Abstract
In the city of Milan, in Italy, complex processes of redefinition and rescaling of the urban agenda have been taking place for the last 15 years, reshaping the urban identity through a mix of social mobilization and innovation, private investments and public policies. Referring to this context, this chapter specifically analyses how processes of redefinition and rescaling of both urban planning tools and issues, and metropolitan government and governance, have been working with complex multi-scalar urban phenomena. Consequently, it reflects on how recent institutional rearrangements (beginning with the establishment of the new Milan Metropolitan City) are or are not able to face multi-scalar urban dynamics.
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Notes
- 1.
A the end of 2017, the Milan GDP is above the 2008 levels by +3.1%, whereas Italy is still under the 2008 levels by −4.5% (Assolombarda 2018).
- 2.
According to recent data, in the period 2012–2020, the Expo produced an added value for 13.9 billion € and an additional production for 31.6 billion €, together with 115,000 new jobs and 10,000 new firms (Dell’Acqua et al. 2016).
- 3.
That is, people who are more than 75 years old.
- 4.
That today extends to 18,100 ha and hosts 1,350,000 inhabitants (Source: ISTAT 2016).
- 5.
When the population of the Milan municipal area exceeded 1,700,000 inhabitants (Morandi 2007).
- 6.
This plan was very powerful from the ideological point of view, as it aimed (i) to decentralize new residential and business developments outside the municipal boundaries; (ii) to distribute extensively public facilities and areas for community services; (iii) to safeguard the industrial sites within the central city. However, it was not able to stop some of the ongoing socio-economic and spatial phenomena connected to the productive activities. The following industrial reconversion phase into offices and residential uses of small and large brownfields was handled outside the plan framework and was negotiated through a “case by case” procedure of variation to the zoning provision of the general plan.
- 7.
A group of rationalist architects as Albini, Bottoni, Gardella, Mucchi, Peressutti, Pucci, Rogers, Belgiojoso and Cerutti.
- 8.
Specifically, the National Urban Planning Act n°1150, approved in 1942.
- 9.
Today, the Centro Studi PIM is a voluntary association of local authorities placed in the Milan Metropolitan City and Monza-Brianza Province.
- 10.
Elaborated by Ludovico Belgioioso, Giuseppe Ciribini, Demetrio Costantino, Giancarlo De Carlo, Domenico Rodella, Gian Luigi Sala, Bernardo Secchi, Silvano Tintori and Alessandro Tutino.
- 11.
Elaborated by Marco Bacigalupo, Giacomo Corna Pellegrini and Giancarlo Mazzocchi.
- 12.
Developed after the institution of the Comprensori (promoted in 1975 by the Lombardy Regional Acts n°51 and 52).
- 13.
Planned in 1982 and gradually opened to service since 1997.
- 14.
Originally based on the Italian National Act n°179, approved in 1992.
- 15.
Such as Stefano Boeri, Zaha Hadid, Arata Isozaki, Daniel Libeskind, Cesar Pelli.
- 16.
The reference is to the Italian National Act n°142 (1990) and the Lombardy Regional Act n°12 (2005), which provided the Province Administrations with powers and competences also in terms of urban planning (such as, town planning coordination, new infrastructures, environment protection, ecological networks).
- 17.
That is, the Lombardy Regional Act n°12 (2005).
- 18.
The former Piano Regolatore Generale (PRG) is substituted by the new Piano di Governo del Territorio (PGT) that, in turn, is made by three documents: the Documento di Piano (a sort of structural plan), the Piano dei Servizi (a sort of public city plan) and the Piano delle Regole (a sort of ordinary management and regulation plan).
- 19.
From a right and neoliberal administration (Mayor Letizia Moratti), to a left and democratic administration (Mayor Giuliano Pisapia).
- 20.
Projects proposed during the event bid (2006–2007) and implemented after the event awarding (2008–2015), according to a specific Accordo di Programma (started in October 2008 and approved in July 2011), which both the Expo site and its post-event transformation in the new Milan Innovation District (MIND) refer to.
- 21.
Mayor Giuseppe Sala, former CEO of the Expo 2015 Spa management company.
- 22.
This new institution, that was established by the National Act n° 56 (2014), substituted the Provincial Administration of important Italian cities such as Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Reggio Calabria, Rome, Turin and Venice.
- 23.
Agile and efficient (open data, digital platform, online services, public administration reorganization); creative and innovative (university and research for productive innovation (fashion, design, media, chemical, pharmaceutical, mechanical), new technologies, sharing economy and society, incubators, start-ups, co-working spaces, fab-labs, post-Expo); attractive and world-oriented (city-gateway, city branding/marketing, airport system, quality of services); smart and sustainable (urban agriculture, urban food policy, metropolitan parks, Idroscalo, Parco Sud, Navigli, green and blue infrastructures, urban regeneration, energy efficiency, optic fibre); fast and connected (transport intermodality, integrated logistics, cycle network, vehicle sharing); cohesive and cooperative (associated management of services, social inclusion, social and temporary housing).
- 24.
For instance, concerning brownfield transformation, transport hub improvement, riverbank and canal renewal, existing territorial park enlargement; new territorial park and agricultural district development; green infrastructure implementation; urban district regeneration.
- 25.
That is, a new research centre promoted by the Italian National Government and coordinated by the Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) in cooperation with Politecnico di Milano, Università degli Studi di Milano and Università degli Studi di Milano Bicocca.
- 26.
Called “50 progetti per rilanciare il territorio. Far volare Milano per far volare l’Italia” (website: https://www.assolombarda.it/chi-siamo/le-assemblee/assemblea-generale-assolombarda-confindustria-milano-monza-e-brianza-2016/documentazione/il-piano-strategico-50-progetti-per-rilanciare-le-imprese-e-il-territorio).
- 27.
Website: https://fuorisalone.it/welcome/.
- 28.
Website: www.expoincitta.com.
- 29.
Website: www.e015.regione.lombardia.it.
- 30.
Website: http://www.milanosmartcity.org.
- 31.
Specifically, promoted by the Direzione di Progetto Innovazione Economica e Sostegno all’Impresa of the Milan Municipality.
- 32.
This statement also synthesizes findings of the Regional Studies Association (RSA) temporary research network on “Smart City-Regional Governance for Sustainability” (https://www.regionalstudies.org/networks/smart-city-regional-governance-for-sustainability/), whose edited book is now under development.
- 33.
That is, together with Milan, the vertexes of the twentieth century industrial triangle.
- 34.
The new high-speed railway lines Milan–Turin (partially opened in 2006 and completed in 2009), Milan-Bologna (opened in 2008), and Milan-Brescia (opened in 2016).
- 35.
See Paragraph 4.
- 36.
See Paragraph 4.
- 37.
Such as the IOC and the BIE.
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Di Vita, S. (2020). The Complexity of the Metropolitan Planning and Governance in Milan: The Unintentional Innovations of an Implicit Urban Agenda. In: Armondi, S., De Gregorio Hurtado, S. (eds) Foregrounding Urban Agendas. The Urban Book Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29073-3_13
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