Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Rabaiotti: “We reuse empty spaces to activate a living experience that benefits above all young people”
 
Milan, June 23 2019 – A new urban model for the recovery of abandoned municipally owned properties, which above all favors students and young workers. This is the meaning of the cooperation agreement that the Municipality of Milan intends to sign with the Polytechnic (Department of Architecture, Construction Engineering and Built Environment), whose guidelines have just been approved by the Council.
 
We start from the Chiesa Rossa public housing district, south of the city, and from the availability in the area of ​​seven currently vacant non-residential spaces (former shops) together with about fifteen apartments which are also empty, already excluded from the ERP regulations. The rooms are all located on the ground floor of the public housing blocks in via Santa Teresa/Giovanola, while the housing units are located in the streets of the neighborhood.
 
The objective of the agreement is to verify the possibility of a new way of urban living which provides for the offer to students and young workers of an apartment among those identified for rent at a controlled price, in exchange for the provision of socially useful services to be carried out in the unused rooms of the neighborhood and intended for the entire community of residents. An "exchange" in the logic of reciprocity, a virtuous circle capable of satisfying the needs of young people who, with increasing frequency, choose Milan as the location for their study or work path, and which at the same time manages to revive unused spaces by reopening them to the neighborhood and triggering new and useful activities, with the underlying idea of ​​sharing the opportunities offered by being part of a collective good.
 
“We asked the Polytechnic – intervenes the housing councilor Gabriele Rabaiotti – to give space to the creativity of their students to imagine and verify the feasibility of an operation to reuse empty spaces for many years. The idea is to set in motion a new living experience capable of contaminating more traditional models with experiments already present in other European cities, for example residing in former commercial spaces, or creating support services intended for the most fragile inhabitants: I am thinking of home delivery of shopping for the elderly, accompaniment to the day center or therapy for people with disabilities or disabilities, or even to a play area equipped for the little ones. We would like the house to become a space of services, open and inclusive and that the space usually intended for services could also be in some way a home".
The Polytechnic will be called upon to develop a prototype project, replicable and extendable on an urban scale, which also includes the sharing of a possible economic feasibility and coordination with the municipal planning tools available. For its development, the Polytechnic will have four months and will involve a dedicated teaching laboratory, in exchange for the recognition of a reimbursement of expenses (3.500 euros) by the Municipality.