The urgent need to transition to more environment-friendly living requires global rethinking of how we organize densely urbanized areas. Implementation, however, requires that we start with local transformation projects. The competition Reinventing Cities, one of the initiatives promoted by C40 - a network of mayors from nearly 100 of the world’s major cities working to mitigate the climate crisis - aims to accelerate the process of urban regeneration based on the reduction of fossil fuel consumption.
With its successful bid in 2021 for one of the Reinventing Cities briefs, Milan now has the opportunity to rethink Piazzale Loreto, one of the city’s busiest intersections located in its north-east quadrant. Historically significant, the square was the scene of the Nazi-fascist massacre of 1944 and the place where the corpses of Mussolini and his mistress Petacci were exhibited in 1945. The building of the subway in the Sixties led to the layout we see today: a “non-place”, an eight-street traffic intersection with an underground level for two intersecting subway lines, and only marginal, residual spaces for pedestrians.
The winning project, LOC - Loreto Open Community, aims to transform Piazzale Loreto from a large traffic junction into one of Milan’s largest green squares: from a space designed for automobiles to a community-friendly amenity.
The masterplan is the work of a broad multi-disciplined team. Although complicated, bringing together many different personalities and skills is a necessary starting point for such a vast contemporary urban project. Project leader Ceetrus Nhood is joined by Arcadis Italia as consultants on environmental and management issues. Metrogramma is the design team coordinator while Mobility in Chain is in charge of mobility issues. Andreacaputo.com architecture practice is responsible for the Via Porpora project; LAND will handle the landscaping, and Temporiuso and...
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