Boscoincittà: nature, agriculture, spaces of freedom. Dialogue with Silvio Anderloni about the construction of a peri-urban park

Boscoincittà is a wide public park in north-west of Milan, not far from San Siro and Gallaratese districts and the areas of Figino, Quinto Romano and Quarto Cagnino. Located within the borders of Milan’s southern Agricultural Park (Parco Agricolo Sud) – the large agricultural park running around the southern perimeter of the metropolis – Boscoincittà is one of its northernmost points and is part of a peri-urban area made up of social housing districts, unbuilt spaces, settlement of diffused urbanisation, important infrastructural elements, and agricultural wedges. In 2014 Boscoincittà celebrated 40 years since its foundation: this contribution intends to summarize the innovative experience of the Bosco based on the direct report by Silvio Anderloni, current director of the CFU – Centro di Forestazione Urbana of Italia Nostra and one of the main players behind the project. From the very moment of its foundation in 1974, Boscoincittà has represented an innovative space of planning and construction: thanks to its underlying concept of public park (not a “park” but a “wood”); the methods used and the context in which the project was defined, and finally as a precursor experience of a public property's agreement of management between administration, a no-profit association and the local inhabitants.