Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Councilor Romani: "A virtuous example, thanks to which an abandoned area was returned to the community." Public green spaces, culture of sustainability, artistic production and citizen participation - Photo gallery

Milan, February 17 2022 – The collaboration agreement was signed this morning between the Municipality of Milan and the Isola Pepe verde association, for the revitalization and care of the shared gardens of via Guglielmo Pepe, in the Isola district.

The first assignment dates back to 2010, when a group of people living in the area, eager for greenery and sociability, identified an abandoned state-owned area, on the corner of via Pepe and via Borsieri. Once the association was established, these citizens received a first strip of land near the Eugenio Bussa flyover from the Administration and then subsequently, in 2013, the entire area through an agreement signed with the then Zone 9, whose support was was witnessed today by the presence of municipal councilor Tiziana Elli. In that year, in fact, the first shared garden experience was inaugurated in Milan, a place open to the care of every person: 1.500 square meters of space and urban gardens in the heart of a neighborhood in continuous ferment and subject to great transformations, with the construction of new skyscrapers.

After a decade of history, Isola Pepe verde is a consolidated experience of a shared, self-sufficient and almost zero-impact garden, where nature and its animals coexist harmoniously with the people who live and take care of it. A reality that has become to all intents and purposes a space of urban regeneration, both in an ecological and social sense. The garden, open every day from 9am to sunset, welcomes families who decide to grow vegetables or aromatic plants, children who play surrounded by greenery, elderly people who stop to breathe clean air. Freely accessible to anyone, it hosts cultural activities and events, agreed and programmed, managed independently by those who organize them.

With the signing of the Pact, valid until 31 December 2024, the association undertakes: to promote a more humane urban development model, attentive to the needs of its inhabitants and the neighbourhood, of minors, students and the elderly, to involve educational institutions and local associations, to facilitate the participation and involvement of citizens, to promote the culture of sustainability. Again from a shared perspective, the association is responsible for the management, custody and maintenance of the area and the existing greenery, as well as opening the shared garden to the public.

"From gray to green: today Isola Pepe verde is a virtuous model of a shared garden open to all – comments the councilor for civic services with responsibility for Participation Gaia Romani, on the sidelines of the signing of the Pact –. An example of how citizens , through active participation, can be promoters of great transformations. We are talking about a state-owned area that was abandoned until ten years ago, which has been returned to the community, with work that started entirely from the bottom of sociality for the entire neighborhood, as well as an area where we can regain contact with nature in a context where skyscrapers and concrete reign supreme. A positive alliance between citizens and the Municipality of Milan, which we will commit to to continue and promote elsewhere".