line which is under construction as well as other infrastructures. There will be no discontinuity concerning urban planning, as the gap between suburban areas and city centre will be filled. The requalification of the seven former train stations will have a crucial role in this, as they concern an area of over 1.25 million Sq m. We’ll start the works very soon. We’ll recover the areas of Farini, Romana, San Cristoforo, Rogoredo, Greco-Breda, Porta Genova and Lambrate. 65% of the surface will be dedicated to green spaces and 35% to social housing. This is our biggest project, but it’s not the only one. With its implementation, Milan will change radically, with the addition of other interventions to achieve our vision of a city developing in all its parts.

Source: Forbes Italia

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi