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The document will be submitted to the City Council for examination. Cocco: "A plan in the wake of the evolution of society and the city, aimed at enhancing our artistic heritage and optimizing spaces in relation to the changing burial needs"

Milan, August 6 2019 – The proposed resolution to be submitted for examination by the City Council for updating the Master Plan of the Milanese cemeteries was approved during the last meeting of the Council.

The Cemetery Master Plan is the instrument through which the Municipality of Milan establishes the planning of its cemetery system in relation to burial needs, regulates the choices of the Administration and organizes the cemetery functions.

The proposal to update the Plan, already developed during the previous council meeting, has been updated with the scientific, cultural and methodological support of the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies of the Polytechnic of Milan (DAStU/Polimi).

The Plan concerns the eight city cemeteries (Maggiore, Monumentale, Bruzzano, Lambrate, Chiaravalle, Greco, Baggio and Muggiano) which together cover an area of ​​approximately 148 hectares (of which 21 hectares of green spaces) , within which there are approximately 886.000 burials.
The update of the Master Plan was developed based on the evaluation of the burial demand which, over the years, is increasingly oriented towards the burial of ashes following cremation, with a consequent decrease in the burial fields envisaged by the current Plan, approved in 2000.

The new Plan, which will be discussed in the City Council for approval and subsequent adoption, focuses on some design strategies to effectively respond to the needs of citizens and the city, allocating the areas based on the changes in trends that have occurred in the last 10 years and in anticipation of the future, which see an increase of 53% in cremations, 43% in burials of ashes, 103% in the dispersion of ashes, 18% in burials, while burials drop by 25%, while 20% of requests of family tombs cannot be accepted. 

The main objectives are: to innovate the technical solutions for burial and the use of spaces (for example through the planting of trees where the ashes were scattered, underground cells - i.e. buried artefacts - for the burial of the remains and ashes) and the methods planning through the use of open forms of competitions, including at an international level, for some areas); enhance cemetery spaces through artistic-cultural and tourist attractive initiatives with the aim of promoting knowledge of the artistic, historical and monumental heritage of city cemeteries; enhance and enhance the contribution to urban biodiversity of cemeteries through a reforestation project aimed at mitigating the concentration and deposition of atmospheric pollutants to increase the benefits on air quality.

“We will present the new master plan to the City Council to adapt our cemetery system to the evolution of society and the city. This is a complex plan that required a long process, but we are very satisfied with the result, which manages to combine the enhancement of the artistic and cultural heritage of our cemeteries with the optimization and innovation of the spaces without neglecting the creation and care of new green areas”, comments the councilor for civic services Roberta Cocco.

In particular, the new master plan intends to redefine the destination of part of the cemetery areas, providing for their transformation from burial fields to spaces for the burial of remains and ashes, spaces for the construction of 99-year family tombs, new burial fields of bodies not completely mineralized and rationalization of the existing ones, expansion of the fields for the burial of deceased people professing religions other than Catholic and for the burials of deceased belonging to religious brotherhoods; integration of cemetery services through the creation of common ossuaries in cemeteries that are still lacking; integration of the areas for the scattering of ashes, in addition to the already existing "Garden of remembrance" of the Lambrate Cemetery, with the creation of further "Gardens of remembrance" in the cemeteries of Bruzzano and Greco, with the expansion of the "Grove of remembrance" of the Maggiore Cemetery and with the creation of the “Radici” project (area for the dispersion of ashes through the burial of cinerary urns, in biodegradable material, within green areas to be used for the planting of trees) in the Maggiore and Baggio cemeteries; construction of a new building for columbaria and ossuary/cinerary cells at the Major Cemetery, in a symmetrical position with respect to the Pyramid building.

With a view to valorising interventions in cemeteries, encouraging the emergence of different design solutions and improving the quality offer, the project of the new building may be selected on the basis of an international design competition; destination of some spaces of the Monumental cemetery as a site for historical-archival research, with exhibition rooms, alongside the restoration laboratories already present, in order to promote the Monumental as a place of research and cultural dissemination for the entire city. Enhancement of the spaces of the Monumental Crematorium Temple, now abandoned, to be dedicated as an exhibition hall with museum value.