The idea of the Great Forlanini Park was born immediately after the war when, in the drawings of an urban planning competition for the new Milan, the "Piano Architetti Riuniti" group imagined the Idroscalo as a large park for sporting activities.
Since then, and with the 1953 master plan, the vast area between the railway belt and the Idroscalo with the Lambro river in the center has been designated for greenery and sports. For decades, Forlanini remained a countryside area with the signs of a growing city: the Linate airport, the gasometers, the quarries which have now become small lakes, the farmhouses, now partly abandoned, the residences for the Milanese workers, the Milan East Ring Road, the Novegro district and the recent Metro 4.
The large area extends across the municipalities of Milan, Segrate and Peschiera Borromeo, while the Idroscalo was entrusted to the Province of Milan, now included in the Metropolitan City.
The small and large transformations that have taken place since 1970 with the current Forlanini park have formed the landscape of a low-intensity city, where the agricultural activities that have been preserved mainly occupy the western portion of the territory so, in the end of the last century, the Forlanini became part of the Southern Milan Agricultural Park.
A few years ago, the project for the formation of a large metropolitan park, connected to environmental systems and called Grande Parco Forlanini, was renewed thanks to the initiative of a group of citizens who formed the Grande Parco Forlanini Association and the Re Lambro project , financed by the Cariplo Foundation and developed between 2013 and 2015 by numerous institutions and associations including ERSAF/Regione Lombardia, Municipality of Milan, as well as the DAStU-Politecnico di Milano, PLIS della Media Valle del Lambro and Legambiente Lombardia.
The project consists in the formation of a large territorial park that extends from Piazza del Tricolore to the Idroscalo, capable of enhancing all the existing activities in its area through the restoration of the historical routes. The Great Forlanini is built progressively with the contribution of all citizens.
