Intensive Programme Borderlines in urban spaces and planning

Transcript

Intensive Programme
Borderlines in urban spaces and planning
General Report
october 2004
International workshop
in the frame of the European Socrates programme
Milano, Ex Ospedale Psichiatrico Paolo Pini, september 11th-26th 2004
Hamburg, Hafen city, September 2005
Wien,a city in the new geography of Europe, September 2006
From the fence to the city:
an urban role for the Paolo Pini former psychiatric
hospital
Dal recinto alla città:
un ruolo urbano per l’ex ospedale psichiatrico Paolo Pini
Promotion and coordination:
Corinna Morandi e Massimo Bricocoli,Dipartimento di Architettura e
Pianificazione del Politecnico di Milano
With:
Ingrid Breckner, TUHH Hamburg
Michael Mellauner, BOKU Wien
Rudolf Poledna, UBB Cluj
Diego Bianchi, DiAP Milano
Supported by:
Commissione europea
Ufficio Socrates/Erasmus del Politecnico di Milano
In collaboration with:
Olinda ngo
Provincia di Milano
Comune di Milano
Azienda Ospedaliera “Ospedale Niguarda Ca’ Granda”
Contributions from:
Alessandro Balducci,Federico Bucci, Barbara De Feo
Ota De Leonardis, Remo Dorigati, Valeria Erba
Thomas Emmenegger, Giovanni La Varra
Federico Oliva, Tommaso Vitale
Students:
Igor Belamaric (Croatia - A), Ian Bernschneider (D), Sophie Brauer (D)
Daniel Brueckbauer (D), Anca Maria Carstean (RO), Ellen Fiedelmeier (D)
Giordana Gialli (I), Milena Grossauer (A), Gyongyi Pasztor (RO)
Peter Kowalsky (D), Laszlo Peter (RO), Donata Leone (I)
Irene Magni (I), Elmar Nadler (A) Christian Oxenius (I)
Norbert Petrovici (RO), Eric Proeglhoef (Brasil – A)
Lorenzo Santambrogio (I), Maja-Iskra Vilotievic Croatia – A)
Stefan Widdess (D), Lara Zanella (I), Riccardo Zilli (I)
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Contents
PEOPLE............................................................................................................................ 5
INTRODUCTION TO THE INTENSIVE PROGRAMME "BORDER-LINES IN URBAN SPACES
AND PLANNING" ............................................................................................................ 6
What Is An Intensive Programme? .................................................................................6
Border-Lines In Urban Spaces And Planning: Perspectives, Practices And
Crossover-Concepts (For Academical And Practical Education) ..........................7
Objectives, Target Groups, Main Activities And Expected Outputs........................8
The Three Workshops - Themes And Locations ............................................................9
The University Network ....................................................................................................11
PARTNERS, INSTITUTIONS AND ACTORS INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT AT A LOCAL
LEVEL............................................................................................................................. 13
Net-working ......................................................................................................................13
WORKING METHODS .................................................................................................... 14
Participant Observation And Actions..........................................................................14
Interdisciplinary Approach ............................................................................................15
Discussions And Brainstorming.......................................................................................15
Contributions By Local Experts/Actors, Interviews .....................................................15
Inputs And Lectures.........................................................................................................15
Public And Intermidiate Presentations ........................................................................16
INTRODUCTION TO THE PLANNING AREA ................................................................... 17
Fences and barriers in space and in mind. Considerations from the experience
of the former psychiatric hospital Paolo Pini in Milan ...............................................17
PREPARATORY MEETING .............................................................................................. 22
“The process of de- institutionalisation of the former psychiatric hospital Paolo
Pini” by Thomas Emmenegger ......................................................................................22
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WORKSHOP .................................................................................................................. 29
Calendar of activities .....................................................................................................29
INSTANT REPORT ........................................................................................................... 33
Saturday september 11th and Sunday september 12th 2004 the “tora! tora!”
Music event ......................................................................................................................33
Monday September 13th 2004 - Discussion and exchanges over participant
observation during “TORA! TORA!” ..............................................................................33
Tuesday september 14th 2004 - 10.00 Meeting with Thomas Emmenegger “Timing and spacing” .....................................................................................................34
Tuesday september 14th 2004 - 15.30 Meeting with Valeria Erba - “Green
networks in Milano northwest” ......................................................................................37
Tuesday September 14th 2004 - 17.00 Meeting With Three Representative Of The
Comitato Di Quartiere Comasina ................................................................................39
Wednesday September 15th 2004 - 18.30 First Discussion Out Of Working Groups
............................................................................................................................................40
Thursday september 16th 2004 - 11.30 Meeting with Giovanni La Varra - “Milano
camouflage”....................................................................................................................41
Friday september 17th 2004 - 14.30 Meeting with Barbara De Feo - “Architectural
projects for Jodok restaurant, a Hotel, a multifunctional space in the ex mental
hospital” ............................................................................................................................42
FINAL PRESENTATIONS ................................................................................................. 44
Group A. Conquer the Wall...........................................................................................44
Group B. Matrix Revolution ............................................................................................44
Group C. Memory, past, present and future..............................................................45
Group D. Città germoglio ..............................................................................................45
VERSO UN USO URBANO DELL’EX OSPEDALE PSICHIATRICO PAOLO PINI: IDEE DA UN
WORKSHOP INTERNAZIONALE. .................................................................................... 46
Alcuni temi emersi ...........................................................................................................51
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PEOPLE
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INTRODUCTION TO THE INTENSIVE PROGRAMME
"BORDER-LINES IN URBAN SPACES AND PLANNING"
WHAT IS AN INTENSIVE PROGRAMME?
The "Intensive programme" is an Initiative developed by the European Union
within the various forms of exchange programmes between universities promoted
in the framework of the Erasmus and then Socrates schemes.
While Socrates and Erasmus provide funding of students exchange based on
individual mobility (for one/two semesters), the Intensive Programmes provides
funding for projects based on:
- the setting of a general theme which serves as a frame within which a series of
annual workshops is organised on a three years basis,
- the networking of different universities, with a minimum of three and a
suggested number of 5/6, possibly involving countries from the different
regions of Europe and also countries which are undergoing the process of
entering the Union,
- the organisation of an intensive workshop, generally developed on a twoweeks basis, which develops in a local context the general theme assumed by
the programme,
- the mobility of one professor/tutor from each university to set the programme
and the agenda of the annual workshop,
- the mobility of an overall number of 30 students (circa) which will join the
annual workshop and of one professor/tutor from each of the partner
universities
The University promoting the Intensive Programme has a coordinating role and
will host the first workshop, while the other universities while be partners in the
network. The actual Intensive Programme proposal is being developed starting
from the experienced acquired in students mobility between the Urban and
Regional Planning Course at the Politecnico di Milano (Dipartimento Architettura
e Pianificazione, Prof. Corinna Morandi) and the Urban and Regional Planning
Course at the Technical University of Hamburg Harburg (Prof. Ingrid Breckner).
During recent years, the Socrates programme has provided the frame for
interesting exchanges involving students but also, within the Teaching Staff
Mobility programme, for developing fertile partnerships and exchanges as far as
research activity and educational programmes are concerned.
The actual aim of developing an Intensive Programme is therefore to strengthen
and articulate the relations between the two universities and specifically and to
open them to other colleagues and students from different universities and
countries. Based on experiences with ‘teaching staff mobility’ in the context of
the Socrates-Programme and common research interests in the field of
participatory approaches, urban governance and urban insecurities we intend to
initiate a deeper reflection on educational concepts and practices which ensure
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the necessary qualifications for a creative and fruitful implementation of
integrated planning approaches under different spatial conditions.
In the actual proposal the promoter assuming a coordinating role is the
Politecnico di Milano, which will full fill the requirements for the proposal
submission, organise and host the first workshop.
BORDER-LINES IN URBAN SPACES AND PLANNING: PERSPECTIVES, PRACTICES AND CROSSOVERCONCEPTS (FOR ACADEMICAL AND PRACTICAL EDUCATION)
The main focus of the intensive programme project is centred on "borders". With
"borders" we refer to space borders as well as to borders between disciplines and
different forms of knowledge which are relevant for planning practice and
education. Space in our opinion is not simply considered as a bordered
geographical area. When we refer to urban spaces we mean physical conditions
as well as social practices, political and cultural regulations of action and
esthetical symbolic representations in space. In this perspective, borders therefore
are are built and dismantled through interactions, representations, and social
practices expressed between identity and diversity. Urban, regional, country
borderlines bring along a wide set of interconnected dimensions that require an
approach adequate to complex systems: not to single elements but to
connections that continuously produce new configurations of dynamic balance.
While in a critical perspectives borders can be considered as “guardians of purity
and keep alive in society a reference to danger" (Mary Douglas) our interest is
particularly focused on the process which is initiated and develops when in a
urban context an existing "border" is dismantled.
If the assumption is that in a territorial terms, a border is not only (or not even) a
physical barrier, but is the frame which is set and developed and defines the limits
of the exchange between populations and cultures, within a same city, a same
country or between different regions and countries, our interest is to work and
research on the actions that are put into practice in dealing with the overcoming
or dismantling of borders and with the process which affects the surrounding
context.
The case studies areas which we refer to have been for a long time confined to a
specific use and therefore have been considered unavailable for multiple uses or
even "off limits" for public access itself. It is the case of large scaled functions and
activities located within the city such as: total institutions, military areas, industrial
sites, port infrastructures. While referring to this first set of activities we refer to
borders within different areas of the city itself, with an immediate extension we
intend to refer to borders also relating to regions and countries.
In the process of constructing and enforcing the European Union in its core aims,
while on one side borders between countries have been dismantled and
opened, on the other new borders have been produced considering those
countries which were external to it and are now facing the process of entering it.
In the choice of including in the IP network Universities from these last countries
we intend to open a reflection over the relevance of "borderline positions" as
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strategic to produce a continuous relocation of the perspective, a continuous
process of resetting the ‘frame’ and the consolidated approaches and attitudes
of one’s disciplinary background.
A main character of the approach we intend to develop is that of acquiring a
borderline position (between roles, cultures and disciplines) as a strategic factor
for gaining adequate and situated knowledge, for grasping the reality of a
specific context, for interacting with the “knowledge of experience”, for
developing connections and positive relations among very differentiated
subjects.
While also in an educational perspective, there is no doubt about the necessity of
cross-over attitudes and strategies in planning, their development and
implementation – on which we concentrate - shows quite a lot of difficulties in
European planning contexts: it’s a matter of problems in dealing with
interdisciplinary
cooperation,
transnational/transcultural
understanding,
methodological insecurities and of a great gap between planning theories,
research and practices.
OBJECTIVES, TARGET GROUPS, MAIN ACTIVITIES AND EXPECTED OUTPUTS
The objectives of the “Borderlines in urban spaces and planning” intensive
programme are overall:
- to develop a research activity over a topic, "borders" which is relevant for
contemporary urban change and for the development of vision of European
regions and cities,
- to promote a crossover attitude in the knowledge process as far as a urban
area is concerned, taking into account different attitudes in the exploration of
space which are peculiar of different educational profiles (planner,
sociologists, architects). These objective is considered very relevant especially
for the development of the educational programmes which generate the
profile of a professional who is capable of dealing with urban space and
policies assuming that a plurality of stakeholders, of local actors and of
professionals (disciplines) is directly concerned whenever change the
organisation of space is concerned,
- to offer a "knowledge" contribution in terms of research resulting produced by
the workshop to local subjects (either the local government or other institutions
or third sector agencies) which represent main actors in the projects and
processes we will be dealing with.
On the university side, target groups are students enrolled in urban planning
courses or in domains which are related or sensitive to the socio-spatial dimension
of urban change. It is indeed our intention to assume a participative approach
and to consider as target groups of each workshop, the local actors, the
stakeholders, the people involved in the process of dismantling or dealing with an
existing "border" as we have defined it.
Main activities in each workshop will consist of:
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a series of lectures given both by the staff of the hosting university as well by
the visiting professors,
- contributions by local experts/actors which will give general and specific
overviews of the frame within which the workshop takes place
- a series of workshop activities: the students will be organised in small groups,
mixed in terms of nationality and educational background and will develop a
field work consisting of two closely related activities: a qualitative exploration
aimed at identifying key nodes and issues through the active interaction with
local actors and through direct observation + the development of visions and
project suggestions in relation to the management of space and activities.
Expected results are:
- the acquisition of theoretical and practical knowledge by the students over
the general theme of borders and of local urban policies issues,
- the development of "urban borderline" as a research topic among the
different academics involved and as a possible key topic for parallel didactics
in the respective universities.
- the development and enforcement of a collaborative network among the
participating universities which generally brings as side effects the
development of further exchange programmes.
-
THE THREE WORKSHOPS - THEMES AND LOCATIONS
SEPTEMBER 2004. Border lines in the city at a micro-urban scale: total institutes and
de-istitutionalization processes. The experience of the ex psychiatric hospital
Paolo Pini in Milano.
The Paolo Pini used to be the main psychiatric hospital of the city. Both because
of its size and relevance and because of its symbolic meaning, the Paolo Pini has
been gaining through the years a very strong stigma in the public imaginary.
After the Basaglia law, the state has started a process of de-institutionalisation of
all psychiatric hospitals all through the country. The Paolo Pini, a complex
consisting of a series of ten buildings in a large area developed as a park is
located in the northeastern periphery of the city. When it was built in the thirties it
resulted quite segregated out of the built area, but after the booming of the city,
in the 50's and 60's it was surrounded by a large public housing estate. In a way it
represented a sort of "hole" in that urban texture.
Later on, the institution started to be dismantled within a very uncertain
perspective over the future of that wide built and open space which still was
marked by a high wall running all around. "Olinda" is the name of the Association
which started its activities lead by a group of involved people and by a creative
and active psychiatrist. The main aims of the association have been:
- to dismantle the borders and "bring the city" in that space (a "total
institution")which had been off limits and, in a way removed, from everybody
who didn't work/live there,
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to dismantle the borders in symbolic terms and to develop both a different
approach to dealing with mental illness .
The activity of Olinda consisted:
- on one side in the development of a series of functions and economic
activities which are re-using the internal spaces: such as a carpentry
workshop, a hostel, a bar and restaurant.
- on the other side a series of public events which have been attracting a
public from all over the metropolitan area. such as: the summer festival of
cinema, music, debates and theatre under the title "from a closer sight
nobody is normal" and a series of main events.
Actually, while the walls of the hospital have been opened both physically and
symbolically, a main interest is to explore which are the relations, the forms of
possible interaction and the dynamics concerning the "Comasina", the
neighbourhood surrounding that space. The Comasina itself has quite relevant
features as far as planning is concerned, consisting of a public housing
neighbourhood developed in the 50's and 60's according to an open plan
scheme designed by prominent Italian architects and planners, with interesting
typological features, which has been undergoing a process of change in its
management, being actually for its majority sold to the tenants but maintaining
an open design of common open spaces.
-
SEPTEMBER 2006. Border lines in the city at a urban/metropolitan scale: a city in
the city. The new urban development of the former harbour area in Hamburg.
The largest part of the harbour area on the river Elbe in the City of Hamburg has
been progressively dismantled due to modernisation and commercial reasons
longer than half a century ago. The new harbour economy (f. e. bigger ships,
new port technologies and logistics) forced a physical movement of this uses to
the western part of the city (nearer to the North Sea, where water is deeper and
spaces easier to be organised). The large brownfield-area left over is planned to
be developed as an additional heart of the inner city: housing, high quality
spaces in the new media economy, international tourist and cultural attractions,
new urban infrastructure as an integration strategy for old and big
disadvantaged quarters of Hamburg on the south side of the river Elbe. These
spaces had been attached to the territory of the city of Hamburg by Hitler’s law
called ‘Groß-Hamburg Gesetz’ in 1937, and never reached the same status than
other parts of the metropolis.
Nowadays the new project has to deal with quite different types of borders. There
are:
• physical, cultural, regulative and symbolic borders between old or still existing
port uses and the representative downtown area,
• class borders,
• borders between users, planners, politicians and international investors,
• borders between forgotten relatively natural spaces and constructed spaces
etc.
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Out of this rich spectrum of border typologies we could develop a concept for
the second workshop covering the different interests, experiences and capacities
of participating students and teaching stuff. The Technical University with its
interdisciplinary department for Urban Planning and different competences in the
fields of Mobility, Transport, Logistics or Civil Engineering and a well established
helpful International Office offers best scientific and administrative conditions for
the preparation and realisation of the workshop. As Hamburg is going to present
itself for the Olympic Games in 2012 and because of the already confirmed
Garden Exhibition in the south part of Hamburg there is a wide interest for
creativity to manage the complex border problem in the innovative renewal of
“Hafen City”. Results of the workshop will be registered and practically
considered in real planning processes as far as possible. In the same time
different big cities had or have to deal with comparatively difficult restructuring
strategies for large urban areas. Therefor we are convinced to initiate a learning
process for participating students and professors which will encourage new and
innovative European co-operations both in teaching and scientific research as
well as in the practical field of urban planning.
SEPTEMBER 2005. The border lines at a regional scale: the shift of Vienna from
peripherical city to development centrality and renew crossing of cultures in the
middle of the European urban system.
After the decadence and the dismantling of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the
position of Vienna in European urban system has become more and more
peripherical. During the second post world war period, the construction of the
iron curtain about 40 kilometres away from the city constituted a fence which
effects on the city were translated in a sort of isolation or, better, of “suspension”
of the development.
The dismantling of the iron curtain and the current enlargement process of
European Union towards east locate Vienna on an advanced position on a front
of great dynamism an accelerated economical and cultural transformation. A
changed geopolitical asset that has direct and visible effects on the forms by
which the city organize itself, on the socio-economical processes and dynamics
of transformation, on the configuration of urban space’s uses.
The focus of interest of the workshop will be defined around these themes:
• the pressure of geopolitical change on the redefinition of the strategic
agenda of the city and the progressive of borders in urban scale decisions
and policy;
• the dynamics of urban changes driven by immigration: old and new borders in
urban space.
THE UNIVERSITY NETWORK
The first concept of the Intensive Programme was firstly developed by the
Politecnico di Milano together with the Technische Universitaet Hamburg Harburg
organization. In the process of setting a wider partnership, the selection was
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based on existing exchanges and on the interest of involving universities from
countries which are new to Eu students exchange programs. Together with
Universitaet fuer Bodenkultur Wien, contacts and agreemens were set with
partners universities in Romania and Turkey. Only at a very late stage, the EU
commission informed that Turkey was not yet eligible (it is indeed a partner in the
second IP to be held in Hamburg in September 2005). The universities
participating to the first IP are:
y
y
y
y
POLITECNICO DI MILANO,
Facoltà Architettura e
Società – Dipartimento di
architettura e
Pianificazione, Italy
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITÄT
HAMBURG-HARBURG,
Abteilung fuer Stadt und
Regionaloekonomie,
Germany
UNIVERSITÄT DER
BODENKULTUR WIEN, Institut
für Freiraumgestaltung &
Landschaftspflege, Austria
UNIVERSITATEA BABEŞBOLYAI CLUJ-NAPOCA,
Facultatea de Sociologie şi
Asistenţǎ Socialǎ, Romania
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PARTNERS, INSTITUTIONS AND ACTORS INVOLVED IN THE
PROJECT AT A LOCAL LEVEL
NET-WORKING
During the preparatory meeting the orientation towards setting the Milano
workshop in connection and interaction with local actors was developed. This
orientation was mainly based on the assumption that working on a space which
is undergoing a very complex process of change would require a good
understanding of the complexity of issues and multitude of actors which are to be
involved in such a process.
The first actor which was involved, since the preliminary design of the workshop
was Olinda, a non profit organisation that since 1991 has been developing
projects in the Paolo Pini area, with the aim of developing new uses of the former
psychiatric hospital area while developing working and service perspectives
involving people with mental disadvantages. It was during this interaction that
the decision of providing accommodation in the area itself was taken.
One of the project being developed is connected to accommodation and
actually a hostel, with simple facilities and a fairly good restaurant are working in
the site. Some other spaces could also be available as working and meeting
spaces for the workshop.
For 15 days the “scene” of Paolo Pini was colonized by these “stray cats”, as later
on some of the students would have said.
Public institutions were also involved in the preparation process. It was important
to start a process of involving local institutions to the event of the workshop so
that this could represent already a powerful act of planning: starting a debate
around Paolo Pini area and starting from a fresh point of view that is the one of
students.
First of all the agreement and support of Azienda Ospedaliera Niguarda to the
initiative was fundamental. Most of the Pini area belongs to the Azienda
Ospedaliera Niguarda and in particular the area with the buildings of the former
psychiatric hospital where Olinda’s activities take place. The networking with
Olinda also brought into the learning process many positive implications, bringing
side by side those (the students) who had only a very stereotyped and light idea
of what “mental health” is and those who used to be excluded from any public
contact and were literally taking care of the group and giving roots to the
development of projects.
Later on both the Comune di Milano and the Provincia di Milano collaborated
with the university in organising two different public initiatives at the opening and
at the closure of the workshop. Having a “public” stage, in the Urban Centre
located in the very inner city, has been a chance of giving visibility to the
Intensive Programme initiative but also to the complex of issues we have been
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working on. Furthermore, public meetings have been very effective in opening up
the evaluation process over the IP results to a wider range of observers.
Last but not least, the students had the opportunity to get in touch to the
Comitato di Quartiere, that is the citizens’ association, of the Quartiere Comasina.
This was helpful for both: among other reasons, the students could get many
useful information about the Quartiere, his history and issues and the Comitato
had the occasion to “discover” from a closer point of view the Paolo Pini and
Olinda activities. Many moments of the workshop where dedicated to this in
“official” moments or “ramdomly”, during singles or groups explorations or even
dinners.
If we had to put the “scenes” of the workshop actors on a aerial view of Milano:
WORKING METHODS
Some main elements of approaches and working methods which have been
developed may be identified:
PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION AND ACTIONS
First of all participant observation played an important role during the whole
workshop: living inside the area made it real for every moment of day and night
to become an occasion to live the life and the peculiarities of the Paolo Pini and
a privileged point of view to get in touch with its people and with the uses and
the activities taking place there. So one main point of workshop’s work was
concerning with “listening”, in the frame of Paolo Pini qualitative exploration.
Sometimes, this participation turned into some sort of actions that brought
together people from the neighbourhood or people just passing by to discover
the area.
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INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACH
In dealing with the history and process of change in the area a multidisciplinary
approach was absolutely required. As national groups of participants also
corresponded to different disciplines, tto develop a transversal working attitude,
bridging different disciplines and nationalities was quite a difficult task. The
students came from different fields of studies such as town planning, sociology,
landscape planning and architecture: bringing this together was at the same
time one of the aim and one of the methods to look at. The students were
divided into groups each having all the different competences. Also the
professors leading group had to work hard to bring together these different
approaches.
DISCUSSIONS AND BRAINSTORMING
While the works was progressively developed in working groups (4), many
different moments were dedicated to the collection of single or groups ideas, to
exchanging and sharing different sights and positions, to solve conflicts which
started to rise along the development of the work between very different
approaches and attitudes.
CONTRIBUTIONS BY LOCAL EXPERTS/ACTORS, INTERVIEWS
A role apart is the one of Thomas Emmenegger and Olinda’s staff during the
workshop: these people are actually keeping the memory of the place and the
cognition of what has been done in the last ten years of activities, but also they
are a key actor for any project that might be developed in the area. Many
students found moments to exchange and have talks to these people and to
asked them about issues, memories and to discuss about possibilities. Also, several
interviews were developed on specific issues and questions.
The people of the Comitato di Quartiere had, in a way a similar, role since they
have been interviewed and asked about their perceptions of the Paolo Pini. This
was made in official way (interviewing) and in informal way (“bar” tallking). Also,
the students have been very active in interacting with non organised people
living and/or working in the area: ether through a series of structured interviews or
through an event that was organised in order to activate the interest (and
curiosity) of people and to collect their vision on the area.
INPUTS AND LECTURES
The staff of the hosting university and a group of visiting professors and expert
contributors have allowed an enrichment of the contextual information and
frames. Lectures were organised in the working space at Pini, while an afternoon
at the Politecnico di Milano was dedicated to an open exchange with professors
and younger researcher over draft products and ideas.
Among the themes and contributors were:
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•
•
Milano and the Paolo Pini area - Corinna Morandi
Timing and spacing: the Paolo Pini history, Olinda and its projects - Thomas
Emmenegger
• The network of green areas and public spaces in the northwest sector of
the city - Valeria Erba
• Architecture for residential social services - Federico Bucci
• A sight on spaces of immigration in the city - Giovanni La Varra
• Projects for the reuse of Paolo Pini - Barbara De Feo
• “Threshold” - Remo Dorigati
Reports and paper related to this contributions may be found in the “workshop”
section of this document.
PUBLIC AND INTERMIDIATE PRESENTATIONS
There were planned moments of public presentation and debate of different
types. Public meetings with the institutions, a “seminary” meeting at the university,
a meeting in the Quartiere, a presentation of some intermediate results to the
citizens, a final presentation to the city. Since all these moments turned into
public debate and all these were useful to get reactions and new themes to think
about and add to the workshop the perception that the building up ideas were
part of a real process and not only abstractions.
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INTRODUCTION TO THE PLANNING AREA
FENCES AND BARRIERS IN SPACE AND IN MIND. CONSIDERATIONS FROM THE EXPERIENCE OF THE
FORMER PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL PAOLO PINI IN MILAN1
The former psychiatric hospital Paolo Pini is located in an intermediate position between
two different areas of the historic periphery of north-west Milan. The boundary between
these two areas is the North Milan railway along which the small station of Affori is
located.
The inner area –south east of the railway- has, as a reference point, the long line of the
Comasina along which since the 1950s –but particularly for the last two decades- an
urban continuum characterized by a mix of manufacturing activities, residences and
retail grew up. In the last few years, the closing down of some big firms started a
noticeable process of transformation of the urban fabric. Particularly, the areas that
once belonged to the Carlo Erba and the Oerlikon still represent two big closed
enclosed spaces within an urban fabric characterized by a high fragmentation of
properties and land parcels. Particularly, the Carlo Erba area presents a compact and
continuous front, a real barrier which makes a big neighborhood impermeable.
The area is dynamic, emerging from the diffusion of craft activities, small manufacturers
and retail activities and from a recent development of new housing. A new dynamic
transformation will be the extension of the third underground line from piazzale
Maciachini towards Affori through the Comasina neighbourhood, north west of the
railway, in the vicinity of the former Paolo Pini.
1
A wider text on this issue is developed in
Ingrid Breckner, Massimo Bricocoli and Corinna
Morandi, “Territorio” n. 28/2003
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The outer area, in which the former psychiatric hospital is located, has very different
features. Even the presence of fences refers to different typologies of spaces, both builtup and undeveloped. Comasina neighbourhood is a sort of enclosure because of its
characteristics of relative social marginality and monofunctionality, although it is
characterised by a good urban and architectonical quality.
The Paolo Pini itself is structured as a system of pavilions, divided by enclosing walls. Other
enclosures can be identified in undeveloped areas embedded within the urban fabric.
As in other parts of the historic periphery, mobility infrastructures represent barriers. At an
urban and local scale these barriers make mobility relations and, consequently, social
relations difficult: the railway, the new Comasina. In the light of these conditions, local
hostility to new barriers such as the north inter-peripheral road and the project of a road
in trenches underneath the railway in a northern area near Affori station, is evident.
The relocation of the station – within the context of the implementation of offices,
residences and a big hotel- is the linchpin of a redevelopment plan that will be the hinge
between the city and the first periphery ring and it will represent an important reference
point for the prospects of new relations between the Paolo Pini and its urban
surroundings.
18
Tesi Di Laurea Di Matteo Corbello, “Realtà di vicinato e mobilità lenta: nuovi principi per la progettazione delle isole
ambientali?” Relatore: Prof. Corinna Morandi; Co-Relatore: Arch. Carlo Molteni; Politecnico di Milano, AA2003/2004
19
20
21
PREPARATORY MEETING
“THE PROCESS OF DE- INSTITUTIONALISATION OF THE FORMER PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITAL PAOLO PINI”
BY THOMAS EMMENEGGER
Workshop in Town Planning, Prof. Valeria Erba - Prof. Corinna Morandi Facoltà di
Architettura – Politecnico di Milano, Aprile 2004
The psychiatric hospital Paolo Pini was built in the1920s, in north west of Milan,
according to a typology of pavilions located in green areas. In the 1960s it had
expanded to the highest level with 1000 patients and 1000 health workers: a sort
of fenced village, a world hermetically closed which the outside ignored.
In 1978, the Basaglia Act n.180 ordered the closure of mental homes – starting
from the first experience of the closure of the home in Trieste - and started a
process of de-institutionalisation that actually went on slowly and in an alternative
way. Lombardy has been the last region obliged to terminate this action of
civilization. Since 1999 the Pini has no longer been a psychiatric structure (twenty
years after the deadline set by the law). Closing a mental hospital –as for any
other institutions- is a complicated process, as it means disassembling and
transforming what is inside it into something new. On the other hand, for those
patients who lived for years in the hospital; leaving such a place means
discovering the territory, the outside world. Moving on from a mental hospital
implies bringing into play all that is related with the social field, not only the
material aspects (a house, a job) but also immaterial ones (the company of
friends, love of a family) – aspects that patients have been deprived of for dozens
of years.
Beyond the fence, health workers and patients had to rediscover the complexity
of being immersed in a dimension that in some way did not belong to them any
more –the world- and the social reproduction of material and immaterial things. A
patient who is restrained and segregated, for instance, unlearns to take care of
himself. In going out, even just a simple action such as wearing and lacing up a
pair of shoes becomes the object of a new learning process. And then you need
socks and shoes, which were useless before!
But equally, the workers themselves who redefine and resell their role going out of
the mental institute come across a change and a crisis. Opening up to the
22
outside, space is rediscovered and, as with time, it is a dimension to explore. The
temporal entity is strongly linked to spatial one, both are places of human action.
I am a psychiatrist…and I am not competent in architecture…but I am aware
that disassembling a mental hospital represents an important opportunity for
pyschiatrists and architects to meet up. My job at Paolo Pini started at the
beginning of the 1990s, in an environment characterised by patients at quite a
young average age –women in majority- under 50 (The Pini was a quite young
hospital, in some way).
Some first works have been promoted in relation with the external environment.
“It is easier to change spaces rather than people”. A stinking bathroom can be
transformed by some patients –with the help of architects and designers- into a
beauty centre. Women try to rebuild their identity through the freedom of
choosing personal fittings, such as a fragrance or a towel; a hospital room can be
transformed into a lodge furnished with a double bed: the issue of sexuality is
intentionally brought from outside to inside the psychiatric structure (“actually, this
issue is already ever present in a mental home, but in a violent way, hidden…and
not just in terms of abuses from health workers, but also among patients);
eventually, a mortuary can become a café-restaurant.
The aesthetic transformation of spaces, the attention paid to the minute design
of single works, which even started a growth in personal dignity, and the
involvement of external people in redevelopment activities (architects) were not
enough to transcend marginalization and exclusion.
For this reason it seems fundamental to think about the Pini in terms of public uses
to foster a radical change: the space taken into consideration should not just be
the inner one, but it should involve the city; it is the city itself which has to explore
a dimension of the Pini as a resource for the city.
The fundamental problem is finding tools to make the Comasina neighbourhood
attractive, in order to take the energies and create a connection between the
time of people with psychiatric diseases and space of community, with the surety
that quality of net-working is not in its dimension but in the intensity of its relations
and its information which is able to be passed on.
The main principles of the area’s transformation must include for consideration, a
public use of the area in order to facilitate feelings of belonging in everybody
and to let people become emancipated in their growth.
For this particular reason, lots of energies have been spent to organize a system
of relations which could be not just like a net but a net-working (inside space and
time); interlocutors, referents and qualified people have been soughtand around
100 different organizations answered differently to work on this new project,
which is related with two simple guidelines:
- elaborating and carrying out proposals involving people who were not
regular collaborators of the structure;
- developing interactive projects/products, which could be related with
people.
23
After one year of work, we got to a week of celebrations called “dream of a mid
- summer night” with a flow of 80.000 people after 50 years of segregation from
the structure.
An intense activity of reflection and study on the area and on perspectives for its
transformation starts here. Today it would be silly to reassess everything in terms of
“staying inside” or “staying outside”: on the contrary, it is fundamental to build a
system of opportunities and assume we have individuals who are active or –even
better- who can be activated. In order to know if some one has skills, they need
to be able to apply and have places in which apply them. In this way, it is never
the failure of activities that cause us to be worried but the consequences on
former patients.
Therefore, it is a question of transforming a place in which the identity of an area
in which none passes thorough and in which who was living there was looking
forward to going away has been consolidated in years. There is a need to build
something which has the possibility of communicating with the outside, taking
into consideration that a public use would redevelop the area.
Comasina neighbourhood, even if characterised by an acceptable situation of
residential and green areas, presents relevant problems, related particularly to its
feature of dominant residential mono functionality: it does not work in a complex
dimension of neighbourhood and consequently even the Pini does not work.
This is a central point: advancing a new life for the quarter. For this reason, it is the
social fabric which has to be firstly looked after, not the mobility, and a work
direction for the regeneration can be that of working on paths which allows
people to grow up and become emancipated. But to do it, it is important to
develop a knowledge to understand how energy can be brought, which the
connection time-space, that represent the net-working, is.
The question can be: how can we repopulate a place like the Pini, on which a
well-known, bulky and strongly labelled past weighs heavily.
24
POSTER PRESENTING
THE IP
25
TWO PUBLIC
EVENTS AT
THE URBAN
CENTER IN
MILANO
26
27
28
WORKSHOP
This section contains the calendar, the instant report – that reports the work in
progress -and the final presentations – that have been developed by the working
groups to discuss their work in public.
CALENDAR OF ACTIVITIES
When
Where
What
Who
9.30 14.00
Paolo Pini
Arrival and accomodation.
15.00
Paolo Pini
-
Saturday 11/09
-
Night
Paolo Pini
First meeting and presentation of the programme and
partecipants: the IP Borderlines idea, individual and groups
presentation
“Participant observation”: assignment for the groups in the
weekend which will be dominated by the “Tora Tora” rock festival
at Paolo Pini.
Corinna Morandi,
Ingrid Breckner,
Massimo Bricocoli,
Michael Mellauner,
Rudolf Poledna
“TORA! TORA! Festival”
Sunday 12/09
9.30 …… Paolo Pini and sorrounding
Field exploration: observing the spaces and the context, pointing out
questions, topics and perspectives
Evening
Paolo Pini
TORA! TORA! Festival
9.30 -
Paolo Pini
MEETING TIME.
presentation and discussion over the participant observation
during the intensively use of the Paolo Pini space,
Introduction of the workshop issues
Monday 13/09
11.15
13.00
16.00
17.00
20.30
Paolo Pini
Paolo Pini
Comune di Milano Urban
Center, Galleria Vittorio
Emanuele
City center
Introductory lesson to Milano and the Pini area
Lunch
Departure to the city centre
Meeting with Institutions and Public Administration: Comune di Milano,
Azienda Ospedaliera di Niguarda, DiAP Politecnico di Milano
Pizza
All
Corinna Morandi
Gianni Verga (City
councillor), Filippo Penati
(President of the
Province of Milano),
Alessandro Balducci,
Federico Oliva
All
Tuesday 14/09
29
9.30
Paolo Pini
11.00
14.30
15.30
Paolo Pini
Paolo Pini
17.00
Paolo Pini
19.00
MEETING TIME.
Thomas Emmenegger introduces to the Paolo Pini history and
projects and launches some themes
WORKING TIME.
In relationship to topics and themes, definition of what we need to
know, which ideas and perspective to develop, which proposal of
work to bring forward, who makes what.
Constitutions of 6 groups, working on specific themes
WORKING TIME
Lecture: “The network of green areas and public spaces in the
northwest sector of the city”
“Walkaround in the neigbourhood”
Thomas Emmenegger
Everybody
Valeria Erba
Together with the
Comitato di quartiere
Departure of those who are going to the football match!
wednesday15/09
9.30 -
Paolo Pini
MEETING TIME.
Presentation of working issues by the 6 groups and expressions of
needs and requirements
the 6 groups
11.30
15.00
Paolo Pini
Lecture: architecture for residential social services
WORKING TIME
Federico Bucci
Paolo Pini
17.30
Paolo Pini
Paolo Pini
Projection of a video by Giuseppe Baresi over the history of Paolo Pini
Dinner&discussions
Olinda
All
9.30
Paolo Pini
WORKING TIME.
the 6 groups
contribution from Ota De
Leonardis
11.00
15.00
Paolo Pini
Paolo Pini
Lecture: a sight on spaces of immigration in the city
WORKING TIME.
Comparison and discussion over the working perspective.
Giovanni La Varra
Contribution from Ota De
Leonardis
9.30 12.30
Paolo Pini
Presentation of projects for the reuse of Paolo Pini and discussion
Barbara De Feo
14.30 –
15.30
16,0019,00
Paolo Pini
Lecture: Architecture for health
Federico Bucci
WORKING TIME
all
Thursday 16/09
Friday 17/09
Saturday 18/09
Guided visits to urban projects and areas in the city
FREE TIME. (...while preserving time and getting prepared for a
presentation to be held on Monday)
In the afternoon the Paolo Pini will host a meeting of several association
and neighbourhood committees of the city
Sunday 19/09
Visit to other cities &/or Milano Film Festival
Monday 20/09
9.3013.00
Paolo Pini
WORKING TIME.
30
the 6 groups
15.0018.30
Politecnico di Milano Campus
Leonardo.
Entrance from
Via Ampere n. 3
Underground station “Piola”
ROOM R1
Presentation and discussions of work in progress to the University
colleagues
Pier Carlo Palermo,
Giancarlo Spinelli,
Alessandro Balducci,
Valeria Erba, Barbara de
Feo, Tommaso Vitale,
PhD students.
9.30 11.00
Paolo Pini
MEETING TIME. “Per fare il punto”.
everybody
11.00 18.00
18.00
20.30
Paolo Pini
WORKING TIME.
the 6 groups
Paolo Pini
Paolo Pini
Lecture “Threshold”
CENA.
Remo Dorigati
everybody
9.30 11.00
Paolo Pini
everybody
11.00 18.00
Paolo Pini
WORKING TIME.
the 6 groups
18.00
Paolo Pini
MEETING TIME. Reflections.
everybody
9.30 11.00
Paolo Pini
everybody
11.00 18.00
Paolo Pini
WORKING TIME. Working for the presentation.
the 6 groups
18.00
Paolo Pini
Public presentation of the work to Olinda and to the neighbourhood
association.
everybody
9.30 12.30
Paolo Pini
WORKING TIME. Working for the presentation.
the 6 groups
14.30
Urban Center Comune di
Milano, Galleria Vittorio
Emanuele
Public presentation of the projects.
17.30
Meeting room of Urban Center
Reflections, evaluations and feed backs.
Gianni Verga, Federico
Bucci, Angelo Cocchi,
Ota De Leonardis, Remo
Dorigati, Thomas
Emmenegger, Valeria
Erba
the 6 groups
20.30
Paolo Pini
Dinner – party
all
Tuesday 21/09
Wednesday 22/09
Thursday 23/09
Friday 24/09
Saturday 25/09
Guided vistits to relevant sites in the city
FREE TIME.
Sunday 26/09
Departures
31
32
INSTANT REPORT
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 11TH AND SUNDAY
SEPTEMBER 12TH 2004
THE “TORA! TORA!” MUSIC EVENT
-
During the first two days of workshop the scene of Paolo
Pini was dominated by a great musical event: the TORA!
TORA! festival. The overlapping of the arrival of the working
groups and of the musical festival was not actually a
coincidence, since the possibility to look at the area
during one of the greatest “living” event has to be
intended as a good point of observation of the area itself
when it offers to the city this kind of activities.
The aim of the two days was to observe and to get in first
touch with the peculiar atmosphere of the Pini area during
such an event. So, some of the students worked as
volunteers at the entrance or in the stands of food and
beverage; some of them spoke to the concert people
and other to other volunteers to try to grasp first other
people feelings of the place; some other joined directly
the
concert
and
observed
its
many-coloured
“population”; others struggled trough the area and tried
to get an idea of the uses of the different spaces during a
concert. So this event, for the people of the workshop,
turned into a participant observation moment. Here are
reported the results of the round table discussion /
brainstorming that happened on the monday right after
the concert.
Æ Elmar
entrance: not really inviting, who comes gets
information from all over and this bridges other
barriers while normally there are not enough
reasons to overcome it
jazz festival in Milano, would it be possible to bring
such an initiative in here?
Æ Daniel
the wall is hostile
was there anybody jumping over the wall to
enter the festival without paying?
Who comes just comes for the concert without
knowing a lot of Pini
No camping only one tent)
Æ Sophie
when we arrived, the space was very much
concentrated on the entrance and the facing
pizzeria. Then slowly it expanded and now it has
been squeezing again back t the entrance area.
Very different crowds between Saturday and
Sunday!
Æ Stefan
very hydillic situation
festival: things come and go, I am not very much
into this sort of things
in my opinion the greenery has a value by itself
give the atmosphere we had in these days, if
there is any empty building, would it be possible
to set student housing in here?
Æ Peter
festival: people are attracted from the event, not
from the place
valorise the buildings through lightning would
help
in the surrounding area there are several sites
fenced by walls
Æ Ian
I discovered spaces which I had not realised
before and which were activated by large
groups
People were not shy in making use of every
space: they were “alternative” but…this very
often helps to have pioneers
One research interest could be over “how the
image of spaces can change in time” hospitals,
etc.)
Æ Laszlo
I have been tracing the way space was used.
The social situation is made up of space, actors,
actions. I identified two main categories:
a. music consumers (specific interest)
b. family/peer consumers (using the park)
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 13TH 2004 - DISCUSSION
AND EXCHANGES OVER PARTICIPANT
OBSERVATION DURING “TORA! TORA!”
Æ Eric
-
-
Æ Anca
-
Football field as attractor because of the
concert, what if not?
Music was not necessarily the main or first reason
to come here
Would other people come to listen to other sorts
of music?
When were the graffiti on the walls done?
meaning of the wall as a barrier…but very
complex issue (to keep the wall means to have
inertia in the process of change)
Olinda and Volunteers (gallery of portraits) and
chances of exchanges/interviews: a woman
from Comasina tells her discovery of the place
through the enthusiastic tales of her children: at
the beginning she was between curiosity and
being worried, then she herself stepped in and
started to be active as volunteer. After some
time her husband said” we can also bring some
of our time in here”
(Angry) Feeling of lack and exclusion from
services which the commune is not giving to the
neighbourhood
what is normal / what is pathological
who defines what?
Mental maps: metropolitan maps /outsiders
Re-insertion/de-institutionalisation
Walls as symbols: they can be opened through
initiatives which are attractive
Why alternative rock ? it is probably more easy to
bring in youngsters who are more open
Æ Milena
33
The public seemed to be composed of “middle class
youngsters” and interesting features of “marriage
market” were clearly developing.
If there is the will of changing behaviours you
probably need to work on the structure of space
A more close analysis was developed over the
football field facing the stage (the football field lines
were working as dividing lines for the public!):
a first half of it, closer to the stage was used by
music fans, mainly single individuals
a second part was populated with individuals
reorganising space: like domesticating public
space for their own reasons and desires, quasi
community activities (urban sports, frisbee,
football)…
on the very left of the field, along its border, very
private areas were set (candles, cannabis)
There is an evidence that the structure/design of
space has a very strong influence on its use.
Æ Gyongi
Question “why the name ex ospedale
psichiatrico”?
You don’t feel the organisation and this opens the issue:
how much organisation/how much freedom
Æ Ellen
-
the main entrance the (old big one) works much
more as a barrier then the wall!!
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 14TH 2004 - 10.00 MEETING
WITH THOMAS EMMENEGGER - “TIMING AND
SPACING”
Æ Thomas
Excuse us for the lost breakfast. What you can observe is
disorganised organisation. We organised the festival but
not the post-festival and communication over your
breakfast was lost along the way.
I would like to start with you in here and not myself
This place was born as a theatre and then by mistake it
became a theatre!
39 and 1961 population of the hospital at its top (1200).
After 39 and 61 it declined. In 92 it was 300.
The space was abandoned 5 years ago, it’s not a lot but
you can see with what a speed a space can ruin.
I would like to speak about one of the main problem we
have. That is the relation between time and spaces,
biographies and personal processes and change of
spaces. What happens?
In space we can lose ourselves, it can be difficult to orient
yourself. At the same time space protects us, holds us. In
the frame of time you can give a shape to chaos, through
sequences.
Æ Ingrid: if you keep the name you don’t hide
Æ Norbert
rock festival Ælifestyle
action brings with it selection:
I was interested in dominant uses and behaviour:
many seemed to express something like “Look at
me, I am very relaxed!”, “we are dominating the
space through intimacy” (intimacy as a
collective domination of space)
Along he borders specific items were distributed:
friend groups, cannabis, lovers
Ingrid: alternative crowds as selective
Æ Horatius
Problems of identity: the present use from hospital to
public use is very distant. Still there are in the park buildings
which are used for health services
Past-present-future: present is very ambiguous
Power/policy problem: who owns the buildings? Who
decides? Who takes decisions?
Spaci in between is a chance for developing something
Æ Christian
Radio Popolare brings Olinda and Pini to very
special targets
at the neighbourhood committee they know
what the Pini was but not what it is!
Working on attractive places with inhabitants
they even didn’t point out the Pini as relevant
place
From the city centre on a Sunday morning it took
me 1 ½ hour to come here. The bus tours around
Bruzzano and Comasina. It’s a long (and
interesting) journey Æ it’s very interesting to
realize “how a bus makes you feel about a city!”
Æ Lorenzo
Relevance of the wall as borderline during events and
ambiguity of it as a barrier during anytime. Can we
change it?
Æ Giordana
We had the feeling that during the festival
several chances were lost in order to
communicate what is happening here.
Importance of light in pushing people to move
around
2 main allees are used within the area alley
Time after time, things develop into more secure assets.
Psychiatry and disciplines working with social issues and
with people, they work a lot on time and suffer a lot of a
lack of relations with spaces. But people live in time and
spaces!
Very often time seems not enough to bring people out of
it.
People with psychiatric problems the have always
problems with social reproductions, they often have
economical problems and have difficulties in reproducing
their social spaces, homes, interactions….
The work on time cuts off the issues of social reproduction
in which spaces is so relevant. We might affirm the same
for those working on social housing, just dealing with space
and without realising the biographical dimensions
involved.
Social sciences generally do not consider the dimension as
space which is very often just reduced to “environment”.
The same in psychiatry: space is just environment, without
any further research and investigation.
A practical example. We do have a project to transform
this building into a theatre. BT at the same time we are
dealing with a group of people who have to learn how to
manage it: they are not professionals (yet). Our main issue
is to bring together the time of changing the space with
the change of people!
Normally you have a very clear division: you set up the
space and then you introduce the people. This brings
34
helpful. There are very practical reasons why we are using
timing and spacing, while we are working on the main
objective of empowering the people. It’s easier to change
the space, it is much more difficult to change people. That
is a reason why we do prefer to work on space (or to start
from it)!
along a big loss of energies, as the setting up of the space
is full of opportunities for motivation.
The people involved in changing spaces can grasp a lot
when they realise a possible connection between the
change of space and their own life.
We are not interested in changing people, but we do
know that involving them in a project they will get a
chance of change: responsibilities, identity, motivation,
recognition (who they are). But it’s so so difficult!
That is why we do need a lot of time for developing our
projects.
The bar, Jodok. To prepare this little space we needed
one year. It’s absolutely anti-economic to work one whole
year for such a little space.
Spacing could be an intentional process (we can plan it
and programme the process). Changing people doe not
allow to set a plan or a project.
That is one of the hardest contradictions in services aimed
at health improvements. Psychiatric services aim at
healing people. I am sick the doctor heals me. It is an
intentional project. In psychiatry I don’t have anything
which is an intentional instrument, I always have to find
different ways. Psychiatrists are afraid of using the concept
of healing: they are dealing with no cause related
problems. It’s like ordering someone to sleep!
The strategies to make a person sleep are unintentional
(counting the sheep….). in psychiatry it is a very similar
situation.
Lino doing the coffee was involved since the beginning of
the project and it’s his bar.
In the beginning of the project nobody would have
believed that it would have been possible.
It is always like that.
Not because the project is impossible, but because there
are a lot of fears of the people in visioning themselves
within the project.
Normally along the process, at half of it people do start to
believe that it is possible. In these moments you can really
physically feel that the project is developing, it is going.
We have to work therefore with other disciplines, other
professionals, all kind of competences.
It is necessary to built up a very wide and articulated
network.
An example. At the festival we involved a sound engineer.
He made a study of the impact of the concert on the
neighbourhood as we cared for the relationship with it. The
guy is from Florence and quite well known specialist.
Normally he works in big concerts. He came as a
professional, paid for his work. He started asking about the
place, the situation: who are you? I never saw such a
space. We told him about the theatre. He was very much
interested, saying he’ll come back.
To develop such a project as the theatre:
We have to deal with the owner. In this case it is the
Niguarda Hospital, otherwise nobody would give us money
to be invested without an agreement over its use (20 years
time).
You know the story of Sifisus.
He was trying to roll a very large stone pushing it up to the
top of a hill and never reached it and always had to start
again and again. When you are into professions like
psychiatric professions, that’s the image they are giving
you! That is because they are only working on biographies
and missing all the connections and energies that they
might get from working on space.
Æ Ingrid
In Germany there is a bit debate on these issues but it is
really so divided: either you have people working on time
either you have people focusing on space! It seems so
difficult to bring them together and work on small sensitive
connections. It seems so difficult to recognise the
connections between time/space in our own lives (while
eating, working, making a workshop).
We started separating time/space as it got too
complicated (as we did with work/life), but this
connection does exist.
The hospital does not have any capability to programme
and to project anything like a theatre: they are only
planning beds. It is very hard for them to enter such a
different project which still is dealing with health and
psychiatry, but referring to theatre!
Æ Ian
Isn’t it difficult to develop a work on time as for any
individual time is something very special
A second problem is finding professionals helping us in
finding ways to change the space…..
Referring training, all training programmes offered to
people with psychiatric problems are related to
computers, all sort of other works and courses are offered
by very large organisations
Æ Rudolf
We have so many different representations of space and
time. In the philosophical discussion, we have three main
concepts of space and time. As given (Newton), as
subjective (Kant), relativity (both, objective and
subjective). But I would add something else. Space has
something very relevant for us: exclusivity: if something is
happening in space, at the same time nothing else is
occurring in that space. In space everything can only
happen subsequently.
The last problem is to make the theatre work, as a real
theatre. It can’t be a middle way, it really has to work as a
theatre. Which makes it even more difficult: to find money
for something which we want to work as a normal activity.
Like the restaurant: we found money for the development
of the project but now we don’t get money for making it
work. In Italy, social enterprises, cooperatives are very
much market oriented. In a way this is good as it is a push
to work as normal organisations on the market on the other
it makes it hard!
Æ Thomas
I would like to discuss about timing and spacing.
I think we need a lot of help from research to understand
many of the things we are doing as no discipline by itself is
35
Yesterday at the Urban Centre meeting, when I heard
Penati, the president of the Province, discussing over the
industrial areas he had to develop in Sesto San Giovanni I
had the horrible vision of the president of the province
looking at the Pini as a brownfield!
The hotel itself will be an integrated project working with
people with mental problems. We need it as the
allowance for developing is connected to it: the land use
plan just allow educational and training and social and
sanitary projects.
Reusing old psychiatric hospital must be developed in
relationship to activities related to mental health. Even of
they sell the area, they have to reinvest the money for
mental health.
The link with Niguarda, with its clients allows us to develop
the hotel.
Architect Rossi is the referent at the Local Government, in
the planning office who suggested us the way to develop
the hotel within the actual planning regulations.
The owner of the building is the province, and as there is
no actual agreement we haven’t developed many
interventions on it. As soon as there will be an agreement
(a 30 years contract) we will start investing money on it.
Psychiatrist are generally afraid of developing projects
which show very clearly a very strong power, lots of
energies they are much more accustomed to projects
develop within 20 square meters spaces.
Everything we are developing is in the firm of social
enterprise, which involved people with mental problems,
gets financial advantages, is non profit but works within
the market.
This requires to constantly deal with business! Lots of
people would suggest to transform the former mensa
where we are sitting into a library. BUT: who would come
here for a library? It would totally be a non sense, with no
chance of economic sustainability!
Social enterprise do not have a patrimony, an own capital.
We do have a lot of social capital!
800.000 euro/year and 300.000 euro/year are the budgets
of Olinda (social enterprise and association), 30 people
working. So it is a small enterprise but a real enterprise. In
normal enterprises the profits go to investments which
guarantee a capital as insurance, in this case profits are
reversed into social processes.
Æ Norbert
1. You use social enterprise for non intentional changes in
people. How did the festival work in this respect?
2. This area has a very strong identity/stigma and you
require attractive evens to bring people here. What sort of
identity would this area have in your opinion? If the identity
is too narrow, it would exclude many others.
3. What is in your opinion our role here? What could our
output look like?
We like very much t lose the control on our projects. Our
institutional partners don’t like to lose control on projects
and are very much afraid of these dynamics!
This area of the city is very much isolated in a way.
Nobody is passing here. Economically it is not very clever
to start with social enterprise activities in a such a cut off
area. The difficulties in accessibility, the stigma to be a
psychiatric hospital are big handicaps. So we do need
projects with a strong attractiveness to bring people here.
If you walk around in the evening, in the Comasina you will
experience what it means to live here, in the periphery.
So, you need a critical mass of social enterprise projects to
have lots of reasons for people to come here, otherwise,
without this attractive forces, projects would die. People
do tend to forget the issue of economical sustainability
and you do have to remind them every single day!
Æ Thomas
1. During the festival many people had a “pass”. There is a
hierarchy in distributing passes.
I do not know if you met Diego. He had the most important
pass. He could move everywhere. He came to me and
said “I can go everywhere” . He could even go to the
sanctuary of the artists!
This is an incredibly effective to give recognition. He knows
very well that the result of our work is his own wage and he
is very committed.
2. Once the hospital was a ghetto, with a very specific
population. The biggest mistake would be to recreate a
ghetto with activities targeted at one single populations
and I do believe we have to aim at activities attracting
very different lifestyles. The difference between Saturday
and Sunday evening the crowds were quite different
already. We are doing a lot of theatre in the summer and
very different people would come. We are also addressing
more popular activities (like music from southern Italy)
which would attract other crowds…We do have to avoid
specialising opportunities!
The actual multiplicity of people coming here is one of the
best results we have achieved
We do not have problems in the contents (it could
absolutely be a jazz festival!), but we have to guarantee a
quality which allow attractiveness for lots of people. The
neighbourhood can’t be our public. For many reasons the
people living in the neighbourhood are hostile to some of
our activities. It’s a matter of habits, most of them would
move to other places in the city, they have no habits in
enjoying their time in the area where they live. Still we are
The project on the bar is now working. If I tell Pino that he is
good is something. If you tell Pino that the coffee is good
and that you’ll come back, that’s a success.
He has a formal contract, a wage, his own money, the
chance of having holiday and to socially reproduce
himself.
You will meet Barbara de Feo, she is the architect who is
responsible of the architectural project. For that project
we are in a European network (Equal programme) over
the opening of a series of hotels (“Via dei matti numero
zero”). To make it profitable we need to enlarge the
structure (up to 100 beds). In the old laundry of the
psychiatric hospital we would like to start the project of a
lrgaer hostel, which could find good connections with the
theatre.
This would develop a permanent use of the area with an
orientation to cultural events and policies. Actually we
have a very solid cultural festival in summer (June-July).
We would like to have it as a permanent and natural
stage
36
area (Affori Bovisa) going through the Parco Delle Groane,
we have tried to reuse old farms and so on to connect the
area to the greater park. We tried to get into further details
from the very general map of the province.
A further development has been done on smaller parts of
the city, Console Marcello, this was a integrated
approach: walking through the green paths, calming the
traffic, talking to the inhabitants, and trying to connect all
these dimensions. There have been questionnaires
distributed, reuse of ground fields and thematic analysis.
Through the questionnaires and observation, we realised
that public space is underscaled and lacks infrastructure.
Very often it is just an empty space in the dense urban
pattern.
developing small projects to involve the neighbourhood.
The room you are working in for example was dedicated
for two years for a summer school for 100 children living in
the neighbourhood.
I would imagine (3.) that you might help us in developing
the question over our targets and how activities could be
developed
within
heterogeneous
and
different
publics/actors
Æ Questions/discussion over how/what influences diversity
in uses and populations.
Many are the conditions and elements which influence
and guarantee complexity. In a way what we are doing
has already shown that there is a chance to do things and
change things.
Æ Ingrid
There is a big need of having close views to experiences
which are producing liveable spaces out of any functional
view which puts together functions and services.
A further development has been done on smaller parts of
the city, Console Marcello, this was a integrated
approach: walking through the green paths, calming the
traffic, asking the inhabitants, and trying to connect all
these dimensions. There has been distribute questionnaires,
reuse of ground fields, thematic analysis. Through the
questionnaires and observation, we realise that public
space is underscaled and lacks infrastructure, very often is
just an empty space in the dense urban pattern. Public
space was then used by citizens as a place to flee from
motor traffic and in which one can find leisure and
commercial activities (open market). Some proposal were
made: filleing the green network, recovering brown areas,
realization of 30-zone and woonerf, bicycle paths and
places for open-air performances. The map describes this
new situation: places of potential attractions of new
functions
arepointedout.
WITH VALERIA ERBA - “GREEN NETWORKS IN
MILANO NORTHWEST”
I will refer to a theory of environmental science, which is
more part of the natural sciences. Some key features of
the map, one of the main important area is the Ticino
area, and there are some more small areas which function
to keep the network of green areas. In particular it is
relevant to investigate the green network because the
urbanization of the city of Milan is so dense and diffused as
you may realise from this map. In particular one of the
important systems is the water system because it’s still
visible and it is an important network natural and artificial.
Another important thing is that these networks go into the
city center with the Navigli.
There are some institutions that try to preserve the parks
outside Milan: Parco Del Ticino, Parco Agricolo Sud, Parco
Di Monza, Parco Delle Groane, Parco Nord Milano. In
particular in the south because of the difference of the soil
and the use of it, that is still agricultural. Looking at the
parks in this way it’s like looking at green spots, while the
networking of the green areas try to create green
corridors between the green areas, many of these
corridors are the canals. We try to identify barriers,
developments and other artificial interventions, and areas
in which the corridors are at risk. A particular example
could be the Naviglio Grande, with barriers like railways
roads and so on, we also have indicated areas in which
public use is possible but only if these activities are
compatibile with the surrounding nature.
This work was part of the Piano Provinciale, but it was also
applied to Milan, trying to indicate a local green network.
Trying to build up a system about moving through Milan in
green areas. Connecting places and paths with green
character. The proposals are apart of the existing (the
dark green is the existing the light green are the projects).
They have been working on the possibility to move in the
different places in the city, according to the time of urban
develoment, the quantity (and quality) of green is
different. Bicycle ways were also planned to reach those
green areas that are not visited now. In particular in this
37
38
Until the 80’ Aler managed the flats of different owners,
than each owner started to manage his own buildings
The problems, critical issues related to spatial questions:
Related to Aler: two blocks in very bad conditions, piazza
Gasparri only half of it has been renewed by the parish
property of the church), half very bad quality; shops
completely empty own by Aler.
Related to Municipality: building of the “Centre for abused
children” in very bad conditions; requalification of the
fountain in the main square, completely neglected;
rehabilitation of the middle school Ghandi, supposed to
be transformed by the Municipality in a building for very
poor immigrants, which has raised a strong opposition by
the population; occupation of the small villa in via Litta
Modignani, formerly destinated to a meeting point for
young people (automanaged by people and associations
for various courses).
Problem of parking areas: path used for car parking, what
has increased situation of danger (7.500 cars in the
Comasina).
The presence of extra EU people (less than 10%?) seems to
represent a mood of intolerance in the population, not yet
clear but perhaps a risk. “We don’t understand each
other”.
WITH THREE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE COMITATO
DI QUARTIERE COMASINA
The neighbourhood was developed in 1958.
The study was begun in 1953, promoted by IACP, now
ALER (Lombardy Enterprise for Social Housing)
The ground where the estate was built was completely
agricultural land, surrounding the Paolo Pini (Called at the
time Villa Fiorita)
The concept was realized by famous architects: the idea
was to make an housing estate not only to “sleep” for
workers, but also to have other activities: “Autosufficient”.
Considered at the time one of the best examples in
Europe, interesting design and high quality of public
spaces: for examples pedestrian paths among the houses.
Mr Carmine D’Andrea is from Milano, one of his parents is
from Campania; he came in the estate in 1958, he left in
1968 when he married and came back in 1995 in his
parents’ house. He missed a critical phase.
Mr Pescatori came from Naples to Milano to study
(lynotipist) in 1965. He knew of the schools of Rizzoli and
Umanitaria with numerous clauses. He was selected for the
Umanitaria.
Mr Foggi come from Tuscany, lived in Affori and came to
Comasina in 1957
Mr D’Andrea speaks of the life of young people in
Comasina, where there was a very active social life (50’
and 60’), particularly for the presence of Gioventù
Studentesca.
Mr Pescatori says that there was a poli-ambulatory and
other facilities in the estate (cinema, gym, supermarket),
where you can get in from one side and you get out from
the other side, rich of various typologies, allowing
protection from traffic for children (estate where you
could live “a misura d’uomo”). In 1968 in the period of the
students’ struggles in the estate some bad people
infiltrated in the state and brought troubles to inhabitants.
Near the estate other very poor houses were inhabited by
poorer people. Houses built in the post war for very poor
people, who had lost their houses with drug and other
problems.
Some of the apartments where supposed to be taken
back by the inhabitants, who could pay different amounts
of money for their rent. The promoters where non only Iacp
but also Gescal, Ministries.
In 1992:
6% more than 65 years old
6% less than 15 years old
66% of families of one or two persons
70% of people where retired from work
77% of head of families was employed as workers
50% average income of 8300 euros
Nowadays 10000 people, 2500 families (1200 vedove,
figure from the priest)
Mr D’Andrea has the feeling now that the population is
younger than in 1992, also for the introduction of foreign
families.
The property of buildings:
75% of the flats are own by the inhabitants
25 % own by Aler
for 75% , good conditions of conservation
for 25%, very bad conditions of maintenance
About the Comitato di quartiere Comasina
In Italy the Comitati where created in corrispondence with
the crisis of political parties, in Milano also because the
institutional decentralization in Milano did not work, In
Milano 60 Comitati are grouped in a Coordination
Commettee to develop issues at a city level and not only
at a local one.
Issues: better cleaning and maintenance, but also the
project for the restauration of a “Casa-albergo” in piazza
Gasparri to realize apartments.
Relation with Olinda for the opposition against the tunnel in
via Astesani.
Nicola studied different theories of participative planning
also with direct experiences (Vercelli and know
Comasina).
Three lines of work for Comasina:
1) the buldings: problems of maintenance
2) the estate has a good concept for the
protection of pedestrians, with paths, landmarks,
no walls in a unitary complex. Element of quality
of the space.
3) social issues. The evolution of population has
been very homogeneous, now a lot of old
people, immigrants, non divided in communities.
There is not an emergency situation in
comparison with other area in Milano.
Different approaches of the Comitato Comasina, with a
very strong feeling of identity.
Ingrid asks what they would think about the demolishing of
the wall. Mr D’Andrea I would ask demolishing the wall to
do what? If it is for a good purpose I agree
Riccardo Zilli: How people lived the transformation of the
hospital? How much the feeling of the autonomy of the
neighbourhood can mean closure?
Mr. Pescatori: in Milano there was another psychiatric
hospital (Villa Turro) and I worked nearby. I felt that they
were much more free than we were for the “rules” of our
everyday life.
39
He speaks of the activity to have more consultations with
the municipality, with some councillors who are ready to
“listen” to inhabitants. In some cases they go to legal
procedures.
Notes
-
Nicola
you can open the wall but not destroy it, it is a part of the
strong identity, of personal links of people
GROUP B
Ian, Daniel, Milena, Norbert,
Giordana
What does the Pini represent for you? Strangely enough
the Pini is seen as something very much detached from
the neighbourhood, In a way it could be because of its
history. It is seen as a space in the hands of whom? Do
people come for any organized activity?
Few people of the neighbourhood come.
The wall can be demolished but you don’t lose the
identity.
The green area is not attractive, people already have
green areas in Comasina. They don’t go to Villa Litta, if
they don’t look for something.
What do you need for your neighbourhood?
For whom are we planning? People
neighbourhood? People from Milano?
We decided for the neighbourhood.
METHODS to find out what are people needs? (through
interviews)
needs: time budget + space budget + paolo pini
presentation/representation
how people in Comasina feel this area
research on projects of reuse of hospital spaces
or for changing an image (identity)
But it’s not enough that you just define the functions and
activate them Æ communication
- taylormade public space
D’Andrea: you can see in a Consiglio di Zona how the
decentralization works (“Smoky” relationships between
citizens and institutions)
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 15TH 2004 - 18.30 FIRST
DISCUSSION OUT OF WORKING GROUPS
Notes
-
GROUP A
Elmar, Peter, Horatius, Lorenzo, Anca Maria, Donata
-
-
the
But which are the lifestyles of people in the
neighbourhood: how are people living? Which kind of uses
could be beneficial?
Nicola: high level of knowledge of problems, but problem
of understanding what will change in he future. The real
interrogative is what will be the future of the area
-
from
New functions for the Pini which could be useful for the
neighbourhood through a brain storming:
1. re opening the church
2. student housing some kind of living here (Igor)
3. sport facilities
4. market to be integrated in the area
5. playground
6. the wall: to look at it as a building
7. theatre as cinema
8. health garden
9. immigration center
D’Andrea: refers to the project they are developing with
the students: a meeting point for people of different
ages…They would like not to deal with ordinary problems
(cleaning..) but develop more complex projects.
-
Sophie and Igor: suggestion over the areas which
are already agriculture oriented
Collection of ideas over Pini
Platform for exhibitions: crazy planning, utopias
for planning
Health garden, working in green areas (between
landscape architecture and psychotherapy)
Outside theatre, for practicing
Weekly market in the area to have people
getting used to the space and to be connected
to the agriculture activities to be developed in
the back
Student housing
Park: adventure playground, something different
from a park
Discussion at the moment over the exchange
and
relationships
with
Comasina
and
surroundings (maybe an exhibition on the Pini
walls)
-
From it nobody is normal. Who are the fools at
Pini? Some say they are too few? Some that are
too many.
Who are the actors? Who is promoting?
GROUP C
Ellen, Eric, Christian, Laszlo, Stefan, Irene
Work in progress, you only see some steps.
Stefan
Ilaria- reflection over the identity and perspectives of
Olinda. Little scale problems in paolo Pini are reproduced
around. It could reply some problems which are already in
the surrounding
What meaning does the wall have? Who is it
protecting? Who is it stopping?
Is the wall closed, opened, transparent?
Are the entrances inviting?
Is there a hierarchy between private and public
spaces?
How strong is the memory of the walls/ fences?
Irene:
Future Workshop
1. Fantasy
2. Set some critical selection and development
3. Feasibility/what you can make with your own
resources!
40
Laszlo:
-
Erich:
-
-
-
social development of the area – double role of
the Paolo Pini (PP) for the city and the patients
3 owners, who are separated – they should
interact
development of the whole area
difference between private and public space
connection between PP and the surrounding
neighbourhoods (Comasina, Affori + Bovisasca
(similar to Comasina)
Which perspective?
Which target groups?
Ideas?
Methods?
Interviews,
Problems?
Results? Outputs? Visions?
Problems?
There are several issues to be considered.
show a social map to see what’s inside PP
there’s a different hierarchy of spaces and
structures in there (e.g. frequencies, who uses
what when (events, daily routine)
there are different purposes for the space
idea of an internal structure – integrate different
structures and uses
Igor:
I look at myself here. It seems to me that I am here since a
month. I don’t feel like a tourist. This city has a very strong
identity. As well this area. The wall doesn’t look to me as
protecting something from something else, it’s a
separation allowing its peace.
The church to me looks very sad. The hotel itself is already
existing. The “citypini” has its own agriculture. It has a
structure which could be kept. It is not a white paper or be
filled in I think that what is necessary here is to save it, not
to fill it up with many touristic ideas.
It could have a very strong appeal to the local authorities
These egocentric threes do not allow no one to come to
go right into the centre. We do not need to ask people to
ask what they want from pini.
Such a vision is … is it affordable and defendable and
sustainable in a competing environment?
consideration of methods: thinking about our
possible interpretations and prejudices about
madness/ mental illness
first internal changes have to be made, uses to
define, because it’s important for the people
acting and living here
then entrances can be defined and opened
(avoid unintentional consequences)
area is like a body and the entrance can be
seen as the face
there are layers of memory, former + actual +
potential uses, time and property which have to
be considered
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 16TH 2004 - 11.30 MEETING
WITH GIOVANNI LA VARRA - “MILANO
CAMOUFLAGE”
Christian:
the time-level is important for the people living
here
considerations of change: spacial change has
influences on the people
wall: there’s no necessity for new entrances, you
can show on the wall what’s going on inside the
area (drawings, photos)
people: just not focus the neighbourhood people
alone (cannot force neighbourhood people to
come here)
also focus on suburbs, periphery, the new
politecnico – connections
PP is not ready for new projects, the workshop
can just be a base for future projects
In a way of helping people of PP to find a way to
act - motto: “timing and spacing”
Ellen:
Look, find, define (even not obvious) valuable
spaces in between (transitional spaces)
Spaces in between are very sensitive as spaces
between two ore more worlds/ systems and
should be treated carefully
What use can be there and who will/ should use
it?
Thinking about different forms of opening the
walls without demolishing the shelter (protection
for both sides)
Question of time: any actions of us can have
temporally or constantly character
We should not be afraid of contradictions and
ambiguity in use but careful
140 000 immigrants flew to the city of Milano in the last 15
years. Many have a job, many are in the process to have
Italian citizenship. But, around 5000 immigrants are in
“illegal” situation, have no formal status, are living in
hidden places, transformed for housing purposes creating
a shanty town.
Together with NAGA (an association of voluntary doctors
working for the improvement of health conditions o
immigrants who are not entitled to any public service) and
Chiamamilano (another volunteer association working with
disadvantaged groups).
We have drawn Maps of the cities which reproduce the
situation of these settlements along the years.
1. a first map reproduces the settlement in few
brownfields in the northern side of the city,
2. in a second period (1994-2000) the colonisation
of land is more intense and a growing number of
people are living in the southern area of the city,
in smaller enterprises, in terrain vague or not built
up (with shelter made of all sorts of materials). A
growing number of immigrants would come from
north Africa, southern America and eastern
European countries,
3. (2000-2004)
Immigrants
settlements
are
developing also outside the city borders, up to
Rho-Pero for example, where the large new Fair is
developing (500 people are living next to it). The
origins are changing: eastern Europe and northcentral Africa. Another main issue is that
GROUP D
Gyorgyi, Riccardo, Igor, Sophie,
41
immigrants start to be not only single men, but
larger family groups with children. This makes
housing even more a critical issue close to
emergency; during the day only men are busy at
work and these spaces are therefore not only
“dormitories” but they start to become living
areas, with complex uses.
The building that we want to convert into an integrated
hotel is this. This building was the sisters residence in the ex
mental hospital, and it was built in 1930.
Actually, as you know, there are 5 people living here and it
has been transformed in hostel before becoming a hotel.
The building is not so big, 300 square meters each floor. The
ground floor includes larges bedrooms and facilities, like
sitting room and kitchen.
In the centre there is a gracious courtyard rich of green
plants.
We can recognize different typologies of settlements
linear mixed settlements (along railways)
nationality clusters within large areas
parcel saturation (intensively using industrial
buildings with intense health problems (garbage
is kept within in order not to be visible and
people are moving to new areas within the
building in order to reach clean
camouflaging (shelters in natural/green areas,
organised in order to be completely hidden).
On the first floor there are more bedrooms, and at the
basement there are actually the laundry, the power plant,
and the stores.
In November when we started with the project, we went to
Rimini to meet a consulting company specialised in Hotels.
They said that the most important thing for the success for
an hotel is the number of bedrooms, more than 35, and
that the hotel has to be localised near the centre of the
city.
For the localisation we don’t have problems because in a
few years, the underground will arrive near here, and even
if we are not so close to the centre we are in the middle of
a green park.
But the number of bedrooms was a problem because the
space at our disposal is not large enough.
So we decided to design one more floor, and to excavate
the courtyard down to the level of the basement and
cover it to have more space for public facilities.
While the housing activities are hidden, the services which
are related to all these people a well as their jobs are
quite visible. Many meetings area (like Milano central
Station square for example) are working as relevant nodes
in the relation network which allows to many people to
enter a job or to improve their living conditions.
Ingrid raises a debate over the perspectives of such a
research (which is mainly focused on a descriptive
approach of the use of spaces) in terms of policy
implications or/and public debate. Also, the investigation
of the positive and relevant contributions of immigration to
urban economy and life are at the centre of the
discussion.
At the moment the hotel design consist of 37 rooms.
Shown above is the ground floor, you can see the
entrance from the square in the hall, the courtyard
excavated and covered at the first floor with a glass
covering carried by a tree-like structure, to recall to the
clients the idea of nature. At the back of the building we
needed to design new stairs and an elevator.
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 17TH 2004 - 14.30 MEETING
WITH BARBARA DE FEO - “ARCHITECTURAL
PROJECTS FOR JODOK RESTAURANT, A HOTEL, A
MULTIFUNCTIONAL SPACE IN THE EX MENTAL
HOSPITAL”
These are some examples of glass covering, and covering
carried by structures that seems trees.
The first and second floor have the same plan. The
facades of the second floor, the new stairs and elevator
are cladded with wood panelling as shown in the following
slight. These are three examples for the final solution.
My collaboration with Olinda started with the Jodok
Restaurant interior design project.
The restaurant is situated on the square with planted trees
near the second entrance of the complex.
This entrance is used by all the people who come here to
go the restaurant, or to the carpentry, or to participate all
the activities organized in the park during spring and
summer.
The restaurant was renovated in 2002 by the interior
designer Aldo Cibic, and I collaborate with him.
The idea was to transform the restaurant into an elegant
place, with linear wooden furniture and soft lighting,
where people can eat for lunch and dinner, and also take
a drink in the night.
We put all around the walls wood benches to use the
space in the better way (to have more seats), and to
have a big central table, where people alone could
meet.
Behind the benches there is a soft continuous light.
The problem in this space was the acoustic: there was too
much noise. The first idea was to put some inflatable
elements with a light inside.
But, at the end, as you can see in the pictures, we
decided only to put some coloured polystyrene elements.
In the centre of the basement there is a sitting room. This
space is a covered courtyard, around which various
facilities are distributed: a relaxing centre , a breakfast
lounge, the bar and administration offices.
Here are some examples of how to organise these spaces,
here we have some sitting rooms and a restaurant.
These photos show examples of a sauna, hammam and a
relax room. To achieve the idea of what we think there
should be in this Hotel.
Cladding the walls of these public spaces with wooden
panelling perpetuates the idea of nature that we wish to
achieve.
So, as you have seen, the most important themes are the
nature: around the hotel with the park and inside with
42
materials and forms, and the pursuit of more spaces in the
building.
The main entrance will be the same, with two more metal
and wood ramps.
In front of the entrance there will be the reception with two
guard robes, one on the left and one on the right.
In the center of the building we design the main space,
covered with existing skylights, it could be totally closed or
open, it depends on the activities that we want to play. For
a comedy we can close it and put some seats, and for a
concert or a DJ night we can open all the space.
The others two spaces on the left and on the right will be
used for art exhibition. At the back of the building we have
a big bar with a long bench on a big wooden platform.
The third and last project is the transformation of the old
hospital kitchen in a multifunctional space to be used as a
theatre or gallery or cancert hall.
I did the project in a very short time because Olinda
needed it to ask some financing.
The idea for the administration is the same as the hotel:
people with mental disorders will work here.
It’s one of the 20 pavilions of the hospital, it has only the
ground floor and the basement, that we don’t use.
43
FINAL PRESENTATIONS
In the next pages the final presentations of the students working groups are
presented. These presentations were firstly debated at Paolo Pini together with
Olinda, the Comitato di Quartiere and the citizens and after that, at the Urban
Cener of the Comune di Milano.
Group A. Conquer the Wall
Group B. Matrix Revolution
Group C. Memory, past, present and future
Group D. Città germoglio
GROUP A. CONQUER THE WALL
Anca Maria Carstean (RO)
Horatius Flueras (RO)
Peter Kowalsky (D)
Donata Leone (I)
Elmar Nadler (A)
Lorenzo Santambrogio (I)
GROUP B. MATRIX REVOLUTION
Ian Bernschneider (D)
Daniel Bruckbauer (D)
Giordana Gialli (I)
Milena Grossauer (A)
Norbert Petrovici (RO)
44
GROUP C. MEMORY, PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
Ellen Fiedelmeier (D)
Peter Laszlo (RO)
Irene Magni (I)
Stefan Widdess (D)
Christian Oxenius (I)
Eric Proeglhoef (Brasil - A)
GROUP D. CITTÀ GERMOGLIO
Igor Belamaric (Croatia - A)
Gyongyi Pasztor (RO)
Lara Zanella (I)
Maja-Iskra Vilotievic (Croatia - A)
Sophie Brauer (D)
Riccardo Zilli (I)
45
VERSO
UN
USO
URBANO
DELL’EX
OSPEDALE
PSICHIATRICO PAOLO PINI: IDEE DA UN WORKSHOP
INTERNAZIONALE.
Questo breve testo cerca di sintetizzare e organizzare alcuni temi di riflessione emersi nel
corso dei lavori del Workshop “Borderlines in urban spaces and planning” che si è tenuto a
Milano presso l’ex-Ospedale Psichiatrico Paolo Pini, dall’11 al 26 settembre 2004, per
iniziativa del Dipartimento di Architettura e Pianificazione del Politecnico di Milano2,
nell’ambito del programma europeo Socrates.
Realizzare il workshop presso l’ex ospedale psichiatrico Paolo Pini ha significato trovarsi a
vivere e lavorare in una città che è parte di un’altra città: una parte viva di Milano racchiusa
da un muro cangiante, che rimanda a sensazioni di timore, di rispetto, di bellezza e fantasia.
E’ raro trovare luoghi simili in una città come Milano. Luoghi ai confini.
Alcuni temi molto interessanti sono emersi dalle proposte, dalle idee e dalle gesta degli
studenti che per quindici giorni hanno vissuto al/vissuto il Paolo Pini. Voglio provare a
estrapolare alcuni di questi temi, in modo forse disordinato ma utile per rendere un’idea di
quanto è stato prodotto con il workshop.
Tra i lavori del workshop una ampia parte è stata dedicata alla scoperta dell’area, intesa
come luogo fisico e luogo dove interagiscono più attori. L’approccio alla progettazione è stato
influenzato dalla trasmissione della esperienza di ri-appropriazione processuale degli spazi
condotta negli anni scorsi dalla associazione Olinda
e dalle modalità con cui sono stato
utilizzato il concetto di interrelazione tra “spacing e timing”, ovvero il rispetto delle
vocazioni e dei tempi propri di ciascun soggetto coinvolto nel processo. Un approccio che se
applicato alla pianificazione rimanda alla definizione e alla costruzione di politiche di
intervento che accolgono la complessità dei processi di trasformazione urbana e che mira alla
costruzione incrementale di azioni integrate. Tale orientamento ha portato in questo periodo
di lavoro intenso e concentrato a produrre non tanto “progetti” in senso tradizionale, quanto
2
Corinna
Morandi
Architettura
Hamburg;
supporto
e
Michael
di:
e
Massimo
Pianificazione
Mellauner,
Commissione
Bricocoli
del
BOKU
europea,
con
Politecnico
Wien;
Ufficio
Diego
di
Bianchi,
Dipartimento
Milano;Ingrid
Rudolf
Poledna,
Socrates/Erasmus
Breckner,
UBB
del
Cluj.
di
TUHH
Con
il
Politecnico
di
Milano. In collaborazione con: Olinda ngo, Provincia di Milano, Comune di Milano,
Azienda Ospedaliera “Ospedale Niguarda Ca’ Granda”.
46
suggestioni e proposte utili a stimolare il confronto sugli scenari di nuovi usi dell’area,
lasciando delle “tracce” utili per lo sviluppo futuro dei alcune idee.
La sintesi che segue riguarda il lavoro di ciascuno dei quattro gruppi internazionali e
interdisciplinari, identificato con il nome dato al “progetto”.
1. Conquista il muro.
Innanzitutto alcune domande: quali sono i confini nel territorio del Paolo Pini e come
possiamo superarli? Come si possono collegare le zone vicine e come integrarle? Con quali
funzioni? Come può cambiare l’identità del luogo? Chi sono gli attori del processo di
cambiamento e quali interessi portano?
Il prodotto è rappresentato da un lavoro sui bordi dell’area e sulle loro funzioni, con alcune
indicazioni per le connessioni con l’esterno e alcune proposte per usi futuri.
Le analisi funzionali e qualitative mettono in evidenza la attuale frammistione di usi
dell’area, la struttura fondiaria, la qualità del sistema del verde e la quantità di spazi da
rifunzionalizzare. Una questione di fondo è rappresentata dalla scelta di orientarsi su
proposte sostenibili rispetto alla situazione e gestione attuale, con l’importante ruolo di
Olinda e delle strutture sanitarie, e l’obiettivo di sostenere il reinserimento di persone con
problemi psichici. I destinatari delle proposte di utilizzo dell’area sono allora sia le persone
che già oggi vivono parte del loro tempo al Pini ma anche studenti che potranno trovarvi
un’abitazione (temporanea), abitanti del quartiere che potranno trovare nell’area servizi
culturali e ricreativi, fino ai residenti dell’ area metropolitana (o più) nel caso di eventi di
grande risonanza.
Nuovi ingressi all’area ed il riuso di alcuni ingressi già esistenti ma sottoutilizzati permettono
di “aprire” i bordi dell’area, anche con percorsi ciclo-pedonali che raggiungeranno la nuova
stazione della metropolitana di Affori e il quartiere Comasina.
Il muro potrà divenire un oggetto con cui poter “giocare” per aprire varchi visivi sugli spazi
interni dalla strada o dal marciapiede (trasparenze) ed elemento percettivo di continuità fra
esterno ed interno.
Una nuova funzione è proposta per l’edificio posto più ad ovest, dietro all’ex mensa (per cui
si sta studiando una possibilità di riutilizzo per un teatro): un edificio multifunzionale che
ospita una student-house a costi contenuti.
47
2. Matrix Revolution.
Progettare nell’area del Paolo Pini significa anche pensare a cosa essa rappresenta oggi
nell’immaginario collettivo e nella pratica di chi già li utilizza, perché l’approccio “timing
and spacing” alla progettazione comporta non uno stravolgimento dello spazio ma una sua
lenta evoluzione nel rispetto degli usi attuali. Quindi l’incontro sul campo con gli attori che
vivono il Paolo Pini serve a comprendere almeno in parte quali siano queste differenti
percezioni.
Con una metodologia di analisi sociologica il gruppo, attraverso l’osservazione partecipata, è
arrivato a riconoscere sei gruppi differenti di utilizzatori del Pini, che esprimono variegate
modalità di fruizione degli spazi. Queste visioni dello spazio mettono in evidenza almeno
quattro elementi di interesse: il parco, la struttura sanitaria, il bar ristorante, l’oratorio. Gli
utilizzatori (Paguri, Proiettili, Ragni, Gatti Randagi, Corrieri e Chiocce) vivono lo stesso spazio
in modi anche molto differenti: sta ad una corretta gestione degli spazi prevenire eventuali
conflitti? Quali sinergie sono attivabili tra questi modi, diversi e particolari per ogni categoria,
di vivere gli spazi? Quali sono le borderlines su cui agire?
La matrice dei comportamenti dei diversi attori può essere sovrapposta ad ogni tipo di
intervento che si pensa possa essere intrapreso. Per esempio, potenziare il sistema del verde
dell’ex Paolo Pini dal punto di vista delle attività ricreative significa confrontarsi
direttamente con i pattern o le abitudini di spostamento e di consumo culturale attuale dei
singoli gruppi all’interno dell’area.
48
3. Memoria, passato, presente e futuro.
Le suggestioni che l’area trasmette sono raccontate attraverso la fotografia e la ricerca di
alcune parole chiave che attraversano il passato, il presente ed il futuro. “Paura, Isolamento,
Cittadella, Tempo, Unità, Sconosciuto, Oppressione, Alienazione, Stigma, Potere, Pazzia,
Barriere, Persecuzione, Controllo, Gerarchia. Passato. Cure, Persone, Cambiamenti, Parco,
Integrazione, Frattali, Nuovo, Aperto, Memoria, Hub, Antico, Sospettoso, Caos, Olinda, Ruolo.
Presente. Processo, Metropolitana, Attivo, Design, Vicinato, Permeabilità, Menti, Discorsi,
Attività, Comunicazione, Milano, Vivida, Influenza, Speranza. (...)”. Attraversare queste
parole ci restituisce l’interpretazione del luogo e degli attori che lo vivono.
L’immagine del “passato” è quella degli spazi confinati: di qui le donne e di là gli uomini, di
qui i normali e di là i malati….
L’interpretazione spaziale del “presente” rimanda ad uno spazio frattale, dove differenti usi
occupano punti diversi dell’area.
Il progetto (il “futuro”) propone di pensare all’area nel suo complesso in connessione con ciò
che è limitrofo e di avviare un processo di valorizzazione di singoli spazi di “potenziale
identità” individuati nella mappa. Vengono considerate come attività da insediare (nuove ed
esistenti)
attività sia quotidiane che occasionali, in grado di potenziare le relazioni tra
soggetti: il tracciato dei percorsi ciclo-pedonali si apre al quartiere Comasina, ai complessi
scolastici e all’area di verde pubblico attrezzato situata ad est. Un nuovo “cuore” da
ripensare viene individuato nella zona intermedia dell’area (sull’asse centrale del vecchio
comparto psichiatrico) che è all’incrocio - cioè sul confine - fra diverse zone già oggi dotate
di una propria identità, a cui si accede sia da semplici ingressi sia da
rappresentanza.
49
zone-filtro di
Per quanto riguarda gli attori, si riflette sull’importanza di mantenere viva nella
comunicazione la memoria del luogo, interpretandola come uno strumento per aprire una
città (il Pini) all’altra città (Milano) e viceversa. In questo quadro il ruolo di Olinda
diventerebbe quello di legittimare nuovi disegni dello spazio, perché portatrice della
memoria del luogo.
4. Città Germoglio.
L’osservazione porta ad evidenziare che l’area è di una bellezza rara e fascinosa per la
naturalità e per il senso di protezione che trasmette; che il Pini è come una città nella città e
che lo stesso nome Olinda richiama alla lettura delle Città Invisibili di Italo Calvino; che per la
comunicazione con l’esterno è necessario continuare a stabilire “ponti”, legami da cercare
con l’esterno; che il Pini è un luogo che ispira poesia e arte.
Per tutto questo, durante i giorni di workshop vengono ideate e realizzate due performance:
una scala è posta presso il muro di cinta davanti all’ostello di Olinda e si invitano i passanti a
salire su quella scala e a scoprire, tra stupore e constatazione, che cosa contiene quel muro;
una serie di indicazioni (cartelli, frecce) indicano una scorciatoia che attraversa
diagonalmente il Pini, guidando il visitatore dalla Comasina fino alla stazione di Affori
attraverso i tranquilli viali alberati.
Dal punto vista della trattazione della fisicità degli spazi e in previsione del fatto che la
piazza davanti alla chiesa assumerebbe una rinnovata importanza con la realizzazione
dell’hotel accanto al ristorante Jodok, essa diviene il luogo principale per cui riconfigurare la
scenografia, giocando con lo spazio, le luci, la vegetazione e nuovi usi possibili.
Infine per il ruolo di Olinda si prospetta un lavoro di networking basato su scelte di lungo
periodo e sull’assunzione di responsabilità reciproche con altri attori possibili, per poter
potenziare l’esistente (gli usi attuali dello spazio che già funzionano bene) e per poter
incrementare le capacità di scelta e di rischio rispetto a nuovi possibili usi.
50
ALCUNI TEMI EMERSI
Il rispetto per ciò che esiste, per la sperimentazione e l’innovazione nelle politiche e nei
srvizi per la salute mentale e per le finalità di Olinda:
-
L’utilizzo attivo ed eterogeneo di quest’area per iniziative di ampio respiro e
riconducibili alla promozione di una cultura e di politiche innovative per la salute mentale
fa del Pini un ambito di rilievo nazionale nel ibattito sul riuso delle strutture psichiatriche
e sulla promozione della salute mentale
-
In questo senso, l’esperienza dell’ex Pini è già ricca di un importante progetto
sociale, culturale, educativo e ricreativo che per molti versi legato all’empowerment di
Olinda, intesa come gruppo di persone (soci e volontari);
-
lo stile di Olinda (spacing and timing) inteso come modalità incrementale di
rispetto delle preesistenze sociali su un dato territorio potrebbe utilmente “influenzare” lo
stile delle azioni e di progetti per l’area.
L’attivazione di una rete di portatori di interessi e proposte per l’area:
-
ad un livello istituzionale, politico e tecnico appare necessario trovare intese e
sinergie fra gestori e proprietari circa il futuro dell’area, attraverso la proposte di
istituzione di un tavolo di confronto e di lavoro;
-
le proposte andranno valutate sulla effettiva capacità di attivare processi di
empowerment di vari soggetti locali: chi si occupa delle strutture sanitarie, chi lavora per
Olinda, chi partecipa alle attività del quartiere Comasina, gli operatori delle scuole e delle
associazioni.
51
-
è importante consolidare e rendere praticabili i progetti e i potenziali già evideni
nell’area attraverso la ricerca di occasioni per l’attivazione di risorse economiche e
investimenti pubblici e privati.
L’importanza dell’area per il valore paesaggistico che incorpora:
-
qualità ambientale e botanica di un’area verde protetta, silenziosa e suggestiva nel
cuore della metropoli milanese;
-
possibilità per l’area di entrare a far parte di una rete di zone a verde di scala
metropolitana anche perchè esternamente all’area dell’ex-ospedale sono presenti altre
aree vincolate a standard urbanistico;
-
il muro ed i suoi varchi sono un elemento di soglia - visiva, psicologica, sociale,
funzionale, ambientale, ecologica architettonica -
tra l’interno e l’esterno che fanno
parte dell’identità dell’area e che attribuiscono all’area una qualità rara in città;
L’area costituisce un importante punto di riferimento per la cultura giovanile e potrebbe
costituirsi come un luogo d’offerta culturale sempre più articolata:
-
gli edifici e gli spazi aperti dell’area potranno ospitare nuove funzioni urbane come
una struttura per residenze temporanee (per studenti o nella forma di una struttura del
tipo ostello), un teatro, un hotel, centri di aggregazione e spazi multifunzionali coerenti
con un’ipotesi di utilizzo “low-cost”, senza prevedere l’espulsione delle funzioni sanitarie;
-
la presenza di complessi scolastici professionali provinciali (agraria e turismo)
costituisce già un’ ottima opportunità per poter attivare sinergie;
-
il contesto periferico rispetto al cuore dei servizi per i giovani milanesi suggerisce
l’opportunità di iniziare a pensare ad utilizzare l’area per i giovani che abitano in questa
parte di città, continuando a sperimentare un’offerta di spazi per attività a largo richiamo
(cittadino e metropolitano), come i concerti o le manifestazioni culturali.
52
Milano, October 2004
53

Intensive Programme Borderlines in urban spaces and planning

Transcript

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