Starting from a careful analysis conducted on the D’Annunzio district, we can observe that most of the aspects that characterize it are identified as opportunities of improving interventions of the social conditions in which the neighborhood is nowadays.
From an architectural point of view, the presence of anonymous or underdeveloped and identical spaces represent an opportunity to characterize a part of the city that already has its own cultural specificity, but lacks on space in which express it. The cultural component plays an important role in a lively exchange of information between the inhabitants of the San Siro area.
With the addition of services, already widely present throughout the area, it is possible to work to strengthen the qualitative connection with the city.
Liliana Padovani demonstrates how San Siro is “a neighborhood that is no longer a suburb in the geographical sense of the term and no longer public in all its part where, however, serious problems of building deterioration remain and where a worrying fracture is being created between the mechanisms that managed the heritage and the needs in terms of basic of quality of life rights expressed by the inhabitants.”
(Cognetti, Padovani 2018, p.74)
Therefore it is necessary to study design proposal that aim to redevelop the open and build space and the relationship between them through the modification of the type of building and rethinking the distribution system, in order to restore continuity with the context of the consolidated city of Milan.
It is useful to divide the proposed interventions into three levels, depending on the component on which we have to act:
– negative: open space available for green areas that have the function of housing the building;
– built: residential buildings consisting of private accommodation;
– hybrid: access devices to the neighborhood and connection to the road network.
Square – Selinunte and green axes
The square represents a very important joint for the road network within the entire San Siro district. It is connected by tree-lined streets to a system of surrounding squares (starting from the north, clockwise, there are Piazza Segesta, Piazza Monte Falterona, Piazza Fratelli Zavattari, Piazzale Brescia, Piazzale Siena, Piazzale Giuseppe Perrucchetti, Piazza Esquilino).
The main axis, which reaches the center of Piazzale Selinunte, is a fundamental intersection that connects two opposite points of the neighborhood and is divided in four other minor streets that outline the sectors that make up San Siro.
The goal of the project is to increase the level of safety for pedestrians who reach the square from the buildings.
For this reason, the road level is moved to a lower height, connecting to the road axes through slight slopes.
The embryonic form of vegetation located on the linear connections is subject to redevelopment for the insertion of a green network that manages to infiltrate between the building, unifying under a master plan that can be characterized according to its continuity position with the overall project.
The lot shows a strong closure and resistance to the outside as the border is marked by the presence of a concrete and metal fence.
On the shorter sides of the district, Paravia Street and Zamagna Street, it is possible to glimpse the internal space and try to follow the perspective created by the buildings.
However, this is a labile approach, which induces the observer to circumnavigate the entire lot, without the chance of stopping and discouraging any kind of interest in the interior, which instead has great potential.
The removal of this physical limit, replaced by the design of the pavement, makes this limit perceptible through the use of the same material, thus announcing the change of space to the user: from the inside of the neighborhood to the street that surrounds it.
Furthermore, for a greater characterization of the residential space, the inclusion of a low body of plants is proposed, in order to continue to preserve a buffer zone for residences, albeit more permeable.
Cross Spaces – Albini Gardens and Mycenae Park
Considering the lot designed by the architect Giulio Minoletti, the one-dimensional nature of the neighborhood is evident, dictated by the positioning of the buildings interrupted only by three transversal axes: two included in their respective building lots and one that acts as a hinge between the two, currently identifiable as Private Micene Street.
Highly flexible spaces, define clichés for the neighborhood, currently missing.
With the goal of emphasizing the perspective interruption, the formation of three axes with high forest intensity is foreseen, pursuing the will of the inhabitants.
the trees act as a ground cover, promoting cultural initiatives, sports activities, protecting places of contemplation along these cordons.
Changing the type
Currently, the distribution of the inputs is configured in a linear typology: the stairs serve four houses per floor, for a total of sixteen or twenty houses , depending on the height of the building, which encloses one to three modules inside. A contradiction is accentuated: on the one hand there is the common space that connects the entrance to the neighborhood with the vertical distribution of the building, on the other one there is a separation of the stairs and consequently a reduction of relationship.
In buildings like these, which lend themselves to the livability typical of buildings with internal courtyards, there is the need to rethink a solution to encourage cultural exchanges and extra-condominial relationship. A gallery distribution is preferred, which can serve the apartments, connecting them, through the loggias currently present.
Since the loggias are spaces subsequently closed by users and used as storage, with the increase of the space available (to avoid undersized housing and give quality and dignity to the space), loggias are an opportunity to access private homes, creating a smaller and more private space, form the gallery to the front door that connects the private space to the public sphere.
From an architectural point of view, with the intention of respecting the formal aspects of the buildings of the late 1930s, the gallery is 70 centimeters away from the facade, so as not to interrupt the reading of the same. For this reason, it is made up of a “membrane”, composed of an easily workable metal mesh and suitable for the shape of the parapet (1.2 meters height where panoramic view is expected, 1.0 meters where passage is expected).
Cultural spaces “Gatehouse 1 and 2”
The type modification consequently entails an emptying of the existing stairs. After the reconstruction of the ceilings, the projects envisage the reuse of these spaces to connect the two elevations of the building, creating a continuous flow and enhancing a sense of perspective, as these spaces are 10 meters long. The functions that characterize these places are three:
For better control and administration of the buildings, there are two gatehouses previously housed the caretakers’ residence. The access to the district took and still takes place through two gates placed on the sides. It is the project’s intention to use the same buildings to enhance the entrance to the neighborhood. In this way, given the predisposition of the structure (perimeter bearing walls), a connection gate can be opened allowing the reuse of spaces currently in front of the entrance gates. It is about configuring an entire system of spaces, which when connect together form an ordered complexity, generating connections between the inhabitants of the neighborhood. In particular, the reception would be configured through a set of cultural spaces.
Riflessione
To ensure the success of a design intervention, it is essential to carefully consider the realities present in the place where we are going to operate, analyzing in depth all the aspects that characterize it. This attention to contextualization avoids thinking a project that is not suitable or not functional for the continuous change in the way of living the residential and urban spaces.
A careful and aware approach to the specific characteristics of the context allows the development of harmonious solutions for the needs of the inhabitants and local communities, considering not only the physical and architectural aspects, but also the social, cultural and economic dynamics.
The creation of living and urban spaces responding to the real resident’s demands avoids further problems and future challenges.
Project proposal must therefore be flexible and able to adapt to changing circumstances, ensuring long-lasting livability and a sustainable environment for future generations.
Bibliography
– Bazzanella L., Giammarco C., Progettare le periferie, Celid, Torino ottobre 1986
– Bucci F.(edited by), The Italian Debate 1940s-1950s. An Anthology, FrancoAngeli, Milano 2018
– Bucci F., Periferie e nuove urbanità, Mondadori Electa spa, Milano 2003
– Caniggia R., Maffei G. L., Composizione architettonica e tipologia edilizia, Il progetto nell’edilizia di base, Marsilio Editori, Venezia 1984
– Caniggia R., Maffei G. L., Lettura dell’edilizia di base, Marsilio Editori, Venezia 1995
– Cerasi, M., Lo spazio collettivo della città: costruzione e dissoluzione del sistema pubblico nell’architettura della città moderna, prefazione di Ludovico Quaroni, Gabriele Mazzotta Editore, Milano 1979
– Cognetti F., Padovani L., Perchè (ancora) i quartieri pubblici. Un laboratorio di politiche per la casa, FrancoAngeli – Collana del DAStU, Politecnico di Milano, Milano 2018
– Consonni G., Meneghetti L., Tonon G. (a cura di), Piero Bottoni. Opera completa, Fabbri, Milano 1990, pp.292 – 296
– Corradi, E., Pieghe: tra spazi interstiziali e oggetti residuali, Maggioli Editore, Santarcangelo di Romagna (RN) 2018
– Gambirasio G., Guiducci R., La Pietra U., Menghi R., Da periferie a città, Ricerche per la qualificazione delle periferie, Cisalpino – Istituto Editoriale Universitario, Milano 1990, p. 232-237
– Grandi M., Pracchi A., Guida all’architettura moderna, edizione completa sulla riproduzione del volume pubblicato da Zanichelli, Novembre 1980, Milano 2008
– Guiducci R., Periferie tra degrado e riqualificazione, Bianchi E., Perussia F., Scramaglia R., Scotti M. (in collaborazione con), FrancoAngeli s.r.l., Milano 1991
– Pagano G., Costruzioni – Casabella, n. 178, anno XV, ottobre 1942
– Pugliese R. (a cura di), La casa popolare in Lombardia 1903 – 2003, Edizioni Unicopli, Milano 2005, pp. 102, 103, 106, 107
– Sciascia A., Tra le modernità dell’architettura, la questione del quartiere Zen 2 di Palermo, L’Epos Società editrice, Palermo 2003
– Secchi B., La città dei ricchi e la città dei poveri, Editori Laterza, Bari 2013
– Staid A., Abitare illegale, Etnografia del vivere ai margini in Occidente, Milieu Edizioni, Milano 2017