In the current crisis of paradigms taken for granted, the peri-urban fabric represents the territory of rebirth, overcoming the globalizing and unifying vision to make room for a multiform logic capable of taking into account the diverse needs of the "peoples" who inhabit our everyday life. The constant and historical Human/Nature opposition loses its place in favor of a vision that takes into account what we thought was inert: in Gaia, the totality of these beings, finds its name.
Local
Italy
Milan
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Micorrize, hence the name of the architectural project included within "ignored realm" research, represents a symbiotic association at root level between a fungus, called a mycelium, and a higher plant. This bond, which is structured in considerable extension by expanding the roots in length, allows for a changing exchange of nutrients and creates a unicum between the plants that make up this relationship.
Just as it works at the root level, so the project allows for the communication of the different realities that animate this place, recalling in spatial terms the logic of composition of the Forlanini Area: an enclosure that contains a cosmic territory, capable of including humans and nature, sacred and technological. In fact, the project is an enclosure; it includes within itself a vision of a world that takes into consideration the different species that will come here to claim their own ground, to put their flag as man did on the moon.
It is a church: if man has lived under a constant self-celebration of himself, until he reached the status of God capable of shaping the world around him under a vision that revolved around his own and only interests, today the space of the altar is to be shared: no longer a higher entity, but a multi-species compound system.
It is a parliament, where all the delegations and representatives of the different states (not meant as a nation-state, but rather as a territory, group, and membership) come to meet, where everyone has their own space to speak and to expose themselves. Where wars and peace are born, where alliances and clashes are created. A territory of everyone and no one, a no-man's-land where there is no supreme state to run it.
Micorrize also represents a temple, a fortress, a space placed to guard a character, the rural one, that experiences a situation of fragility within the city's peri-urban fabric. A hymn, an exaltation to this unprecedented co-presence, capable of igniting interest in the themes addressed
Multispecies
Chthulucene
Countryside
City
Public space
From the outside, the enclosure appears as a continuous wall of expanded clay, a material made from the soil over which it sits and which allows vegetation to grow, beyond which it is possible to discern longliner elements that punctuate the gaze.
This alternation of structures metal recalls the presence of the former gasometer, a background figure of the place, and its characteristic formal layout that represents the industrial nature of the territory.
In fact, the appearance that the project takes on is the result of a derivation formal and material elements that distinguish the territory within which is inserted: the semicircular shape that characterizes the ground plan, to represent a form of a sacral mold, is a clear reference to the historic apse from the 1100s that was part of the Cascina Sant'Ambrogio farmstead complex, still under restoration and an element of absolute artistic value.
In addition to this, the semicircle recalls the elevation of the structures serving the surrounding sports fields and greenhouses, as well as representing the floor plan of the Canavese district heating plant.
The project is a garden, overturning the concept of enclosed space subjected to domestication in opposition to another wild - "amoenus" versus "horridus" - an ideal forest that echoes in conceptual terms the thought behind the construction, by architect-landscape architect Gilles Clément, of Derborence Island.
The project takes on value in the local context, reasoning about the characters of the place in which it is embedded in and confronts.
The presence of this element architectural, anti-garden eco-symbolic catapulted within the territory, is given to become an element capable of assume the generating function of space.
Thus, like churches, museums, libraries, and stadiums, Micorrize fits within this fabric by representing a point of reference for the community.
Intended the project as a space to service of all animal and plants, the human component does not have a prevaricating force to the others, but its presence is inserted within a predetermined time frame.
The natural palimpsest analyzes and takes into consideration all species that inhabit the context, thus delineating a window time frame that coincides with the involation of young birds and the harvesting summer hay harvest. This period turns out to be suitable for the use, by human being, of the space of the project.
This time frame is identified as a festival that recalls harvest traditions: at the conclusion of it begin rituals that celebrate the relationship of man with nature.
Micorrize, as well as the island Derborence designed by Gilles Clément, represents a place of coexistence between man and nature, between associations that operate on the territory and animals that inhabit it.
All the components of the context are analyzed here, highlighting the peculiar characters that identify each of them.
The project then becomes a planetary garden, capable of accommodate the different species and different rituals, becoming a reference point for the complexity of the place.
It is necessary to consider the rich biodiversity of the place, given by the presence of different animal species, generating a place that celebrates it.
Mycorrhizae becomes a space capable of accommodating the presence of these different species, for which permanence is guaranteed by the possibility of having subdivided spaces.
Within the project there is in fact a system of nesting spaces for avifauna that manages to accommodate the species that will be allocated.
For other species, mammals and reptiles, there are instead entrances located at the lower ends of the project, which provide access, at ground level, to different covered spaces.
The central space, on the other hand, basin containing soil, represents a place where uncontrolled native plants of which the various avian species will allow planting through the fruits and vegetables eaten and digested.
The presence of punctual perches developed in height, which refers to the formal imagery of the nearby gasometer, allows the permanence of the birds.
Instead, the central space becomes fertile ground for the plants, which will emerge thanks the work of the animals that here will transit.
The project then becomes an enclosure capable of containing within within itself a microcosm self-managed, in which nature is self-regulates according to the seasons and different situations.
The trees that will thus come to grow within the space will themselves become tools capable of protecting and attract new species.
Analyzed the importance that the festivities play within the context, Micorrize becomes an element to support different activities that can be established here and celebrate.
These starting with the educational, which finds wide scope in the neighborhood, given the presence of the kindergarten service parental offered by the association CasciNet and the activities that are carried out in connection with the various institutions in the neighborhood.
Ambito Forlanini becomes an area to be discovered from a naturalistic point of view, for this reason it attracts different school activities that are carried out here for the study of different flora and fauna species: examples are the activities that the Liceo Artistico Brera of Milan carries out for the macroscopic analysis of natural varieties present.
The project thus becomes an open-air classroom, a space for meeting and discussion that can be exploited by the community for educational activities.
The sports component represents an additional ritual that is widely practiced and present.
Indeed, several sporting events such as tournaments or other competitions are organized during the quarterly festivities.
Micorrize can become a space to support the realities that operate in this field, becoming a playground adaptable to different types of sports.
To conclude, ceremonies are accompanied by parties celebrating anniversaries.
Micorrize, with the internal presence of support spaces for musical equipment and amplifiers, thus becomes a stage at the service of the collectivity that can be express.
The intention with this project was to work with the various associations present in the context of Ambito Forlanini, placing the project within a vision of Cosmic Feast, recalling the concept of bringing together all the realities that make up the territory, acting on the concept of celebration declined under different areas of implementation, representing it one of the images par excellence of socialization and knowledge. Analyzed the importance that the festivities play within the context, Micorrize becomes an element to support different activities that can be established here and celebrate.
These starting with the educational, which finds wide scope in the neighborhood, given the presence of the kindergarten service parental offered by the association CasciNet and the activities that are carried out in connection with the various institutions in the neighborhood.
Ambito Forlanini becomes an area to be discovered from a naturalistic point of view, for this reason it attracts different school activities that are carried out here for the study of different flora and fauna species: examples are the activities that the Liceo Artistico Brera of Milan carries out for the macroscopic analysis of natural varieties present.
The project thus becomes an open-air classroom, a space for meeting and discussion that can be exploited by the community for educational activities.
The sports component represents an additional ritual that is widely practiced and present.
Indeed, several sporting events such as tournaments or other competitions are organized during the quarterly festivities.
Micorrize can become a space to support the realities that operate in this field, becoming a playground adaptable to different types of sports.
To conclude, ceremonies are accompanied by parties celebrating anniversaries.
Micorrize, with the internal presence of support spaces for musical equipment and amplifiers, thus becomes a stage at the service of the collectivity that can be ex
We live today in a historical period where insecurity permeates our lives: urban-centric logic has led us to lose contact with and disregard what we used to call Nature: we thought the world was a territory to be discovered, a perennial America to be exploited and served as our only diners; today we wonder how it is possible that it comes to demand reparations for a war we did not know we were fighting.
The uncertainty born of this time reigns as much in our daily lives as in the spaces of our cities. In the same way that we thought globalization would lead us all to be the same, we discover that we are more diverse than ever.
In addition to this social condition, globalizing thought theorized a common post-Fordist vision according to which cities would expand, spreading like water droplets as one moved away from the center, preserving in them a condition of complete homogeneity. Today, this utopia is not fulfilled: the suburbs take on the connotations of heterogeneous territories, a mix of fabrics of different origins: industrial, agricultural, residential.
We recognize in these economic dynamics the source of our insecurity, so why not leave aside the common name Anthropocene, daughter of a thought that sees in the homogenized Human Being and elevated to divinity the sole cause of our malaises, and take on the definition of Capitalocene?
To dismantle this concept, different fields of research were brought together, such as the investigations made by Bruno Latour and Donna Haraway, who investigate and analyze the condition of current capitalocentrism.
Andrea Branzi's vision of cosmic hospitality was also related to the study operated by Pierre Donadieu of agricultural landscapes in relation to the city context.
The production of this research and concept is an analysis of these several fields that cooperated to bring this project to life.
Micorrize represents a SF, Speculative Fabula, which will certainly find feedback and interest from a section of the population, but there will certainly be questions as to whether this device will be enough to resolve the issues of such a complex situation.
Micorrize as we have seen makes it possible to stay in touch with the problem, an operation that is of fundamental importance in this period of absolute uncertainty and hesitancy.
While it is true that to implement an overcoming of the economic system that has led us into the belly of the Capitalocene shark, this must be untied mano by hand into its components, then the project will involve several steps that will allow us to find a leader to the untied skein.
This project only represents a step within the long path to enter in Chthulucene era, of which the first step to be taken, overcoming this stumbling block economic hurdle that the Capitalocene leaves before us, turns out to be the one related to overcoming in the towards the historical antagonism cognitive between man and nature, in this case interpreted as city and countryside.
In the periphery considered "waste" of the city, an otherwise unobtainable co-presence arises, both on a social level, between different classes and origins that come to mingle, and in spatial terms: industrial fabrics that come to co-exist and con-dist with agricultural ones.
From discarded spaces to new centers of sociality, capable of being recognized by the community in their value through the sharing of allegories and cosmogonies that allow, through rituals of appropriation, for this territory to become habitable.
These elaborations transform the agricultural territory under a common perception of an asset to be attached to.
We have seen how architecture represents a conduit element that enables similar cognitive processes, capable of providing recognizable elements within of unexplored territories.
Micorrize represents a space of encounter between man and nature, between urban and rural: it becomes an eco-symbol and ideological center capable of activating interest and discussion around biodiversity issues within a city context such as Milan, but not only.
Support for this discourse comes from the project's ability to embrace a dimensional scale that relates the nanometers of a transistor to the kilometers of the earth's circumference.
In fact, Micorrize, built with local and simple materials such clay and aluminum, performs its function as a Sensing Lab, a tool capable of storing information that can be related on a municipal, national, and global scale, relating to various indicators useful for monitoring the quality of the territory in which it is embedded and the fauna that surrounds it.
All the data collected, such as air quality, temperature, soil composition, analysis of weather and climate phenomena, etc. , will represent a systemic view of the conditions experienced by the place where the project is placed and consequently the possible variations in the relationship between urban and rural contexts.
The project fits within the OSLAB (Outdoor Sensing LAB) ecosystem, already present within the Sant'Ambrogio farmstead (CasciNet Association), as a structure on which several meteorological sensors are mounted and put in communication with a "base" through a radio data transmission system. The weather variables thus measured and collected are uploaded via the local network to a dedicated Internet server.
This ease of installation and expansion, combined with the possibility to consult the readings in an opensource manner, allows the creation of a system composed by numerous Sensing Labs distributed throughout the territory that analyze in an interconnected manner the current climate phenomena.
So, the replication of this concept allows for the construction of several public spaces that work also as displaced sensing labs that work together.
The current situation is tragic; Gaia comes to claim its presence within our lives. The capitalist vision that intoxicates our minds has led us over time to believe that we are the only being with the right to speak and make demands on species considered inert, without duties or rights.
Today this vision is being turned upside down: no longer a "nature" other-than-us, but rather a vision where multispecies bonds arise under a worldview, different from the culture/nature dichotomy, which in this case is reinterpreted through the urban/rural pair.
The need to create these multispecies links pushes us to the move beyond the Capitalocene to enter a new era, which finds its name in the Chthulucene.
The peri-urban dimension in this sense, a space that experiences a condition of uncertainty parallel and common to our feeling with respect to this era filled with collapses of what was considered as certainty, distinguishes the current conformation of the modern city.
Worlding - that is, making the world - seen as a phenomenon that surpasses the vision of Man as a self-positioned being above the rest, can start from these very territories, to be rediscovered and enhanced, safeguarding the agricultural component that has the task of animating these places, new centers to support the community.
Within an unknown agricultural territory, however, made of paradigms derived from a code indecipherable by the Urban Human Being who has lost this kind of relationship, architecture rediscovers itself capable of playing the role of mediating element, generator and organizer of space; capable of providing the tools for the construction of an imago mundi within those territories that of reference points are lacking.
The architectural construction takes on the characteristics of a device capable of bringing back the agricultural dimension to a scale human.
