Modern Urban Open Spaces
and Contemporary Regeneration.
The Milan case and the Lombard experience

R. Riboldazzi

The settlement model that dictated the building of neighbourhoods in line with twentieth century social housing was one of the factors to influence their current crisis. Decades after their creation these neighbourhoods are often removed from the rest of the city.
The community spaces are often deteriorated, dull and unsafe. They are therefore excluded from the close knit of relationships that generally characterise other urban fabrics.

Open publication

The most recent Italian policies of urban regeneration have highlighted aspects such as integration and the subsidiarity of multiple interventions, or the participation of the community in the definition of objectives and the development of projects. It is an approach that has seen good results, but which has sometimes neglected to focus on the urban structure, risking the perpetuation of errors that have characterised the construction of the modern city.

Beginning with the experiments conducted in Milan and Lombardy in recent years, this paper will contribute to reflections on the role of settlement models, of architecture in community spaces and, more generally, town-planning culture in policies of urban regeneration and their capacity to respond to legitimate needs for security and social, ecological and economic sustainability.

Renzo Riboldazzi
Faculty of Civil Architecture
Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
Email: renzo.riboldazzi@polimi.it