Il Patrimonio culturale, motore della rigenerazione urbana

Tackling the waste of urban growth and social inequalities represents the keystone of sustainability focused on an integrated public strategy of environmental regeneration and social, economic, and cultural enhancement. The article targets the potential of cultural heritage as the driving force of regeneration through two actions: pursuing a transitory and incremental approach to urban regeneration and using the industrial building heritage as a time machine; reusing the cultural heritage with resilience capacity as a strategic driver for the regeneration of the contemporary city. How? Opening impassable fences (railway yards as well as old factories), with a dual purpose: reveal places of memory to the communities; test possible long-lasting uses giving centrality to welfare spaces. Moving from the prescription of abstract destinations to possible uses concerning contemporary lifestyles. Rediscovering the qualities of transience and the procedural forms of adaptability to changes. Industrial building heritage, which represents the history and characters of old factories, is configured as time machines, opportunities for resilient urban regeneration. An Italian case study (the Scalo Farini of Milan), is configured as a representative example of this approach, which promotes cultural activities as extraordinary potential for social and environmental revitalization of the suburbs of the contemporary city.