CLIMBING WATER

THE NEW RIVER OF BOVISA

YEAR: 2022

TYPOLOGY: TRAIN STATION AND OFFICES

SITE: MILAN

PARTNER: SARA BALETTI, GABRIELE PREVITALI

The project for the new Bovisa station is part of the masterplan of F.I.L.I., a bike path which from Cadorna arrives at Malpensa. The cycle path therefore branches off like a river delta, flowing into the urban voids that the railway itself had caused, in a process of contamination and re-appropriation of the public space in which the river spine intersects with the urban network, loading itself with recreational activities that culminate with a climbing wall on the main tower. Just like in the bed of a river, under the colored path, the station takes shape between solids and voids, like a chthonic creature that opposes the flow of flows and mends the two edges of the city.

The hybrid complex also includes the offices of the railway company, which has its headquarters here overlooking the new urban forest.

The complex therefore becomes a jolt of energy in an abandoned city, in which the tension between the flow of the railway and the transversal seams of the city becomes the reactor of new integration.

Based on the concept of empathy as a tool for involving the community, the democratic flow of the cycle path hides in its cavities, like in a river bed, the station and the new offices, organized around porous islands that connect the different layers. The abandoned areas come to life by reconstituting new meanings for the city, such as the new space for the covered market and a new usability between the two districts in a much more dynamic way. Finally, the whistle of the trains turns into music in the disco at the top of the station, which characterizes a new sensibility of living space for the third millennium.