Industrial Memories Park

Town Hall 5
Arrival: viale Toscana, via Bazzi, via Pompeo Leoni
Opening hours:

January and February: 7:00 - 17:00
March: 7am - 00pm
April: 7am - 00pm
from May to October: 7:00 - 20:00
November: 7am - 00pm
December: 7am - 00pm

How to get: bus 79/90/91

Area: 34.700 m46.400 (Parco Vettabbia); 24.000 mXNUMX (Industrial Memories Park); XNUMX mXNUMX (Culture Park)
Year of realization: 2004
Designers: Cristophe Girot, Studio Land

What to do at the park

playground;
stroll;
stop and relax;
running and cycling along the avenues;
workout area;
dog area.

The park in brief

The park includes a vast green area that extends from the Industrial Memories park where the Officine Meccaniche (OM) once stood, the Vettabbia Park and the future Culture Park.
The complex is characterized by important plantings and green arrangements with numerous tree species among which maples, oaks and paulownias stand out. The entire area is enriched by the presence of squares, play areas, an orchard, pools with water features and pedestrian paths such as the particularly evocative one that runs along Vettabia.
Inside the park there are significant buildings such as the residential complexes designed by the architects Fuksas and Benati and, as evidence of the industrial past of the area, the overhead crane of the Officine Meccaniche.

The Memore Industriali park is paved with concrete and cement slabs; the Vettabbia park in concrete and self-locking blocks.

History and Architecture

In the nineteenth century the area was occupied by the Officine Meccaniche, one of the most important industrial settlements in the city for the production of trucks, with a workforce of around four thousand workers. In the mid-1995s the workshops were decommissioned and the entire area was identified as an area of intervention in the "Nine parks for Milan" project, promoted by the Municipality of Milan in XNUMX.

In the northernmost part, between Viale Toscana and the railway line, the Park of Culture will be created, with the function of a hinge between the city and the historic Ravizza Park, with the presence of squares, play areas, an orchard and pools with children's games. 'waterfall.

Further south, connected with pedestrian underpasses to the future Park of Culture, stands the Park of Industrial Memories, which recovers some signs of the area's industrial past: it is crossed by a pedestrian path that winds along sinuous, enriched terrain by large yellow concrete elements with the function of seating and aesthetic ornament and includes, as an element of use, the "large leisure lawn".

Even further south the area ends with the Vettabbia Park, which extends up to the canal of the same name, one of the oldest canals in Milan and present since Roman times. Along the Vettabbia towpath there are panoramic terraces and wooden-paved squares, where it is possible to stop and relax.

The new road system, consisting of the park-road and enriched by important plantings and greenery, connects via Ripamonti with via Bazzi.

Architectural heritage and artefacts

Among the significant buildings in the park we highlight the residential towers designed by the architect Massimiliano Fuksas and the residential courtyards by the architect Valentino Benati; among the artefacts serving as an industrial memory, the overhead crane of the Officine Meccaniche.