A virtual immersion in Corvetto Neighbourhood
The virtual visit to Piazzale Corvetto started from La città intorno, a program by Fondazione Cariplo, that “aims to develop and improve the well-being and quality of life for the inhabitants of the neighbourhoods around the centre of Milan, by increasing cultural and creative initiatives” [1] and involving the local community.
One of the most important online sources that this program has developed, is Quaderno Corvetto-Chiaravalle, that has been useful for our spatial survey. In the general introduction, they present the Corvetto-Mazzini neighbourhood as a space full of contradictions, that “consists mainly of well-consolidated areas, but also of areas that are undergoing profound changes.” [2] This idea emerges also from the description of Piazzale Corvetto, our main area of intervention.
“The Corvetto metro station opens itself on a square that looks like a border puzzle, composed of silent spaces such as the parking lots, but also of more dynamic spaces such as the UPIM facades that make the sidewalk a crowded meeting point, the triangle attached to the school gardens, with its clothes stalls, the newsagent, the florist and the kiosk of Giacomo.” [2]
La città intorno, in collaboration with Labsus[3] and Rete Corvetto, a reality that connects the social actors of the territory, has developed many projects of tactical urbanism that clearly show how the Corvetto community is active and interested in improving social life in the neighbourhood.
One of these interventions is VerdeMompiani, in which the residents have been involved in the renovation of six flowerbeds on a street where there is also a public housing program administrated by ALER (the Lombard Institute for Residential Buildings).
During this intervention, one of the signatory inhabitants said something really interesting about the social structure of the neighbourhood [4]:
“In the 70s the street was a very liveable area, with a large social tissue. Nowadays, however, there are many difficulties in carrying out an intergenerational dialogue. In this sense, the program has been a useful tool: the care of the flowerbeds is a tool for an inter-generational re-engagement.”
Starting from this consideration, we have decided to analyze the demographical data of the neighbourhood, to understand which elements make up the Corvetto social tissue. We have found, according to the 2018 municipal registry data of the Lodi-Corvetto NIL (local identity unit)[5], that the percentage of foreigners citizens amongst the total residents is higher than in the rest of Milan (26% of foreigners, while amongst the total population of Milan the percentage is about 19%).
Then, using ISTAT data from the 2011 census [6], we have tried to understand the percentage of some social classes near the area of the intervention of Piazzale Corvetto. The most interesting aspect that emerges is that the biggest part of the working residents moves daily from their neighbourhood, using private or public transportation. If we consider also the number of workers that goes there to work, but also because there are many primary services in that zone, such as the post office, it is clear that Piazzale Corvetto represents a central node for pedestrian and automotive traffic flows.
These considerations have been confirmed by the survey[7] that we have developed (where many people said that the positive aspects of Piazzale Corvetto are the services and transportation) and by Giacomo Sarasso, the proponent of the tactical project we are working for and one of the most representative voices of Corvetto, who, during one of our video calls, said that:
“The square is an important hub. The subway and many buses arrive there, the station of Rogoredo is near, and also the one for bikes. This is a crossroad of various paths: people come here for work, go through the square to go home, and for the facilities. It is noticeable that around me there are people of many different cultures: Italian culture is not deeply represented in this area; it is kind of leaving room for cultures of other areas of the world. I’ve seen people from all over the world passing here.”
Giacomo is the owner of “Casa di Giacomo chiosco bar” in Piazzale Corvetto and the promoter of another famous intervention in the same place: “Azzaip! Questa non è una piazza”. This project has been important for the renovation of the square, as we have seen also from the survey where many people said that the most positive aspect in this space is the kiosk, but as Giacomo said:
“There is still a problem of equity. The initiative “Azzaip” taken here has remained limited: 100 m from here you would not feel anything of this. I think the square is not enough. This thought led to the idea of expanding the interventions made so far. Something beautiful is missing, a representation of beauty. A colleague once said to me that in the outskirts the inhabitants are so used to a lack of beauty that they base their life on its absence. We often lack the idea of sitting and look around in search of beauty.”
Giacomo introduced us to the reality of Rete Corvetto, an amazing group of people active in the neighbourhood. During a virtual meeting in which we have taken part, they were searching for Arabic speakers to translate an informative document about the COVID-19 and this is the proof of how they care about their neighbours. Unfortunately, it has been impossible due to the actual conditions to have a virtual meeting with foreigner residents, but some of them like the florist and the newsagent are interested in being an active part for the project.
The big non-EU social component could be partially explained by the big present in the territory of public housing, with all the social problems that sometimes derive from its as Francesco said in his contribution to “Storie Liquide. Archivio partecipato di Corvetto”, a project developed by Plurima association with the contribution of Milan Municipality.
That’s why in the spatial analysis, combining the pieces of information taken from ALER website, news and the document “Piano Milano 2030” [8], we have verified and underlined the presence of public housing. Using other open data from the Geoportal of Milan Municipality [9] and Google Satellite we have produced maps about the transport and the other services near the square, but also about the sidewalk, the pedestrian crossings and the parking lots to understand the area.
This kind of research has been useful, but inevitably it is not enough and it can’t replace an “on-site investigation”. Without the videos that Giacomo shared with us and the contribution of people, it was impossible to understand, for example, that one of the main problems is “the dangerous bus stop in Viale Martini, where there aren’t pedestrian crossings and people always cross the street risking their lives”, as someone said in the survey
Online sources have been an important tool for the research, but it wouldn’t have been possible without the all the contributions and suggestions of the people that we have met until now, that made us feel an active part of the community.
TEAM N°1
[1]https://lacittaintorno.fondazionecariplo.it/
[3]https://www.labsus.org/progetti/luoghicomuni-2/
[4]https://www.labsus.org/2019/04/mompiani-corvetto-la-via-di-milano-che-rinasce-grazie-agli-abitanti/
[5] The NILs are statistical units introduced to identify a set of areas, connected one by infrastructures, mobility services and open spaces that define the “neighbourhoods” of Milan.
[6] In the graphic elaboration made with QGIS, the census sections (the minimum territorial unit for aggregating the data that may vary in size in terms of spatial extent and of the resident population) has been used to highlight the spatial distribution phenomena of the various census variables analyzed, such as children from 5 to 9 years old, unemployed, and retired people.
https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/104317
[7] The survey has been developed using the Google Forms platform, the link has been shared during a virtual meeting of Rete Corvetto and published on: the Facebook page of Casa di Giacomo, the Facebook group “Social Street del quartiere Corvetto/Bonomelli, a Milano” and PoliMi groups
