Participation. Via Quarti starts again from a pact with the citizens
Plants, colors and a new door on the Quarry Park to revive the neighborhood with the help of associations, parish and residents
Milan, September 24 2020 – They signed it today, all well aware that the “Collaboration Pact for Via Quarti” between the Municipality of Milan and citizens is only the first step of a challenging project that will bring together the Polytechnic University of Milan, neighborhood associations and the parish of Sant' Anselmo da Baggio.
The first to be convinced of this are the residents of the seven public housing blocks (ALER), more than a thousand people, who are waiting for a concrete signal from the city. In the hall of the parish oratory, guests of Don Giuseppe Nichetti, the councilor for Participation, Active Citizenship and Open Data, Lorenzo Lipparini, Andrea Di Franco, Head of Research WRP - DASTU, Polytechnic of Milan and representatives of third sector bodies, associations and citizens have signed the agreement which will last one year.
“Tactical urbanism and urban regeneration interventions through collaboration agreements – explained councilor Lipparini – are multiplying in the city and are proving to be a very effective tool for intervening on the quality of life in neighborhoods. They arise from the alliance between the Administration, citizens and the entities active in the area and have also generated a strong impact on social relations, especially in fragile contexts such as that of via Quarti, where we wanted to bring a sign of attention, care and change ”.
“The intervention in via Quarti a Baggio – said Andrea Di Franco – is one of the projects that the West road project research group, together with Italia nostra, Vestre and the associations, is activating in the most difficult contexts of Municipality 7 with a network of extraordinary social laboratories, of which via Quarti is probably the most significant".
It really is, due to the breadth and depth of the co-planning that was activated within this action research. At the Polytechnic, thanks to the internal body dedicated to social responsibility (Polisocial), the university's role as mediator is manifested, making it effective in connecting the various subjects in the field towards concrete actions in the territory. The effectiveness of these "weak" and "bottom-up" strategies lies in their belonging to a network: to find effectiveness in the system logic and because reality, like knowledge, is not made up of isolated phenomena.
Quarti park is a project born from the meeting between the network of subjects operating in the popular neighborhood of Quarti, its inhabitants, the West road project research group of the Polytechnic of Milan, DASTU and Italia nostra. It was created with the contribution and patronage of the Municipality of Milan and Municipality 7, with the support of Italia Nostra (supply and installation of tree species), Vestre AS (furnishing supply), Shareradio and Municipality. It is an urban regeneration project that is part of a long network path started in Municipality 7 and in the Quarti district. It is proposed to experiment with new uses with the Quarry Park starting from a physical change that characterizes the road surface, a "space for everyone" and a new gateway to the park.
The project was born from a participatory workshop held from October to December 2018, involving the inhabitants, associations and the West road project research group. The outcomes of the workshop were collected by "Patti chiaro - from the collaboration agreement to the regeneration of Quarti", a project financed by the 2019 Neighborhoods Call of the Municipality of Milan. The pact aims to accompany the local community in a process of taking charge and caring for the common space which is slowly emerging thanks to the social cohesion paths practiced over the years by the proponents.
Updated: 24/09/2020