170
R. Neri
of the neighboring city sections, with an influence that reaches out to farther areas
they may be reconnected to.
In 2014, the School of Architettura Civile promoted a workshop about either
decommissioned or soon to be decommissioned barracks—considered as strategic
areas by the new territorial zoning plan—that was based on the results of an ongoing
research started in 2012. This research has revealed extended, complex and rich, due
to the multiplicity of issues it tackles, such as the impact of the military settlements’
diverse purposes and layouts on the construction of the city; the different and multiple
reasons of their location; the settlement and typological features of the barracks as
large complexes that incorporate several buildings and large open areas, as reflected
by an extended and established literature; how their sites and buildings reflect military
life and organization; their building practices and decoration forms; the complex and
unexplored connections with other similar situations in Italy and abroad, and so on.
While these settlements have general and recurring features, their urban condition is
so particular and specific that they are, at the same time, deeply related to the city
and its history.
Due to their programs, these are almost invariably very large developments that
acquire specific and different features when they expand. During the course of history
their large enclosed areas have been relocated within the city for different reasons,
and left important traces of their presence in the sites, buildings and conditions they
generate all around. These are settlements that influence urban design by establishing
or preventing relations between city sections that remain in place even after their
decommissioning.
Eleven design groups that include professors, researchers, students and graduate
students, and the contribution of several others, have worked on the sites of five
decommissioned, or about to be decommissioned, barracks, originally indicated by
the territorial zoning plan as areas for urban transformation. These were the barracks
of the Milizie district, involved in the long discussion about the relocation of the
Brera Academy, the large unbuilt site of the Parade Ground in Baggio a small section
of which is occupied by warehouses, the Montello barracks in via Caracciolo, the
Mameli barracks in viale Suzzani and finally, the Mercanti barracks in via Rubattino
in the Lambrate district.
The projects always consider the areas and the built heritage that will be soon
available for their potential in terms of urban transformation and redevelopment, of
enhancement of the contexts and their buildings, with the goal of redefining the sites
that will become newly available to the city by establishing collective facilities of
urban interest, public institutions, open areas and parks, new facilities and community
centers, buildings for social activities and programs, by calling for the redevelopment
and construction of buildings for special, temporary, protected, collective, emergency
housing, and so on. These large strategic areas can guide the transformations of the
city and become its new centers, new landmarks that integrate and consolidate the
city’s collective sites, as public places of urban and territorial relevance that can
rarely be found in the city’s suburbs.
R. Neri
of the neighboring city sections, with an influence that reaches out to farther areas
they may be reconnected to.
In 2014, the School of Architettura Civile promoted a workshop about either
decommissioned or soon to be decommissioned barracks—considered as strategic
areas by the new territorial zoning plan—that was based on the results of an ongoing
research started in 2012. This research has revealed extended, complex and rich, due
to the multiplicity of issues it tackles, such as the impact of the military settlements’
diverse purposes and layouts on the construction of the city; the different and multiple
reasons of their location; the settlement and typological features of the barracks as
large complexes that incorporate several buildings and large open areas, as reflected
by an extended and established literature; how their sites and buildings reflect military
life and organization; their building practices and decoration forms; the complex and
unexplored connections with other similar situations in Italy and abroad, and so on.
While these settlements have general and recurring features, their urban condition is
so particular and specific that they are, at the same time, deeply related to the city
and its history.
Due to their programs, these are almost invariably very large developments that
acquire specific and different features when they expand. During the course of history
their large enclosed areas have been relocated within the city for different reasons,
and left important traces of their presence in the sites, buildings and conditions they
generate all around. These are settlements that influence urban design by establishing
or preventing relations between city sections that remain in place even after their
decommissioning.
Eleven design groups that include professors, researchers, students and graduate
students, and the contribution of several others, have worked on the sites of five
decommissioned, or about to be decommissioned, barracks, originally indicated by
the territorial zoning plan as areas for urban transformation. These were the barracks
of the Milizie district, involved in the long discussion about the relocation of the
Brera Academy, the large unbuilt site of the Parade Ground in Baggio a small section
of which is occupied by warehouses, the Montello barracks in via Caracciolo, the
Mameli barracks in viale Suzzani and finally, the Mercanti barracks in via Rubattino
in the Lambrate district.
The projects always consider the areas and the built heritage that will be soon
available for their potential in terms of urban transformation and redevelopment, of
enhancement of the contexts and their buildings, with the goal of redefining the sites
that will become newly available to the city by establishing collective facilities of
urban interest, public institutions, open areas and parks, new facilities and community
centers, buildings for social activities and programs, by calling for the redevelopment
and construction of buildings for special, temporary, protected, collective, emergency
housing, and so on. These large strategic areas can guide the transformations of the
city and become its new centers, new landmarks that integrate and consolidate the
city’s collective sites, as public places of urban and territorial relevance that can
rarely be found in the city’s suburbs.