green between

Green Between is the urban regeneration project of the Crescenzago area of Milan that won the second edition of Reinventing Cities, the international competition for sustainable urban regeneration launched by the City of Milan together with C40. Green Between Tessiture Urbane is the new gateway, alive and green, to Lambro Park. An affordable housing project that brings new life to the Crescenzago neighbourhood and reconnects it with all the main transformations expected in that area of Milan. It is a project that reactivates and enhances green infrastructures, loosens local mobility nodes, and stimulates a new social interaction thanks to innovative and green local services. It is a "first home" for young people, a protected place for families, and, thanks to its lower prices, it promotes equity, inclusion and collaboration among residents, as well as wellbeing for all citizens, mitigating the processes of urban gentrification. The project, which aims to be Carbon Zero, transforms the former Crescenzago parking lot area, now underutilized, into a neighborhood full of services, activities and housing solutions for young people.

GREEN BETWEEN: HIGHLIGHTS

Green architecture

A new urban ecology

35% green area; 800 sqm for vegetable gardens and orchards; 66% permeable pavement; 4,600 sqm of planted green area; 645 tons of CO₂ emissions captured by the trees.
A new tree-lined green rambla that connects the subway to Lambro Park, revitalizing the neighborhood and qualifying it as a new public space of quality and bicycle-pedestrian continuity.

Sustainable Energy District

Energy-saving technologies and local production of renewable energy

Heat pumps powered by renewable energy (urban wastewater and photovoltaic panels).
Inhabitants’ membership in a Renewable Energy Community: possibility to associate and exchange quantities of energy optimizing consumption and costs (prosumer logic).

Soft Mobility Hub

New soft mobility network from Naviglio Martesana to Lambro Park.

Savings of 25% on total Co₂ emissions in the area due to sustainable mobility:

Starting point of the AbbracciaMI bike route.
420 bike parking stalls realized.
70 neighborhood electric vehicles.

A neighborhood for young people

Coaching and support

Socio-cultural activities co-designed by residents.
Strengthening of soft skills needed to respond to the changing labor market.
Actions to combat educational poverty through an e-learning platform for distance learning.
Entrepreneurial accompaniment programs.

Slide

Green architecture

A new urban ecology

35% green area; 800 sqm for vegetable gardens and orchards; 66% permeable pavement; 4,600 sqm of planted green area; 645 tons of CO₂ emissions captured by the trees.

A new tree-lined green rambla that connects the subway to Lambro Park, revitalizing the neighborhood and qualifying it as a new public space of quality and bicycle-pedestrian continuity.

Slide

Sustainable Energy District

Energy-saving technologies and local production of renewable energy

Heat pumps powered by renewable energy (urban wastewater and photovoltaic panels).

Inhabitants’ membership in a Renewable Energy Community: possibility to associate and exchange quantities of energy optimizing consumption and costs (prosumer logic).

Slide

Soft Mobility Hub.

New soft mobility network from Naviglio Martesana to Lambro Park.

Savings of 25% on total Co₂ emissions in the area due to sustainable mobility:

Starting point of the AbbracciaMI bike route.

420 bike parking stalls realized.

70 neighborhood electric vehicles.

Slide

A neighborhood for young people

Coaching and support

Socio-cultural activities co-designed by residents.

Strengthening of soft skills needed to respond to the changing labor market.

Actions to combat educational poverty through an e-learning platform for distance learning.

Entrepreneurial accompaniment programs.

INTERVIEW WITH ANDREA VECCI

THE PROJECT

AREA

24.000 sqm gross area

HOUSING AND NON HOUSING UNITS

360 apartments
1.216 sqm for neighbourhood shops
673 sqm for local urban services

STATUS

In progress

THE TEAM

Project leader

Redo Sgr ( FIL 1)

Design Studio

ARW

Environmental Experts

Stantec

Partners

Fondazione Housing Sociale, E.ON,
ènostra, Consorzio Poliedra,
MIC – Mobility In Chain,
GaiaGo, AG&P Greenscape,
GET – Prof. Marco Filippi,
Dipartimento di Energia,
Politecnico di Milano – Prof. Motta,
In-Domus, Planet Smart City ,
Cresme Ricerche,
InVento Innovation Lab impresa sociale,
Consorzio SIR – Solidarietà in Rete
– Soc. Coop. Sociale, Avanzi

YOUTH AT THE CENTER: TOOLS TO FOSTER SOCIAL INCLUSION

For decades Crescenzago was in the countryside between two waterways, the Lambro and the Martesana canal. Then a large road – via Palmanova – cut the gardens and meadows in two, and brought inhabitants, houses and concrete. A huge parking lot became the heart of a neighborhood perpetually commuting between downtown and the suburbs on Metro Line 2.

Green Between intends to be a bridge between eras and places. It wants to bring back Green, and connect the Martesana and Lambro Park (Between), but also the past and future. By 2038 the population here will grow by 16.7 percent. And here, as in other areas of Milan, the school dropout rate now exceeds 15 percent (Italian average: 14 percent).

The key point: Green Between will be a neighborhood designed to engage young people in a new idea of living. This is also why the project won the second edition of Reinventing Cities, the international competition for sustainable urban regeneration of the City of Milan.

The project’s new center of gravity will be a service hub dedicated to 15- to 24-year-olds that bridges the gap between school and work. It will be run by a single manager and a team of partners that includes Avanzi, the SIR Consortium, InventoLab, Stantec and Milano Bicycle Coalition.

The targets will be students, Neet youth, young people in and out of temporary jobs.

The target sectors will be mainly digital and green, which are estimated to employ 30 percent of workers in 2023 and of which Italian companies struggle to find young talent, especially in the North (Unioncamere Excelsior Reports and GreenItaly 2019).

The four plans of action of the Green Between Hub.

1. Social capital.
The Hub will scatter multifunctional spaces placed at the foot of the buildings and integrate with each other: a bar/restaurant, coworking space, cohousing, the Bike Hub, the Market Square, the Playground. Places of social interaction, for a neighborhood that is no longer dormant, but inhabited and lived in.

2. Studio.
The Hub will also be an e-learning platform offered to Crescenzago/Cimiano high schools for distance learning, blended and interactive. Also, through the Redo App, gamification approaches will be applied to encourage engagement in study.

3. Work.
Hub trainers will work with mentors from businesses in the neighborhood (RCS, Sony, Coop, Adecco, Credito Valtellinese, S. Raffaele) to accompany the students on business paths. Businesses in the new neighborhood will also be involved. Business support will help identify talent; strengthen soft skills; train for sustainability; and create new services in the area, of which young people are the creators and implementers.

4. Governance.
Resident participation in the governance of the Hub’s managing entity will transform potential clients/users into subjects of co-design and co-production. Involvement of local economic actors will make it possible to leverage their knowledge on the strengths and weaknesses of the context.