Bioloop: Empowering Peri-Urban Communities in Circular Solutions for Resilient and Participatory Economies

In the last few decades, global rapid urbanization has led to the concentration of inequalities in cities. Peri-urban areas have emerged as marginalized contests characterized by urban sprawl, fragmented green spaces, and increasing socio-economic disparities. Every year, through the Polisocial Award, the program of social responsibility of the Politecnico di Milano, projects that have positive effects on the territories are supported. For the 2023, the theme is “reactivation of territories and overcoming social disparities,” and Bioloop is one of the selected projects. The aim of project is the implementation of circular economy at local scale. The objective is a strategy for the reactivation of territories, starting from analyzing local material flow, creating structures for urban cultivation, and functional strategies for producing, transforming, and distributing food to vulnerable populations. This type of approach derives from the indications of the NextGenerationEU, which alongside the challenges of ensuring a sustainable transition, asks to reconcile growth with equity to reduce inequalities and foster widespread development. Bioloop takes place in the southern peri-urban area of Milan, in the Corvetto-Chiaravalle district, characterized by the presence of low-quality infrastructure and old public housing, inhabited by people with notable social and cultural heterogeneity; and by the presence of the Parco Agricolo Sud that merges city and countryside. These two characteristics allow Bioloop to involve the vulnerable population and to experiment with urban agriculture. The main results of Bioloop are the “Local Atlas of materials and energy flows” and the “PeriUrban Eco-Social Material Library.” These tools are useful for mapping local resources and to support the self-production of structures and goods. The project is currently ongoing and will end in 2025, therefore what will be described and presented is related to the start-up phase of the project and presents results that will be confirmed in the final phase.