The area of "Porta Vittoria” in Milan

Abstract

The transformation of Milan, to be realized completely, needs of transport infrastructure as well as major European cities. The Rail “Passante” is a trasport infrastructure almost entirely underground and it crosses the city of Milan from north-west to south-east. The "Passante" represents the structure on which to build the urban development of the "Greater Milan" and plays a strategic role in the choice of location, facilitating the creation of an urban system integrated and competitive. The "Passante" connects the central parts of the city with suburbs that are already taking advantage of the presence of the infrastructure to renew their image. The study area was originally occupied by a station of the State Railways, now is a new station of the railway "Passante". The context of urban transformation "Porta Vittoria" is located in a central area of Milan, just beyond the first “circumvallazione”, on the connecting axis the airport of Linate. The strategic location of the area, very accessible, has determined the choice of the functions that must be kept. The regeneration is characterized by two important projects, one public and one private. The public intervention concerns the BEIC - European Library of Information and Culture, the private action relates to the new district "Porta Vittoria", with mixed-use residences, offices, malls, hotels and cinemas. The project for the European Library of Information and Culture, developed many years ago, intended to give Milan an "infrastructure" for culture considered the largest of Europe. The lack of funding has led to long interruptions and long delays in implementation. The project pays particular attention to the sustainability of the building, using energy energy-efficient systems with heat pumps (with exploiting groundwater, rather superficial in that area), solar collectors and photovoltaic panels. The hypothesis expresses the desire to create a relationship between the winning project Beic and private interventions. The block of the project is treated as a unit, an intervention that consists of two parts, the building Beic and the building to be constructed. The two components are architecturally distinct but are linked by a complex system of relationships and work on an urban scale in accordance with a common strategy. The importance of the redevelopment is in the integration of city planning and mobility system, in an area, which hosts functions of supra-municipal level, accessible from the urban region of Milan. However, the redevelopment project included only the railway areas and did not include the surrounding areas. Therefore the realization of P.I.I. was a missed opportunity to make a substantial part of the city system. The transformation of large and small areas through PII, without a strategic plan, determines punctual transformations, but incoherent with each other. The P.I.I. "Porta Vittoria" will determine the transformation of an area, long abandoned, but it is also important to redevelop the surrounding areas, through a systematization of the various interventions.