INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP OF URBAN AND ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN XI edition CONTEMPORARY CITIES AND URBAN REGENERATION - Milan
TEAM - 3 P. Mascolo, M. Mostacchi, N. Ninkovic, T. Arunsuwangorn, Y. Piyakamolnirun
RETHINKING URBANITY The complexity of this site reflects in various conflicts that are diminishing its urban value. Being an important commercial and business district, it attracts people from the entire city, but fails to keep them within itself. The existing contradictions are most obviously shown in the infrastructural division of the area into smaller urban “islands” of great quality. Rethinking the way they interact with each other is the starting point of our project. Creating an urban oasis in the middle of concrete dessert is what could essentially bring life and people to this part of town. The need for public space in this area is reflected mostly in the superimposed way the people are forced to walk through it. By letting the canal resurface again and hiding the busy road under the artificial hill, the area is unified into a single space, and it becomes a soft spot in a city beehive. Following the path pattern of
the existing park, and relating to the public space of Piazza Gae Aulenti, the space is composed out of different areas with flexible functions, defined by different materialisation (grass, stone, porfido, and wood). There are no instructions for the specific use of this space, the visitors experience it individually as they move from one point to another, all finally leading to its core - the naviglio. Reaching the organically shaped piazza around the canal, people are shutting down the noise of the city and are able to enjoy the natural landscape but without losing touch with reality. The view from the mineral amphitheater overlooking the area brings together the raw beauty of nature and monumental gracefulness of the city skyline. They don’t conflict each other, on the contrary, they form a utopian ideal of what a city should be - both organic and artificial, both fast and slow, both hard and soft.
17