ASP students participated in a project sponsored by multiplicity.lab regarding the re-use and development of farmhouses owned by the City of Milan. The first phase involved the installation of the exhibition “la vita nuda” edited by Aldo Bonomi at the Triennale of Milan. The subject of the installation was a possible guide for the “Municipi dell’abitare”, a network of sites devoted to social housing within the Milanese public farmshouses. The second phase consisted in the project “Cascine Expo 2015” developed by students in different ways, according to the framework outlined by the Expo conceptual masterplan guidelines. The work was splitted into two different themes: housing, and nutrition/ agriculture.
In Milan there are 58 farmhouses owned by the Municipality. They are located radially at the borders of the municipality, mostly within the major parks of Milan or in agricultural areas near waterways. Some of these farmhouses, initially at the borders of the city, are now surrounded by new development. They are in different conditions, used or partially-used, abandoned and in a state of decay.
Historically, the identity of farmhouses in Milan is linked to agriculture. Today only 14 farm houses are still family-run farms. Some of them combine agricultural production with new services: commercial (direct selling of products), education (educational farms), tourism (restaurants, bed&breakfast) or cultural (concerts, exhibition areas, conferences spaces) services. In the majority of cases just a little part of the spaces and areas belonging to the farmhouse are used for the primal activities.
In recent years, the agricultural vocation of the farms hosted another specific activity, which was developed intertwined with the original one, or replacing it. Many farms were in fact recovered and kept alive by NGO’s and citizens’ associations. The associations have found spaces that are available and flexible in order to accommodate different kind of social and cultural activities like: housing and care areas, community centers, cultural places, art, music, teaching and leisure spaces. These farms have become laboratories of integration and citizenship and important social guards of the territory. Despite the fact that the farmhouses owned by the Municipality of Milan are places of great value, due to their historical, architectural and environmental qualities, there is no specific policy for the their recovery and their development. The project “Cascine Expo 2015” promotes the recovery and development of Milan-owned farmhouses and the activities hosted by the buildings. The framework considers a sustainable model of open spaces dedicated to agriculture, food, housing. The Expo 2015 theme – “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” – could be brought in the very texture of the city due to the farmhouses, thereby helping Milan in becoming a laboratory of sustainability and citizenship.
Principal Academic Tutors
Stefano Boeri
Architecture and Planning, Politecnico di Milano
Academic Tutors
Salvatore Porcaro
Architecture and Planning, Politecnico di Milano
Mario Piazza
Industrial Design, Arts, Communication and Fashion, Politecnico di Milano
External institution
Fondazione Casa della Carità
Multiplicity
SlowFood
Pathways to Housing
External Tutor
Maddalena Bregani
Multiplicity
Carlo Fiorani
Slowfood
Team members
TEAM A
Roberto Jose Garcia Leone [Team controller], Architectural projects and management of urban and territorial transformations
Chiara Cannavicci, Architectural projects and management of constructive processes
Matteo Ferranti, Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering
Francesco Franci, Product-Service-Systems Design
Chiara Geroldi [Project Communication Coordinator], Architecture
Davide Passini, Communication Design
TEAM B
Angela Maria Potenza [Team controller], Architectural projects and management of constructive processes
Tommaso Brambati, Constructions Architecture
Murilo Gomes Nagato, Environmental Engineering
Raffaele Pe, Architecture