Two visions for the future of Corvetto
After the spatial survey that we have conducted in the first two weeks, we have developed two visions for the intervention of tactical urbanism in Piazzale Corvetto, taking into account all the insights about opportunities and issues that we have discovered thanks to the spatial and the community analysis.
The first vision is a reinterpretation of the ideas of Giacomo, our main proponent, while the second one is based on our considerations about the neighborhood.
The starting point for our concept development has been to re-elaborate all the information of the spatial survey in a critic way, underlying the opportunities and issues that we have discovered about the square and the neighborhood in general and trying to translate them in possible spatial solutions and activities for the community.
Giacomo, the owner of the kiosk in the square and the main proponent of the intervention, has given to us a lot of pieces of information about the main problems of the area in term of circulation and space, without his help it was impossible to understand completely the situation since, due to the actual conditions, it was impossible for us to do a walk-through.
Thanks to him, we have defined the three main spatial problems that we need to solve in both the two visions of the interventions.
First of all, the pedestrian flow on one side of Viale Martini is hindered by the presence of a big and ugly car parking, that also the municipality would remove. Since the pedestrian crossing is at the end of the parking, people are not encouraged to use it and they always cross the street risking their life. So, our first decision has been to relocate these parking lots in a secondary street near the gas station, because it’s an almost “private” street used just by residents. We have decided to change this double-ways street in an alternate one-way street; in this way, we can provide the same number of parking lots, but leaving free an important space for the flow of pedestrians. The second problem is the bicycle parking in the square: it is too long (more or less 23 meters) and in the middle between the kiosks and two market stalls, the street vendors said that it has reduced the pedestrian traffic and consequentially their incomes. For these reasons, we would like to interrupt the ranks of the bicycle in the middle, removing three of them. The third problem is regarding Via Polesine, the street in front of a primary school. There is a pedestrian crossing with a traffic light, but they are not near the entrance of the school. When the light goes green, the drivers speed-up exactly in front of the school. The possible solution that we have proposed is to create a “zone 30”, to make drivers aware of the proximity of the school.
The first vision is based on the conversations with Giacomo, on his ideas and the needs of other street vendors. We have discovered that two street food stalls are not permanent, because the space in the sidewalks of the square is not enough for all of them. During the day, there are always the market stalls with clothes and shoes and so the street food stalls are open just in the evening. Removing the parking lots on the other side, it is possible not only to improve the pedestrian paths but also to give to the owners a permanent space for their activities and to add some tables where people can meet and eat together. In addition, the owners could become an active part of the project, providing surveillance against illegal activities and taking care of the new urban furniture of the area.
On the other side, Giacomo would like to use the long railing of the school’s garden as a “book-shelf” for the bookcrossing’s activity, that is already successful in his kiosk. We were not convinced at all that this was a good solution, because this initiative doesn’t need a lot of space to be implemented. We have tried to ask people, through the survey, their opinion and we have understood that even it’s an interesting activity, most of them doesn’t feel so involved in it. So, we have discussed with Giacomo and together we have decided to think about the creation of a “Wall of Kindness”, where people could leave and take any kind of objects, also books.
With these interventions, but also with the creation of a place where to sit while waiting for the buses (waiting time is longer than the average time in Milan because they aren’t important buses), he would like to transform this high traffic area in a place where to have rest and to observe the surroundings, allowing people to discover the potentialities and the beauty of Piazzale Corvetto, that he already see from his kiosk every day.
Regarding the second proposal, we focused on a different topic. The idea came to us by carrying out an analysis of the site: at this stage we came into contact with a small group of cohesive and very active people, always committed to promoting new initiatives, but we were unable to reach anyone who was outside of this network. We have therefore found that, in the same way, this network is unable to develop proposals that involve all the targets of people in the area and all social classes.
Consequently, we struggled to develop a solution that was for everyone and in the same way that supported the associations operating in the area to help them better understand who the inhabitants of Corvetto are and what their opinions and needs are. It is a sort of “open laboratory” where anyone is called to express themselves.
It was planned to include an area dedicated to meetings, areas for artistic and musical expression and a sort of widespread demographic survey, the idea is to use street furniture as a support and to ask simple multiple-choice questions so that passersby can indicate their thoughts using a sticker or other tools yet to be defined.
Our intervention would be only a starting point and the neighborhood would complete the work in a way that we cannot foresee. Going into detail, we would first of all want to make the same improvements mentioned in the previous proposal such as the zone 30 in front of the school, moving the parking lots, opening the gap in the middle of the bicycles and creating a pedestrian area.
All the benches in the area, both existing ones and those added by us, would serve as support for the demographic survey mentioned above. In front of the school we plan to place blackboards to allow children to express themselves by playing. On one side of viale Martini, the same where Giacomo’s kiosk is, we would like to create an “intercultural wall” on which people have the space to represent themselves, a real wall of faces in order to get to know the community of Corvetto.
In front of this wall there would be a workshop area with a large table available for everyone and for any need. We imagine the other side of the road pedestrian with an enlargement in the north, near the petrol station with an area for meetings and unusual musical instruments that would be stationary and for everyone.
We thought about music because we read that there are a lot of rappers in Corvetto and we dedicated to it the same space that we dedicated to meetings because when we attended a “Rete Corvetto” (Corvetto Network) meeting we saw that in the end many of the participants brought out the own musical instruments and played them for others.
As you can guess from the design strategy, our intent with this proposal is to avoid imposing an intervention on this community without knowing it fully.
Rather, we prefer to give voice to the community itself by providing them with tools and supports to enrich the neighborhood with their own thoughts and opinions, we give importance to the individual without neglecting the important topic of aggregation and society.
