Year: 2009
Commissioned by: ALER
Teknoarch services: Preliminary designs Location: Milan
Client: ALER
Surface area: 7,600 mq
Contract value:REPORT

The recovery of urban areas, the fight against decay and the effort to improve social cohesion are some of the complex issues that contemporary cities find themselves increasingly obliged to address.
These problems require a sustainable approach that generates a powerful impetus for development from the systematic integration of pre-existing interventions with new (public and private) projects.
As specified in the Neighborhood Contracts II (Contratti di Quartiere II), the primary goal of these initiatives is to "promote the territory", in concomitance with the programs for human development.
This is reflected in one of its most basic aspects, that is the recovery of a variety of modes of "inhabiting" a place and integrating them reciprocally in order to foster a harmonious relational ecosystem. In this sense, the case of the Quartiere Mazzini area is exemplary. Not only because of the recovery projects that have been under way there for several years now, but also because of the fascinatingly human scale expressed by the courts of its buildings. A continuum of paths and rest areas in intimate spaces, protected and well lit, and made still more attractive by a constantly changing sequence of perspectives.
Given the positive result of this design, it would clearly be advisable, in the interests of greater integration and quality of life, to make this "modus vivendi" a priority in interventions of urban recovery.
Having said this, however, it would be an error to think that the problem can be resolved exclusively by properly designing the shared spaces, without taking into consideration the dynamics that come into play between these and the single residential units. Dynamics that draw their lifeblood from the fertile interplay between the different "ways of living" and from the blend of different types of residences they stem from. Diversity and identity of benefit to all. These are the fundamental principles that inspire the urban recovery project at n. 11, via Barzoni.

The unusual triangular shape of the lot of the intervention, as well as its position at the edge of a neighborhood of residential buildings, make it necessary for the future complex to deal with two very different realities: the highway to the north and the apartment blocks to the south.
Concentrating on the immediate surroundings, to the south we see how the orientation of the apartment blocks, like teeth in a comb along via Barzoni, generates a strong directionality, which is contrasted and closed off by the "West to East" orientation of the row houses currently existing on the lot of the intervention.
The new proposal is oriented on via Barzoni in a way that keeps this contrast between forces unaltered, though underscoring it further with a solid, unitary facade. This façade would run for the entire length, staying at a constant height and then rising up vertically at the intersection of via Barzoni and via Marocchetti, in a tower designed to mitigate the change in scale from the quiet neighborhood street and the highway.
Also in this area of the intervention, in order to exploit the advantageous north-south exposure, it was thought advisable to utilize the "in line" residential housing model, with kitchens and bathrooms facing north and other rooms facing south. Passing through cuts in this compact front, one accesses a intimate, semi-public space, on which the entrances and services of the residences face. The dimensions of this space were designed to facilitate the flow of movement, the common green space and the rest areas, which are located at intervals along rectilinear paths and interrupted to the north by a dense and low agglomeration of houses with patios, blending into a swath of vegetation.
The relationship between the new intervention and via Marocchetti (access road to the highway) are quite different. In fact, in this case, because of the constant noise of the traffic and the consequent need for acoustical shielding, it was decided to erect a double wall, 3.5 meters high and 50 cm thick, along which rows of tall trees are planted. This barrier performs the double function of acoustically protecting the houses with patios facing north in the lot and at the same time limiting the reverberations that could disturb the tranquility of the residences further south.