Milan, the urban planning effects of a large project - Consideration of the affair of the former O.M. (Machine Workshop) area starts with an attempt to ‘read the past to understand the present’ and therefore the main documents, plans and programmes which affected this part of the city were examined and ‘taken apart’ as it were. This process involved analysing some of the main Milanese deregulation instruments (The master document for the Urban Link Line Railway, 1983), the starting point for the redefinition of plans for this area. In subsequent years the entire area was affected by the ‘Nine parks for Milan project’ (1995) which laid the foundations for the complete conversion of it, which was to occur with the ‘Urban redevelopment programme’ (1999) named the ‘former O.M.’. As we will see, this programme was to take no account of some abandoned or about to be abandoned areas contiguous to the zone which were redeveloped independently using the ‘Dia’ instrument. Reflection performed at the same time on the planning assumptions and on actual results highlighted issues for consideration within the framework of large urban transformations. Being There and Away.