Milan’s green raised park
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
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Project Description
We can improve Milan with a wire suspended on the city. The project of a raised little park within a bicycle path that connect some of the main point of the city and it allows the citizens to move by feet, bicycle, scooter or wheelchair with security, far away from the regional capital’s traffic, surrounded by nature.
Geographical Scope
Project Region
Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
EU Programme or fund
Which funds
Description of the project
Summary
Our project consists in bicycle path that is largely raised and that connect Gae Aulenti square with Sempione park and Pace Arc with City Life, some of the most important place of Milan. Seen the intensive citizen traffic and lack of space on the road level for a pedestrian and bicycle area we thought to design a raised route that can estrange citizens from the traffic. The path has been designed not to hinder the circulation where it rests on the ground and also to be very sustainable. All the project indeed will be totally autonomous from an energetic point of view because it produces all the energy that it spends through some specific solutions and implants. Furthermore all the path will be surrounded by nature indeed we thought about a real raised park for the physical and also mental welfare of the citizens because they can detach from the city’s frenzy while they are crossing it; this way we hope that people will be tempted to use it more and to use less their car this way the environment will decrease.
As we have already said this high line is available from all the citizens, also for people with some disabilities because there will be ramps and elevators.
Our project is designed for Milan but is easily replicable and adaptable to the most different context.
Key objectives for sustainability
The concept of sustainable is the base of our project indeed it started from a research on sustainability in cities with which we discovered that Copenaghen is one of the most sustainable European capitals and one of the reasons is the passage from use car to use bicycle or electric vehicles for most of the movement; this is why we designed this project to do this also in chaotic city as Milan. As we have already said, it will be autonomous from an energetic point of view because it will produce hits own energy. There will be two main implants that will produce energy:
- For all the path and over every canopy there will be photovoltaic panels that will produce energy.
- The second one, maybe the most important, is an implant of specific floor tiles that can produce energy. We want to make all the floor of the path with Veranu’s tiles, an Italian start up, these particular tiles produce energy with pressure so they use the weight of people that trample them. One tile measures 30x30x4 cm and can produce less or more 2W of energy with one step, so are enough 20 steps to illuminate one LED street lamp; these tiles are can be installed out door and they shoot down the production of Co2 because they are made mainly of recycled materials. This way we also hope that people will understand that everybody can contribute and that everything count.
The energy produced this way will be utilised for the path’s illumination, to recharge electric bicycle and scooter that will be introduced near the access ramps, this way people will undertake a sustainable life stile but without too much effort, the energy will be used also to recharge phon or personal devices through some power outlets that will be put under the benches
We thought about it as little park so for all the route there will be a lot of green areas and flower bends to create a little green lung for the city and also to isolate a little bit the bicycle lane from the city’s traffic.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
We know that our project is visually incisive, that it is very showy in the context of the city, so we thought about an industrial stile that can match the stile of the area of the city where the bicycle path will be, but it is still to be precisely defined every sigle part of it.
We think that our project could positively effect in the city’s aspect making it more modern bringing freshness with its green.
Beyond the aesthetic that tha path has seen from outside of course there is an aesthetic aspect also from inside indeed if you are walk through this park it changes completely the look of the city because you see it from an other point of view and filtered by the plants, so it elevate the quality of citizens walk because it is not the same walk in the middle of traffic or surrounded by nature.
Key objectives for inclusion
This raised park could unite all the citizens of Milan because everybody can use it.
We thought about the more different needs of the community:
- we could think about kids, about family that could have problems moving around the city by feet or with bicycle with kids in the absence of sidewalks in some drawn, instead on raised path kids can go around quietly without the risk of the street.
- a big advantage could find all the people with wheelchair or mums with strollers that could have problems moving around on the little and disconnected sidewalks and for the absence of ramps near crossings. All along the route there will be ramps and lifts where there will be stairs so it will be easily reachable by everybody.
- an other category about we thought of are the bellhop that lately are multiplying and that move through the busy street, they will be able to move through the city quickly and safely
We thought of closing the park at night so it will not become an ill-famed area, we could use the same hours of the underground.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
Long story short, for all the reasons that we indicate before, this project encloses perfectly all these three dimensions because it’s a sustainable project, both for its energy self-sufficiency and nature contact, an aesthetically incisive project and it is useful and usable from the all Milan’s community.
