La “strada vitale” di Piero Bottoni. Un omaggio del razionalismo all’insegnamento della città storica europea

This chapter is about the “vital street” as conceived by Piero Bottoni (1903-1973) in the mid-fifties for the Gallaratese neighbourhood in Milan: it is a significant project that represented a turning point in both the history of the Italian urban design and in Bottoni’s work. In fact, it was drawn up immediately after the approval of the 1953 Town Planning Scheme of Milan, that was a key tool not only for the cutting-edge process underlying its own definition – a contest of ideas open to citizens, the public debate at Castello Sforzesco, a way of designing including the most state-of-the-art cultural proposals in Milan – but also for its being the first Milanese Town Planning Scheme drawn up according to the Modern Movement’s standards. Yet, just after two years of its approval, Bottoni – who had been one of the main representatives of the Italian Rationalism and one of the stakeholders of that plan – apparently wanted to experience new approaches. The project for the Gallaratese neighbourhood was the first one to explicitly question many paradigms of Rationalism, related to both the district’s masterplan and its own spatiality. Bottoni was also critical about the choice of conceiving the Gallaratese’s as an independent neighbourhood separated from the existing urban fabric. He was critical about the architectural homogeneity of the social housing neighbourhoods developed in those years. He was also critical about the lack of social plurality. While dealing with this project, he seemed to have raised full awareness of two issues that are still affecting the social housing neighbourhoods developed in those years. That of the “ghetto” effect, if we can define it this way (brought about by the physical isolation and the high concentration, in a specific area, of people from low social classes) and that of urban monotony (determined by standardised architectural types and by a urban layout featuring rigid schemes without any variety). Through the “vital street” project Bottoni apparently intended to give up the orthodoxy of planning ideas, typical at that time, which were part of his language in other works. In fact, he referred to the long-term urban history and to the life of his own time town. He identified the public space featuring the urban social life more in the street – just in that rue corridor so much debated by Le Corbusier and his followers – than in the square. As a result, this project turns out to be a tribute to the street of the Italian and European historical town. As a matter of fact, the project did not apply even if the neighbourhood was really developed. Yet, his contributions of ideas can still be useful for reflections on the future of public space in contemporary cities.