Designing the City of Poor

Starting from the specific case of a marginalised neighbourhood in the Milanese metropolitan suburbs, the paper focuses on the origins and causes, evolution and prospects of the marginalisation processes that lead to the spontaneous formation of multi-ethnic communities characterised by a high concentration of cultural, economic and legal status fragilities. The research conducted in the Satellite Town of Pioltello has been selected and awarded by the Polytechnic of Milan as part of the Polisocial Award programme. It aims to investigate the peculiar nature of the place mentioned above and to propose relevant strategies and actions to regenerate this compromised place of the Milanese metropolitan suburbs. The project ‘M.O.S.T. of Pioltello – Migration Over the Satellite Town of Pioltello’ has promoted educational empowerment through playing and the design of urban spaces; professional training and job placement of young immigrants; the activation of micro-economies based on the refurbishment of housing stocks; the triggering of widespread maintenance processes. The final objective concerns the experimental definition of an integrated intervention programme encompassing urban policies and design strategies transferable to several other places, similar to the one investigated in Pioltello. The project's outcomes, regarding the investigation and the proposal of relevant programs for retrofitting housing stocks and suitable public spaces for a local multicultural society, are presented in the book ‘Un quartiere mondo. Abitare e progettare il Satellite di Pioltello’, edited by Andrea Di Giovanni and Jacopo Leveratto.