DESIGNING NETWORKS IN MILAN METROPOLITAN REGION
Town Planning Design Workshop, M.Sc. in Architecture, I year, Politecnico di Milano, A.Y. 2015-2016 and 2016-2017
Profs Nicolò Privileggio, Fabrizia Berlingieri, Stefano Di Vita
Tutors Beatrice Galimberti, Stefano Ivaldi, Matteo Motti
The course tackled two main (overlapping) issues:
How to conceive the development of a contemporary European metropolitan region?
How to re-interpret the role of physical networks in urban and territorial design?
In recent years, physical networks worth a necessary reconsideration in their functional and morphological roles. Their change of statement is due to many reasons, among which it is possible to recognise the crisis of capitalist land development models and the increasing awareness of land preservation in terms of quality and quantity.
Nowadays, the project of networks (considered as the sum of water networks, mobility networks, environmental networks, etc.) is a central theme in terms of urban and territorial renovations. It arises some questions that cannot be considered strictly in a local way, but that have to be framed in a wider context, focusing the attention back to the character of networks (in terms of potential connectivity, accessibility, permeability, and porosity).
Moreover, it seems necessary to transcend a merely technical approach forcing networks understanding in specialized disciplines. The complex geography of networks highlights the urgency of a new approach to territorial design, to achieve a comprehensive, synthetic perspective on problems, aiming at the production of a more equitable and sustainable habitat.
Milan Metropolitan Region (the study area of the studio) offered an interesting and heterogeneous palimpsest to unfold all these themes, by investigating physical networks as complex architectural objects, susceptible of local modifications and capable of making new value to the Commons.
