milano stadt krone 2030 proposal by studio shift
all images courtesy studio shift
american firm's studio shift's were commissioned by the architectural and urban forum (AUFO)
of milan to develop one of 12 proposals for the recent exhibition 'milano stadt krone 2030'
- filling the void which offered densification solutions of the city. the proposal injects 25,000
inhabitants into the existing fabric of milano for a total population increase of 300,000.
crafting a denser, sustainable milan requires not only an understanding of the region’s history
and agricultural roots but also consideration of a future in which natural resources are increasingly
scarce. the lombardy region, home to approximately one-sixth of all italians and now the dominant
industrial center, is responsible for the production of over one-third of the nation’s agricultural output.
it is critical that this relationship between production and consumption is not only maintained but
is also augmented through forward-thinking development strategies as the city continues to grow.
as a major exporter of agricultural food products, increasing foreign demands will surely be placed
on italy’s capacity for production; in order to meet these ever-expanding external and internal needs
while simultaneously coping with dwindling available arable land, new plains must be created
and harvested.
one of the courtyards
the radical nature of the project, specifically the insertion of twenty-five thousand new inhabitants at
this site, on the periphery of the cultural and economic center of the city, requires an equally radical
response. the population increase will most certainly impose enormous demands on existing
infrastructure and the social and economic well-being of the population will face new strains.
in order to address this situation, their proposal employs a
comprehensive strategy that
simultaneously establishes a
self-sustaining community and one that seeks to integrate
programmatically and physically with the existing city.
in response to the outlying agricultural lands to the south of the
site, the ground plane is raised
and bent towards the southern sky for
optimal solar exposure. this surface is then developed
as an arable
facade sheltering the new residential development. a patchwork of
crops is then
planted based on ideal positions for each species
vis-a-vis solar exposure and water retention.
crops that flourish in
drier soil conditions are located higher on the façade while those that
require
more moist conditions are found in the lower region. an
integrated mechanical movement system
allows workers to traverse the
agriculturally laden facade/farm in carts that travel along a network
of rails and facilitate the harvesting of crops.
the zones
the operation of raising of the ground plane and bending it skyward
allows for the insertion
of residential program beneath with two highly
differentiated living conditions. below the agricultural
facade on the
south, courtyard apartments are inserted while the north-facing
apartments consist
of modules arranged in a large, glazed mosaic. the
void that results from this ground manipulation
is articulated as a
multi-level, sunken piazza with a direct connection to a proposed
extension of
the existing rail line. envisioned as the heart of the
project, this public space is intended to provide
opportunities for
both active and passive recreation as well as provide a physical
connection to
the new office, commercial and museum program on the
northern edge of the site. it also serves to
connect the project with
a new sports facility to the west and the existing urban fabric to the
east.
it is at these points of connection that the sunken piazza
passes below the streets and slopes back up
to the established ground
plane. optimizing the visual connection to the existing city, the
majority of
the new buildings are raised above the ground plane to
allow for views through the new proposal to
the adjacent urban
context. this also enables the extensive green spaces to slip under
the buildings
creating a series of structures sitting above the
landscape.
in much the same way that the existing rail systems converge on one
location and then separate
and infiltrate the larger city, the new
programs congregate, intersect and disperse to serve
the population. with a disproportionate number of key cultural institutions in the
historic center of
the city and the city center’s resulting lack of
green space, the proposal seeks to respond to these
deficiencies by
creating an inversion of the existing predominant program as it occurs
between
the center and the new development. as the infrastructural
strands reach out towards the center of
the city, they integrate
pedestrian movement with green space or agricultural production nodes.
as those same strands and nodes approach the proposed project they
address the lack of cultural
amenities on the outer edge of the city
and begin to provide opportunities to experience a variety
of such
programs. the infrastructural strands graft onto existing structures
above the ground plane
where possible, introduce new structural support
systems where necessary and descend to merge
with the ground plane
where opportunities exist to insert green space nodes or similar
programs.
their intention is not to usurp current urban movement
patterns, but to supplement them. these
connections, woven into the
city have many possible manifestations but in each scenario the
intention
is to integrate the new proposal into the city at a
programmatic level, bringing the people closer to
their food, services
and goods, and reducing the need for extensive mobility.
the programs of the project
the node
elevation
architect:
studio shift, culver city, california
project team:
mario cipresso (principal), andrew kim, alex fishman, dana mangahis, marisol mejia,
stephen morton, keely colcleugh
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