Polycentric cities: planning, landscape and architecture

Research focus

The Peer review has evaluated this group as Good

Some of us having worked at the Milan School of Architecture since the 1960s, our group follows a line of research studying the settlement structure and the distinguishing architectural features of the cities of Lombardy. We consider the Po valley area - one of the richest and most densely populated in Europe - as an exceptional context where sustainable planning for a satisfactory quality of urban growth could be carried out. As an alternative to the presently prevailing model of a “Greater Milan” we propose the idea of a Polycentric ‘City’ covering the whole of Lombardy: At its center Milan, more or less as at present but with a fast and frequent rail network reaching out towards a ring of smaller towns which, in this way, could benefit from the economic and cultural advantages available in a large metropolis, while each maintaining its local independence. This idea of a Polycentric ‘City’ is based on a knowledge of the way Lombardy has acquired its present structure and architecture throughout its history. Other European and non-European regions similar in size and geographical role can be compared, particularly considering the recent debate on the European Spatial Development Perspective. A study of the history of settlements as well as of the technical aspects and regulations associated with town planning and architectural design practices, are seen as complementary approaches, both necessary for identifying new forms of cityscape. Our group believes that, in order to reach a clearer understanding of how to face the major changes of today, problems of town planning, landscape design and architecture should best be dealt with as a single whole. In order to operate for overall unity of contemporary urban development, a necessarily critical approach must be allied to proposals for valid alternatives. In full awareness that architecture has always played an active part in the growth and development of settlements, we believe that its role today largely depends on its capability to “reconstruct” a wider context. While spatial composition should encourage emerging life styles, experimenting with the relationship between the specific functions and new building types, architectural forms should not be an end in themselves, but rather try to express a sense of identity, contrary to the present trend towards de-contextualization. The group has carried out a number of projects for exhibitions, national and international architectural design competitions and seminars. Examining the overall changes in the settlement concerned and adopting an attitude in favour of experimentation, these projects seek to gain an understanding of the economic and cultural problems that architecture and urban design can help to solve. 43 Before his death in September 2004 Antonio Acuto guided our group during recent years, opening new research perspectives, particularly based on his views for the “Ticino City” (see Pallini, C., Posocco, P., eds., Città e campagne del Ticino / Cities and the countryside along the Ticino River. Milan: Clup, 2002; see also the project Ricerche per l’architettura della Città Ticino / Architecture for “Ticino City”, published in Periferie e nuove urbanità / Periferies and new urban phenomena. Milan: Electa, 2003, 42-47). Under Antonio Acuto’s guidance the group began to establish contacts with foreign universities and institutions, setting out to study new contexts, such as Russia (see Fosso, M., Meriggi, M., eds., Konstantin S. Mel’nikov and the construction of Moscow. Milan: Skira, 1999) and the Eastern Mediterranean (see Bonfante, F., Pallini, C., The city as a collective work of art: projects from the École des Beaux Arts for “exchange cities”, in Planning Models and Culture of Cities. 11Th IPHS Conference Book and CD, Barcelona: 2004). The group is currently working on the following lines: - a study of the historical features of the polycentric structure of towns in Lombardy, comparing them with case-studies in the context of “world cities”; - identification of logical plan and strategies of urban development in relation both to urban functions and to infrastructural networks; - Public buildings designed to go beyond the merely functional aspects of architecture, their spatial composition aimed at encouraging emerging life styles, their features seeking a relationship with their context. Within this framework, our group has taken part in a number of international initiatives, in particular, with TU Deft, Faculty of Architecture; School of Architecture, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki; School of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Alexandria (Egypt); Beijing University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture, University of Shenzhen; Faculty of Architecture, Moscow Architectural University (MARKhI), Facultad de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño de la Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata; Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo de La Plata.

Dipartimento di afferenza

Dipartimento di Progettazione dell’Architettura

Docenti afferenti

Full Professors
Mario Fosso
Gian Paolo Semino
Associate Professors
Francesca Bonfante
Vincenzo Donato
Giovanni Tacchini
Assistant Professors
Federico Acuto
Maria Magherita Baggio
Maurizio Meriggi
Cristina Pallini