Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

Milan, March 31 2021 – The urban future of the Scalo di Porta Romana is outlined in the "Parco Romana" project by the OUTCOMIST team, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, PLP Architecture, Carlo Ratti Associati, with Gross. Max., Nigel Dunnett Studio, Arup, Portland Design, Systematica, Studio Zoppini, Aecom, Land, Artelia. This is the outcome of the international competition for the development of the Masterplan of the airport prepared according to the guidelines of the Municipality of Milan and announced by the “Porta Romana” real estate investment fund – promoted and managed by COIMA SGR and underwritten by Covivio, Prada Holding and from the COIMA ESG City Impact fund – in agreement with the FS Italiane Group.

These are the Jury's motivations: "The project makes a large green space the generating center of gravity for development, reversing traditional urban planning paradigms. Careful in reconnecting the city located to the north and south, the project creates a very clear urban planning system, in terms of strategy, form and functions and hypothesizes the reuse of some buildings, a memory of the industrial history of the place. The green line, which connects the east to the west, is a stimulus to further interventions to mitigate the railway".

Chosen from among the six finalist teams led by BIG - Bjarke Ingels Group; Cobe A/S; John McAslan + Partners; OUTCOMIST, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, PLP Architecture, Carlo Ratti Associati; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (Europe) LLP – SOM; Studio Paola Viganò, the winning project was presented today during a press conference attended by the Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala, the Councilor for Infrastructure, Transport and Sustainable Mobility of the Lombardy Region Claudia Maria Terzi, the CEO of Fondazione Milano -Cortina 2026 Vincenzo Novari, the Councilor for Urban Planning of the Municipality of Milan Pierfrancesco Maran, the CEO of FS Sistemi Urbani Umberto Lebruto, the CEO & Founder of COIMA Manfredi Catella, the CEO Italy of Covivio Alexei Dal Pastro, the Councilor Delegate of Prada Holding Carlo Mazzi, the member of the Judging Commission Laura Montedoro, the President of the Judging Commission Gregg Jones and the winning design team of the tender, coordinated by the Sole Director of the Competition Leopoldo Freyrie.

The work of the jury (Gregg Jones, Design Principal, Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects; Manfredi Catella; Simona Collarini, Director of the General Urban Planning Area of ​​the Municipality of Milan; Alexei Dal Pastro; Carlo Mazzi; Bruno Finzi, President of the Order of Engineers of the Province of Milan; Laura Montedoro, Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies at the Milan Polytechnic, Sole Director of the Competition Arch. Leopoldo Freyrie) took place during two sessions on 29 and 30 March with ample discussion given the excellent quality of all the projects presented.

The project

Parco Romana proposes a new model of integration between nature and city. On the one hand the project regenerates a railway yard, on the other the development brings together residents, athletes and visitors in a community with its own specific identity connected, through the public transport network, to the surrounding area. Residences and work spaces live in symbiosis with the natural landscape and outdoor activities; the integrated planning of the neighborhood encourages pedestrian travel, creating a car-free area for gentle mobility. The mix of public spaces and accessible routes hosts essential services and local commerce as integral and lively parts of the project.

Parco Romana is the natural heart of the project, a natural meadow without architectural barriers that makes the former railway site usable within the surrounding urban fabric, creating a new public good rich in biodiversity. An east-west connection that inspires further railway mitigation interventions, including a potential Milanese highline above the track bundle to recreate permeability pursuing the ambitious goal of allowing residents and visitors to cross the entire length of the station, transforming the most obstructive feature of the former industrial area in a connector between public and private spaces.

City blocks trace the edges of surrounding streets; their tree-lined perimeters, the ground floors with neighborhood services for the communities, extend into the areas to the north and south of the site, creating an attractive hub also for the adjacent neighborhoods; at the center of the residential architecture, courtyards that recall the Milanese tradition, create semi-public areas within which to socialise, work and relax. The new Lodi District is characterized by a multi-level public square that acts as a bridge over the active tracks to connect Piazza Lodi, the Circle Line station and the office buildings planned in the eastern sector of the airport to the large park.

At the opposite extreme, in the southwest quadrant, the project is dedicated to the Milan 2026 Olympic event. The spaces for the Athlete Village are as simple and regular as possible, to allow maximum functionality and their conversion into a residential component that collect the legacy at the end of the competitions. The decision to place the Olympic village in this quadrant, shared by all the finalists of the competition, is determined by its temporary function and future residential use which will allow for maintaining a general balance in the neighbourhood.

An integrated system connects the pre-existing residential neighborhood to the north with the cultural, technological and agricultural districts to the south. Parco Romana integrates a design approach based on time planning and continuous life cycle assessment. An infrastructure based on data and parametric tools optimizes the distribution of land use and resources, also designing new forms of user involvement and supporting economic sustainability. The masterplan's Digital Twin (a digital model of physical development) optimizes economic, social, cultural and environmental factors throughout the project lifecycle.

The masterplan's sustainability commitment defines and measures environmental and ecological goals with performance indicators (KPIs) that guide the design and construction process.
In addition to satisfying and integrating every requirement of the Program Agreement for Scalo Porta Romana, the Environment and Ecology objectives align with the protocols of the Paris Agreement, the European Green Deal and the national recovery and resilience plan defined at SDG level of the United Nations.

The development of the airport focuses on:

• decarbonisation consistent with local climatic conditions;
• creation of a resilient community that promotes the health and well-being of citizens;
• circular approach that brings value in the short and long term;
• support of biodiversity, valorisation of natural capital, forestry solutions and urban agriculture.

The Masterplan designated as the winner today, as envisaged by the Program Agreement, is a non-binding guideline document. The planners will immediately start the elaboration of the final version that the promoters have undertaken to present to the institutions by May with a process in tight stages for compliance with the limited times deriving from the deadlines for the construction of the Olympic Village. In order to coherently integrate the Masterplan, among the components in a parallel and accelerated development phase, the promoters have started in-depth studies for the definition of the program and the design scheme of the Olympic Village.

The development of the Masterplan will take into account the indications received from the jury, the promoters, and the observations and requests of the city collected during the Public Consultation phase, which is launched today, an essential fulfillment envisaged by the Program Agreement on Airports.

From today, on the site www.scaloportaromana.com it will be possible to view the preliminary Masterplan and the calendar of events of the participatory path: among the main ones we mention the Scalo di Porta Romana Day, a double public meeting open to the city scheduled for Tuesday 6 April at 18 pm and 21 pm; the questionnaire on the Masterplan, online from 7 April; two council commissions in Municipalities 4 and 5; a dedicated email address to which you can send comments and suggestions.

Although the award of the area was concluded, due to COVID-19, about 12 months after the originally scheduled date, the promoters respected the deadlines both for the publication and for the assignment of the Call for tenders for the drafting of the Masterplan of regeneration of the Porta Romana airport by starting the elaboration of the final Masterplan project which will be delivered by May and the Olympic Village project which will be delivered by October. The tight deadlines of the industrial development program for the redevelopment of the Porta Romana airport will require the collaboration and commitment of the institutions in order to guarantee an efficient administrative process so as to be able to respect the tight deadlines imposed by the planning of the Winter Olympics which provide for the delivery of the Village in July 2025.

To this end, having to ensure at least 3 months of work for the participants, without prejudice to the mandatory deadline for the delivery of the Olympic Village for July 2025, the competition was published on 10 December 2020, simultaneously with the signing of the preliminary contract for the purchase of the area . On January 18, the first shortlist of 6 finalist teams was selected (chosen from 47 multidisciplinary groups for a total of 329 studies from 14 countries), and today we proclaim the winner.

The competition is part of the Program Agreement signed in 2017 which included the Municipality of Milan, the Lombardy Region, the Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group (with Rete Ferroviaria Italiana and FS Sistemi Urbani) for the redevelopment of the seven abandoned railway yards ( Farini, Porta Romana, Porta Genova, Greco-Breda, Lambrate, Rogoredo, San Cristoforo), which overall cover an area of ​​1 m250, of which approximately 200 will remain for railway use. This is the largest urban regeneration plan that will affect Milan in the next 20 years, one of the largest projects for mending and enhancing the territory in Italy and in Europe. For the Scalo di Porta Romana, building areas are planned for 164.000 square meters of SL, while 50% of the surface of the Scalo will be dedicated to green areas and public spaces.

COIMA SGR, Covivio and Prada Holding were awarded, through participation in the call for tenders launched by the FS Italiane Group in January 2020, the Porta Romana airport (an area covering an area of ​​approximately 190.000 m26.000, in addition to the remaining portion of 180 m100.000 of the railways) for 2026 million euros. The development includes a large park, which will cover approximately 1.000 mXNUMX, around which residences, offices, social housing, student housing and services will be built, interconnected to the entire metropolitan area via the railway and underground stations. The Olympic Village for the XNUMX Winter Games will be built inside the Scalo, which at the end of the competitions will be transformed into student housing with around XNUMX beds by COIMA, which will also develop the free and subsidized residential component; Covivio will develop functions for office use and services; Prada Holding, interested above all in the quality of the park, will build a building for laboratory and office use to extend its activities already present in the area.
 
Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan

"With the presentation of the Porta Romana master plan, the regeneration process of the former railway yards takes a new important step forward. The realization of the winning project will offer new opportunities for the entire neighborhood and the city, starting with more greenery and services. In 2026, on the occasion of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympic Games, this area will host athletes from all over the world and, at the end of the event, the Olympic village will leave room for university residences. The rebirth of the old railway yards will be a concrete response to the needs of city, to the demands of social equity and environmental commitment that the Milanese ask for. I therefore thank Coima, Covivio, Prada Holding, FS Sistemi Urbani and the institutions that have decided to believe with us in this challenge and that with their contribution will make it more welcoming not only the Porta Romana neighborhood, but the whole of Milan."

Claudia Maria Terzi, Councilor for Infrastructures, Transport and Sustainable Mobility, Lombardy Region

“The announcement of the winner of the competition for Scalo di Porta Romana is a step in the right direction: redesigning urban spaces and doing it according to sustainability criteria is essential. We are talking about a perspective that aims at the Olympics: it applies to the recovery of the railway yards as well as to all the works to be carried out for the 2026 Games, given that the benefits will remain over time. The joint effort of the institutions with a view to the Olympics is also an opportunity, in Lombardy but not only, to facilitate the exit from the economic crisis triggered by the pandemic. The Region has mobilized substantial resources in addition to those of the state: in fact, 574,8 million euros have been allocated through the Lombardy Plan between the purchase of new trains and investments in road and railway infrastructures. Let's move forward, 2026 is closer than imagined ".

Vincenzo Novari - CEO, Fondazione Milano-Cortina 2026

“The path that begins today and will lead to the transformation of the Olympic Village for Milano Cortina 2026 into a university residence perfectly embodies one of the cornerstones that we have placed at the basis of our vision of the Games: the virtuous circle between 360-degree sustainability and the legacy of an infrastructure for future generations. Milan wants and must raise its head again after the pandemic and it does so too, making use of the Winter Games to offer one more opportunity to realize the right to study of our young people".

Pierfrancesco Maran, Councilor for Urban Planning, Green and Agriculture, Municipality of Milan

"As foreseen by the Program Agreement and as happened for Farini, we also selected the masterpan for Porta Romana through an international competition. A choice that allowed us to draw on some of the best design studios in the world to configure one of the new neighborhoods , among the most strategic and symbolic of the Milan to come. Today we finally have a preview of what the park will be like, which will be larger than envisaged by the Agreement, the Olympic village, the system of public spaces, the pedestrian connections that will bring the Corvetto closer to Porta Romana and those that will allow it to cross the railway tracks. Now the public consultation starts and in the next few weeks citizens and associations will be able to send their considerations to improve and integrate the winning proposal".

Umberto Lebruto, Chief Executive Officer of FS Sistemi Urbani

“The Masterplan selected by the international competition confirms the vision of the city of the future launched by the institutions and desired by the citizens. The winning project was able to grasp the need to fill the urban void of the former Porta Romana airport by offering new public functions and services that will meet the needs of citizens, with specific attention to the public green area. The founding element of this urban mending is represented by the improvement of mobility and accessibility, to be understood not only in relation to the railway, but also to other modes of transport, all aimed at environmental sustainability".

Manfredi Catella, Founder & CEO of COIMA SGR

“After the pandemic crisis, Scalo Porta Romana represents an industrial project also symbolic of the Italian restart that restarts reconstruction sites that will activate employment and innovation throughout the production chain. The aspiration as promoters, together with our financial partner Intesa San Paolo, is to transform the railway yard into an extraordinary neighborhood that interprets and anticipates the future evolution of cities with deep roots in sustainability and innovation, generating beauty and inclusiveness and becoming a model of urban regeneration consistent with the guidelines of Next Generation EU and the National Recovery and Resilience Program that the Draghi government is preparing to present at European level. As a concrete commitment to developing a rigorous outcome investing approach with an ESG impact in urban development, COIMA SGR, in compliance with the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, on March 10 adopted the "comply" approach and qualified the COIMA ESG City Impact fund, which invests in the Porta Romana airport for the development of the residential component and the Olympic Village, as the first Italian closed-end investment fund that promotes environmental and/or social characteristics pursuant to Article 8 of EU Reg. 2019/2088".

Alexei Dal Pastro, Managing Director Italy of Covivio

“Covivio will put its know-how and international experience at the service of this important project which, I am sure, will contribute significantly to the development of the city of Milan, giving life to a new metropolitan district characterized by a unique range of functions complementary to each other and able to establish new forms of connections, innovation and environmental sustainability.

We strongly believe in this initiative and in its ability to enhance the livability and inclusion of the entire neighbourhood, which will be increasingly blended with the surrounding context and perfectly integrated with our important developments in the Symbiosis and Vitae area. Our focus will be on the creation of flexible, comfortable new generation offices, designed with a view to design thinking with our stakeholders and designed to promote well-being, creativity and sociality".

Carlo Mazzi, Chief Executive Officer of Prada Holding SPA

“Since it was decided to recover the old distillery to promote new initiatives in a beautiful but abandoned area of ​​the city, Prada Holding's aspiration for Scalo Porta Romana has always been to preserve the values ​​of the past.
Creativity is the Group's mission, but we all know that there is no innovation without tradition. The project that we too have chosen is the one that best manages to enhance the greenery of our landscapes, which breaks down the barrier between the north and south of the city and at the same time maintains the memory of the railway, integrating it with the new buildings that will rise alongside it and maintaining the sensation of a free space now transformed into a park around which one can walk without anyone being able to occupy it exclusively”.