The Naviglio Martesana is a canal in the Lombardy region. Running from the Adda river, in the vicinity of Trezzo sull'Adda, to Milan, it was also known as Naviglio Piccolo. It is part of the system of navigli of the Milan area. Approximately 38 kilometres long (the canal, not the tour), with a substantial section covered over or infilled, its width varies between 9 and 18 metres, while the depth is between one and three metres. Originally named Naviglio Piccolo, it subsequently changed to Martesana from the name of the county across which it runs. Along the way it crosses the boundaries of the villages of Vimodrone Cernusco sul Naviglio Cassina de' Pecchi, Bussero, Gorgonzola, Gessate, Bellinzago, Lombardo, Inzago, Cassano d'Adda, Vaprio d'Adda and Trezzo sull'Adda.The canal enters Milan alongside Via Padova until Cassina de' Pomm: at the junction with Via Melchiorre Gioia it disappears underground following the route of Via Melchiorre Gioia itself southwards. In the past, it would have passed through the Fossa dell'Incoronata and the Laghetto di San Marco to connect with the Fossa Interna (or Inner Ring). Today, after merging with the river Seveso, the underground course becomes the Cavo Redefossi in the vicinity of Porta Nuova, runs under the cerchia dei bastioni to Porta Romana, follows Corso Lodi and Via Emilia, finally ending up in the River Lambro.

The history of the canal begins on June 3, 1443, date of a document by Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, approving an ambitious project put forward by a group of illustrious Milanese citizens led by Catellano Cotta, the duke's administrator for the salt monopoly. It was inaugurated in 1465 by Bianca Maria Sforza. Today it is a popular recreational area in the Park Adda river, known for its leisurely and traffic free cycling paths. The cycling path along martesana canal is an nteresting viewpoint of unexpected secions of the territorial phenomena that have place along its course.

A crucial stage of the tour will be the new park in Cernusco sul Naviglio: a symbol of a new link between water and territory. Last stage of the route tour will be the Gorgonzola municipality, where the Martesana canal crosses the historical center. Here there are traces of the close connection between water and city. This municipality is trying to strengthen this connection through different projects of new public spaces. At the end of the tour we?ll come back by public transport (Milan Subway, Line 2 - green).

Please note that the bike tour will be realized with the maximum number of twenty participants. The tour will be cancelled in case of rain.

How to get to

Meeting point: outside Faculty of Architecture and Society (front entrance), Milan Polytechnic on 10 October 2008 at 1.45 p.m.

For further information: see the brochure (forthcoming)

MOBILE WORKSHOP 2

The Bicocca neighbourhood.

Knowledge city: the University and the Metropolis

Leader: Marianna D'Ovidio

Summary

In Milan, like in several other European cities, a deep process of industrial restructuring and the relocation of large and medium size factories changed the physical and social fabric of the city during the 70s and 80s. Where the factory had once worked as the main ordering principle of the territory, large gaps opened up in the urban fabric in the form of dismissed industrial areas. .

In the area of north-east Milan one of the largest industrial site was the location of a large scale redevelopment programme geared to make Milan a ?knowledge city?. In the early 90s the area of Bicocca, where the Pirelli tires factory-Bicocca was located, was redeveloped into a new part of the city characterized by education, research, cultural and residential facilities. A new university campus was built, along with a national theatre, private residences, commercial and research structures, i.e. the National Research Council, Siemens Company, Deutsche Bank, as well as the new Pirelli headquarter and the Pirelli Research Centre.

Nowadays the Bicocca area is a vibrant centre of different activities and a diverse population inhabits its spaces and buildings; students, instructors and researchers at the university and at the research centres, employees in the advanced service, people working in logistics and personal services, a public made up of participants in scientific congress and people attending cultural activities and, of course, the local residents (about 2.000 inhabitants). During the daytime the area is populated by almost 20.000 people on average.

One of the largest urban renewal projects in Italy, Bicocca represents a new centrality for the whole metropolitan area of Milan.

In our visit we will be welcomed by the Bicoccaè association, which takes care of the marketing of the area. We will visit the library in the University Campus, where we will also have a short introductory lecture about the Bicocca project by a member of the Gregotti Associates, the group in charge of the redevelopment project; he will take us to visit the Arcimboldi theatre and the Pirelli Headquarter which are the two architectural masterpieces of the area. We will move south in the neighbourhood and we will visit the ?Borgo Pirelli? with small villas built at the beginning of the Twentieth Century by the Pirelli Company for the managers? families. There we will meet Ms Beatrice Uguccioni, the presidente of the IX° administrative district of the municipality of Milan (where the Bicocca neighbourhood is located). After that we will take the eco-bus (free) which connects the different parts of the Bicocca neighbourhood and we will visit the Hangar Bicocca, an exhibition centre which hosts, among others, The Seven Heavenly Palaces by Anselm Kiefer.

How to get to

Meeting point: outside Faculty of Architecture and Society (front entrance), Milan Polytechnic on 10 October 2008 at 1.45 p.m.

We will reach the Bicocca neighbourhood by train from Politecnico: the trip takes only 7 minutes and it lets us see a hidden part of the city, which faces the railway which surround Milan.

website

http://www.unimib.it/go/Home/English-version

http://www.hangarbicocca.it/

http://www.bicocca-e.org/

MOBILE WORKSHOP 3

Visiting the new exhibition area in Rho-Pero

Leader: Luca Gaeta

Summary

The new exhibition area has been developed between 2002 and 2005 in the outskirts of Milan, as one of the largest European projects of the time.

The structure with a gross floorspace of 530,000 square meters is built on a two million square meters site in the area, that formerly hosted an oil refinery.

The project was promoted by Fondazione Fiera Milano, a private institution, and developed by Sviluppo Sistema Fiera, an engineering and contracting company that is overseeing the transformation of the entire Milan exhibition system.

The Italian architect Massimiliano Fuksas has designed a complex of eight pavillions distributed on both sides of a long promenade, covered by a glasswing surface.

General Informations:

Cost approx. 550,000,000 euro

Total site size 2,000,000 sq. m

Length of central axis 1 km

Gross floorspace 530,000 sq. m

Indoor rentable area 200,000 sq. m

Outdoor exhibition area 60,000 sq. m

Conference halls 80

Restaurants 20

Bars 25

Glazing 200,000 sq. m

Parking spaces approx. 20,000

Landscaped area 180,000 sq. m

How to get to

Meeting point: outside Faculty of Architecture and Society (front entrance), Milan Polytechnic on 10 October 2008 at 1.45 p.m.

The exhibition area can be reached by the underground in approximately 45 minutes.

MOBILE WORKSHOP 4

Visiting Sarpi, a Chinese neighbourhood

Leader: Christian Novak

Summary

A historic neighbourhood under metamorphosis

Sarpi neighbourhood, the famous Chinatown of Milan, shows powerful signs of transformation triggered by global social changes: here, we find a thick network of shops, venues, street vendors and all sorts of services managed by Chinese businesspeople, and mainly catering for Chinese customers. Here, Chinese immigrants that have only recently arrived tend to come looking for information and housing or job opportunities, while long-time Chinese residents gather to shop and exchange gossip about the Chinese community in Milan, in Italy and in China. However, the Paolo Sarpi neighbourhood is not a ghetto: the Chinese who live here are just a fraction of the overall Chinese community in Milan, and many times those who can afford buying or renting the top floors of the old local houses - that are being extensively renovated - are young well-off Italian and foreign professionals, that are attracted by the area's strategic proximity to the emerging fashion district: so far, showrooms and fashion agencies are clustered in the Brera-Garibaldi area, but they are already starting to spill over towards Sarpi. The residents of this neighbourhood, and also of the close neighbourhoods Isola and Garibaldi are finding themselves involved - willingly or not - in a new style of living and cohabitation, that follows the path of quick and irreversible change, and dissolves worn-out identities to experiment with new ones. This process is all but consistent and harmonious, it entails controversies and conflicts.

The tour include three items: the metamorphosis of the commercial structure, evolution and urban range; traditional, popular and mixed buildings, and recent and renovated and gentrificated buildings; little public spaces contended as sidewalks. We?ll see the new roads of wholesale, the core of the old Chinese neighbourhood, the streets of cultural associations and shopping.

We?ll meet representative of Viva Sarpi association, the Italian association of inhabitants, and a spokesman of the Chinese dealers.

How to get to

Meeting point: outside Faculty of Architecture and Society (front entrance), Milan Polytechnic on 10 October 2008 at 1.45 p.m.

From Politecnico, Underground MM 2 from ?Piola? to ?Moscova?, then 5 minutes by feet until the beginning of Via Bramante. Time extimated for the tour 2 hours and half. To go back to the city centre: tram number 3, 4, 7, 12, 14.

Bibliography

Lanzani A. Granata E. Novak C., Inti I., Cologna D., Esperienze e paesaggi dell?abitare, Aim, Abitare Segesta, Milano 2006.

Farina P., Cologna D., Lanzani A., Breveglieri L., Cina a Milano. Famiglie, ambienti e lavori della popolazione cinese a Milano, AIM - Abitare Segesta, Milano, 1997.

Granata E. Novak. C., Polizzi E., Immigrazione dall?Asia e trasformazione urbana, in Cologna D. (a cura di) ?Asia a Milano. Famiglie ambienti e lavori della popolazione cinese a Milano?, AIM - Abitare Segesta, Milano, 2003.

MOBILE WORKSHOP 5

From Duomo to Rozzano: discovering Milan urban region

Leader: Gabriele Pasqui

Summary

The tour is devoted to a quick view of Milan metropolitan area from the center to the south, analysing changes in urban organization, functions and activities from the metropolitan core to peripherical areas through Milan municipality boundaries. The tour will show changes in urban development and organization during the last century in a specific urban ?strip?.

During the tour there will be three steps:

-        piazza XXIV Maggio and corso San Gottardo , an example of XIX-XX century urban development involved in dramatic changes in residential and commercial renewal;

-        Gratosoglio, a social housing district built in the ?60s characterized by social and physical problems;

-        Rozzano, a medium size city at the south of Milan boundaries, an example of urban fringe sprawl, where the tour will stop.

At the end of the tour we will meet Francesco Davolio, the Mayor of the Municipality. He will discuss on urban strategies of an important metropolitan municipality.

How to get to

Meeting point: outside Faculty of Architecture and Society (front entrance), Milan Polytechnic on 10 October, 2008 at 1.45 p.m.

The tour will be realized using private transport vehicle. The bus will take participants to Rozzano and bring them back.

MOBILE WORKSHOP 6

North Park

Leader: Antonio Longo

Summary

Milan North Park is a large compact green area that spreads over 700 hectares to the north of Milan, through the boundaries of different Municipality: Milan, Bresso, Cormano, Cinisello Balsamo, Sesto San Giovanni and Cusano Milanino. It is one of the most important practice of urban and landscape regeneration in the urban Milanese region. It includes forests and areas that are interesting from a naturalistic point of view as well as meadows, cycle tracks, urban gardens, play and sports areas. It was ideated during the 60's and created beginning from the first half of the 70's with a recuperation and reclamation intervention of the areas abandoned by the large factories.

It comes close to some of the most successful examples of metropolitan parks in Europe (Munich, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Lyons and Barcellona).

It is, in fact, the result of an architectural project designed specially for the area with attention paid to the smallest details. The first part of the project concerned a vast waste area belonging to the Breda steelworks, which was bought by the City Council. The Management Consortium has provided numerous facilities and activities which can be used by the public, including a velodrome, bowling grounds, giant chessboards and a dense network of pathways and footbridges so as to avoid main roads when going from one section to the other.

The main offices are in a farmhouse at the centre of the redevelopment, where a continuous programme of educational and recreational events are held.

During the tour in the Park, the participants will meet the manager of the Park and the technical staff.

How to get to

Meeting point: outside Faculty of Architecture and Society (front entrance), Milan Polytechnic on 10 October 2008 at 1.45 p.m., with private bus from Milan Polytechnic. The bus will take participants to the Park and bring them back.

Website

www. parconord.milano.it

MOBILE WORKSHOP 7

Milan and Its Music Places. A Historical Introduction

Leader: Davide Ponzini

Summary

In its long history, Milan has often been at the center of the European musical production and cultural life, e.g. through the its famous opera theatres, but also with connected activities as musical publishing. This study tour introduces to the places where Milanese cultural (and properly knowledge-based) production developed, beginning from the Thirteenth to the Nineteenth Century. A short walk in the central area will show, among other musical places: the Cathedral, the place where the Royal Ducal Theatre was and the La Scala Theatre and its Museum.

Please note: this tour requires an additional fee (4 Euro) for the ticket for La Scala Museum.

How to get to

Meeting point: outside Faculty of Architecture and Society (front entrance), Milan Polytechnic on 10 October 2008 at 1.45 p.m. We will reach the city centre using public transport.