LIBRI DI VALERIA ERBA

The global crisis is highlighting the limitations of the relationships, not to be taken for granted, between major events and urban and regional development. The difficulties so far encountered in these relationships in Milan in the run up to the 2015 Expo are quite significant. Analyses of the progress of the projects and the acquisition of opinions from leading protagonists of local institutions provide an update on the strengths and weaknesses of this major Milan event, drawn for previous editions of the Forum. At the same time they identify some of the potential for the renewal of traditional urban development models in major events, seen in terms of their regional metropolitan dimension.

Il tema delle reti ecologiche in questo contributo di riflessione scientifica e di sperimentazione didattica viene utilizzato per i possibili sviluppi futuri di approccio sostenibile, integrato e multidisciplinare con la pianificazione territoriale, la progettazione urbanistica e architettonica. Il paradigma di sostenibilità ambientale e sociale delle reti ecologiche sia a livello programmatico-strategico che progettuale, viene applicato all’elaborazione dei tre progetti ricadenti nelle province lombarde di Varese, Lecco e Como. Le sperimentazioni non si limitano a un progetto tradizionale di rete ecologica finalizzato solo alla conservazione della biodiversità (a scala regionale, provinciale e locale), ma all’impiego del medesimo strumento concettuale integrato alle componenti urbanistiche e territoriali per valutare, regolare e/o progettare trasformazioni territoriali sostenibili.

Questo servizio propone una riflessione sul possibile ruolo di una disciplina, la landscape ecology o ecologia del paesaggio all’interno della complessa macchina che regola oggi la programmazione e la pianificazione territoriale. A tal fine si sono richiesti contributi e saggi a importanti esponenti del settore disciplinare, chiarendo loro di approfondire il rapporto tra i contributi di merito che regolano la necessità di mantenere la biodiversità e lo spazio ecologico che la preserva e le ricadute sugli strumenti di pianificazione alle diverse scale di intervento. Sia i contributi di esperti, istituzioni e organismi internazionali (Canada, Olanda, Brasile) che quelli nazionali (Università dell’Aquila, di Pavia, di Urbino, di Genova, Politecnico di Milano e Regione Lombardia) evidenziano la possibilità di utilizzo della rete ecologica come paradigma di sviluppo sostenibile dal punto di vista ambientale, ma anche insediativo e sociale.

The Lombard planning law judged by the plans it has produced - It is now four years since the law on planning in Lombardy was passed and it is both necessary and appropriate to begin an examination of the results, to which the academic viewpoint of the polytechnic can make a contribution. Examination and discussion of the results of this law is necessary even if the recent Regional Law No. 5/2009 postponed the deadline for compliance with the new planning rules by municipalities by one year. A few questions were posed to pinpoint possible ambiguities and weak points in the recent Lombard Law to which the planners who prepared the new general plans have answered both directly and by contributing to the debate over the effectiveness of the law. The weaknesses of the law already known (strategic planning document with no explicit structural values, two sectoral compliance plans, no operational co-ordination plan) have not prevented explicit and innovative discussion of the issues central to municipal planning in the cases presented with results of great cultural and critical importance.

Urban redevelopment projects - The doctorate students of the 13th edition of ‘Urban, territorial and environmental planning’ dealt with important theoretical questions concerning the redevelopment of abandoned and underused urban areas in the basic ‘Urban planning course’. The essays published here present three situations in which an examination is made of the main stages in the transformation of areas, the legislative instruments that were used, the objectives set by planners, the expected outcomes and the effects induced. The three cases are presented as examples although with different degrees of planning consistency and effectiveness: one clear case of success expected and achieved at Bercy (Paris); one case of circumscribed success, but with unplanned outcomes within the Pompeo Leoni area (Milan); one case of success, but with unsettling effects on the relationship with the surrounding urban context Jaffa (Israel).

Nature and culture for a redevelopment project and enhancement of the landscape - The San Colombano hill in the province of Milan is used as an opportunity and a context for defining analytical details and design aspects for a project to redevelop and enhance the landscape. This area, rich in history and of significant environmental and landscape value is divided into three park areas (‘From the grape to the Bottle’, ‘Adopt and rent a tree’, ‘Walking in the woods’) with three paths through them, while the castle is renovated to house a museum, hold exhibitions and develop an experimental theatre.

Milan, Forum Expo 2015 - This first contribution by academic staff at the Diap opens a forum on the assignment of Expo 2015 to the City of Milan with the objective of bringing together points of view that are able to make indicative proposals for the complex machinery set in motion in recent months to plan the event. The contributions in this edition underline the opportunities that the event can offer to complete and accelerate programmes already in progress provided that the economic commitment made for over ambitious programmes is properly evaluated (Oliva), provided the demands of the community and the environment are recognised (Ferraresi, Rolando) and provided genuinely sustainable planning criteria are employed which also project into the future beyond the event (Erba, Morandi, Di Vita). The contribution by Ferraresi on the fundamental role of food and of the environmental cycles of the new agriculture (endogenously rich, of high local and ecological quality) and the essay by Di Vita which analyses the strengths and weaknesses of other recent major events (Lisbon, Saragossa, Turin) are particularly detailed and they offer proposals.