Milano 4 You - Smart District, a cohabitation of architecture, technology and nature

Milano4 You is an innovative urban concept based on the idea of co-habitation of Architecture, Technology and Nature.
It is an integrated, digital-native neighborhood in Segrate offering a new lifestyle concept in line with the emerging needs of cross-generational communities.
In Milano 4 You, technological innovation is widespread, but transparent and non-invasive. It is concretely oriented towards achieving a better quality of life at a lower cost by working on the collection and processing of data which thus become the added value for improving or developing new services.

Urban Philosophy
Milano 4 You is located in a strategic metropolitan area of 350.000 sqm: exactly 10 kilometres from Milan Centre, it is part of a sort of ring in which the "border voids", close to the administrative limits of the Municipality of Milan, are regulated by important urban transformation policies, recognized by metropolitan urban planning instruments and central to the debate on urban policies.

The design proposal aims to define the new district as Car Free district with a high level of porosity of ground floor. The intention is to focus on a purely cycle-pedestrian connectivity rather than a vehicular road system, which is only present when strictly necessary to reach car parks or non-residential functions.

The new project consists of three areas, which can be identified as a succession of public and private spaces, open and built, with different characters and types of housing: this succession is conceived as a “Gradient of Urbanity” and places anthropization, that varies from the most urban and dense to the exclusively rural and natural environment.
Three landscapes are thus defined: Urban, Peri-urban and Rural landscape
The building capacity of 90.000 smq is then distributed according to the functional mix: Residential, Hotel, Commercial, Social Housing, Student Housing, Sport Center, Cultural center, Senior Housing.

The three areas of intervention
Starting from the southern edge of the area, we meet the first plot: The Urban area. This area is characterized by a medium-high population density, and it hosts different functions in addition to the residential: the commercial structure, the sports center and a Hotel along Via Vespucci.
This first highly urban area is the most directly related to the Segrate town center and it faces flows and potentialities that daily travel along the Cassanese road, the main road connects Milano4You to Milan.
In this first area is located the large amount of the GFA required by the plan.
The residential part - the heart of the project - is organized on four plots along the promenade. These residential blocks are designed with an open courtyard layout, made up of several buildings: line, tower and line+tower typology are combined together in such a way that minimize the "vis-a-vis", also creating a system of great quality pertinential, semi-public spaces on the ground level.

Heading north from the Cassanese street, the landscape changes into a Peri-urban environment, which constitutes the second area of the intervention.
Here the relationship between buildings and open spaces changes in favor of the latter, and the building density becomes consequently lower than in the southern areas.
Along the west side of Via Cristoforo Colombo we find a residential settlement, characterized by low buildings and villas surrounded by large green spaces, while along Via Cristoforo Colombo west side a new Senior Housing find its place.
Between the urban and peri-urban areas it's located the Cultural Centre, realized by the restoration and re-use of the ancient Cascina Boffalora.

The third and last area is the so-called Rural: here built-up areas leave the field to green spaces only and to a completely natural landscape.
The pedestrian paths flow into a large central clearing, rippled along the western edge by trees and earthworks that limit the view towards the production area in Via G. Di Vittorio.


Public space as a structuring element of the neighborhood.
The design of the open spaces is articulated so as combine the urban, peri-urban and rural landscapes in a synergistic landscape, articulated along the axis of the promenade by environmental, visual, fruitive relations and special places capable of being part of the mental map of the everyday life of inhabitants and citizens.
The design gives great value to the permeability of the neighborhood, involving slow mobility and contributing to an ecological continuity.

The Promenade is the structuring element of the project.
It's a cycle-pedestrian axis that crosses the whole area from south to north.
This path represents the main public space system of the project and is characterized by three centralities.
The first centrality is the square in the south: located between the sports facility, commercial plot and hotel area.
From here the promenade runs through the residential courts and connects to the second centrality, "Piazza della Cascina", with a open-air theater.
The latter is a square open to greenery, overlooked by the Cultural Centre, that offers spaces for rest and leisure time.
At the end of the promenade is the third centrality of Milano 4 You: the gateway to the park.
The pedestrian pathway ends in a sort of terrace that overlooks the head of the basin and the central clearing. From here the promenade leaves space for smaller paths that develop north and east within the green areas, reconnecting the pattern of agricultural paths.