ABITARE

Santa Giulia
ora pro nobis

Luca Rotondo

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The district Santa Giulia in Milan, is located on an polluted aquifer dangerous to health. As in a harrowing convalescence, all people expect someone that intervenes to repair.

January 2013
The reorganization plan for the district in Milan Santa Giulia, developing a total area of 1,200,000 m2, between the peripheral and Rogoredo Morsenchio, which hosted respectively "Acciaierie Radelli" and Montedison chemical plants, stands as the most extensive work of redevelopment of former industrial areas in Europe. The project, curated by Norman Foster, provided for an investment of euro 2.8 billion with the aim of creating a "city within a city", as it was defined by planners and investors.
From surveys carried out, however, the aquifer would have been polluted by hazardous substances to the environment and health. The reclamation of the whole area was in fact carried out only partially. Since 2010, the district is half fenced, waiting for the reclamations are completed.
The actual status of the project shows the district divided into two areas: one with buildings placed on polluted soils and poorly drained, the other entirely undeveloped, never reclaimed and waiting for it to determine its use.

August 2013
Not Much is changed compared to six months ago. Continues to remain a sort of ghost town that is growing at a pace so slow that you'll hardly notice the change. Between this silence, is possible to observe some particular details: some barrier was put a couple of meters back, the park now seems to have perhaps even the appearance and not just the name.
Santa Giulia is still now a no man's land, waiting patiently for the end of a long illness. Step by step, inch by inch small spaces they return to the service of an invisible community.
If you let your eyes wander along the arid borders of the district you could understand that at the end of Santa Giulia is none other than the beautiful captive of an inhospitable land. The luxury homes designed by Foster, decked out in their bright colors and white cement pylons almost foreign to assist reconstruction progresses slowly, so perfect and candid witness to the slow growth of the dream metropolis. Milano Santa Giulia, which as a puppy city grows and matures a little bit at a time.