Nesting Milan | Town Planning Design Workshop

NA p Er o j Se c tTt oI R NE - GP O P UML A TIE Lt h eAc i Nt y

T O W N P L A N N I N G DESIGN WORKSHOP Politecnico di Milano M A S T E R D E G R E E in A R C H I T E C T U R E AY 2015 / 2016

De Lingua De Saint Blanquat Marion Giorgetta Federica Lunardi Alberto Nardi Giovanni Sanjeev Umashankar Rahul

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INDICE / INDEX

CONCEPT - VISION

WILL BIODIVERSITY BE ABLE TO RE-DESIGN THE URBAN SPACE AND THE FUTURE?........................................................................................ p. 00

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URBAN VOIDS..................................................................................................................... p. 11

THE

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N E S T I N G

MILAN

A project to re - populate the urban voids

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WILL BIODIVERSITY BE ABLE TO RE-DESIGN THE URBAN SPACE AND THE FUTURE?

Questions about Urban Development of Humankind

AN

U R B A N P A R A D I G M...

It is a non anthropocentric infrastructure implanting nests and animals’ environment for a multiplicity of spices.

Urban sprawl in the past decades has been a major cause of destruction and impoverishment of natural environment and animal’s habitat.

Implanting biodiversity in the development of our cities is a necessity for preserving our environment. It also provides new solutions to nowadays questions, such as pollution or wastes. However, a balanced cohabitation between humans, nature and animals is radically in opposition with our actual society. Our project is an answer to change our global system.

Cities are a complex urban system designed for humans habitats and activities. The project Nesting Milan is making the transition from a Human city to an equal cohabitation with biodiversity.

A PROGRESSIVE COLONISATION OF BIODIVERSITY… Our goal is to shift cities identity by developing a new urban system, for humans, nature and animals. To manage this major transition, we are establishing a progressive colonisation of biodiversity.

The first step is to implant animals and nature in urban environment, independently from humans and their activities. It is the experimental period, the comprehension of how animals can live in cities, how can we build for them, which environment are preferred by species and why… Simultaneously,

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depending on their habitat preferences.

Our main intention is to come back to a Human/Animal scale in our cities environment, without supremacy of one on the other. As detailed further down, we create an system inspired from the animal environment (forests, lacs, …) and the human cities, by regrouping and mixing their differences and similarities.

we allow humans to partly access the animal environment, to also settle urban biodiversity inside humans’ mentality.

Implanting progressively animal identity inside the city is in our opinion the best way to create a durable cohabitation between all kind of species.

After that first experiment, we are able to proceed to a deeper phase of the colonisation, with less limits between humans and animals, by merging both habitats. It means we need to elaborate new buildings and design technics, to reach a global cohabitation in the conception of streets, blocks, infrastructures, … Therefore, we have designed an Animal structure that can be adapted to any kind of situation and follow the rhythm of urban development.

S U S T A I N A B L E C I T I E S A topic that is strongly linked to the implantation of biodiversity inside the cities is ecology. The way we are building since a few decades is one of the main element of nature’ destruction and pollution.

We cannot hope to bring Nature, Animals and Humans on an equal living system if we keep on building in this way of eradication. Recents thinkers and architects (like ROTOR architects, SUPERUSE,…) have study solutions and found new way of slowing down the destroying process, which is the re-use of builded materials.

Re-using materials is still viewed as a concept in the builders communities and rarely applied nowadays for big industries.

However, this process is far from being recent and exists since the middle-age.

…TOWARDS A NEW VISION: URBAN COHABITATION OF SPECIES Architects and urbanists will have to open they reflexion to a new way of construction and of thinking our urbanism. We believe that the variety of the city landscape can offer a multiplicity of nests, and so new propositions and experiments. Indeed, without being categoric about the unpredictability of nature and animals (of which we don’t know, today, their behaviour inside urban development), we have observed that the multiplicity of urban situations is a good tool to welcome many kind of species and plants,

This “new vision” of buildings must be implanted inside the cities development on the same level as biodiversity.

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Therefore, the problematic of our structural material would be solved in the same way, with for example the dismantlement of an old steel structure factory, re-assembled to build nests for Animal and nature.

Building for animals inside cities is complex and experimental.

The only indication that we can rely on, to design from a non-anthropocentric point of view, are scientific facts and observations.

VISION FOR AN URBAN LANDMARK

The project becomes a scientific approach itself, as we will rely on the results to improve our structure and merge it with urban development.Â

THE

Our project is a two phase implantation of biodiversity inside Milan. The first one is made through the railway system, considered as an experiment to know better how to deal with animals and nature, how to include them more deeply inside urban development.

It is the starting point for the second step, spread within urban development. The nest infrastructure over the railways is a clear landmark in the urban environment, and tends to become an urban infrastructure : depending on the situation, the structure is linked to urban functions.

It also becomes a connective tissue between the historical center of Milan and the new part in development, that the railway tended to separate.

The light structure becomes a permeable and interactive membrane as well as a continuous green bubble.

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LE

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URBAN VOIDS

The railway system and its limits

S a t u r d a y November

10 am - along the railway We want to follow the railways path inside the city. However, it is not aloud to keep on walking along the rails. So we decide to get out and follow the trains marching along the wall, on the other side.

8 am We just found out that the railway of the south of Milan are going to be dismantled. A new void inside the city. We plan to go there to see how the place looks like.

Canals - Parcs We note down all the urban elements we pass by : highs of buildings, bridges, canals, parcs, ‌ and we realise that the railways are passing through a lot of interesting urban elements that we could use.

9am - Porta Genova Piazza We arrive in Porta Genova. The place is very dynamic : People walking around, trains, buses, trams, car, bicycles. We decide to get inside the station.

Crane We are standing between the wall and the grande Navigli when thick clouds of birds pass above us. They all seem to prefer specific urban spots : high, thin structure, above the city level.

Walls We enter inside the station building, and get out on the other side.

We found our selves in a completely different atmosphere then one minute ago. It’s a dead end. All the agitation of the plaza has vanished, separated by the high walls surrounding the railway space.

The atmosphere is calm, punctuated by a few trains departure.

Grass and a few trees have grown over the end of the railways.

We like the idea of working on this site : a quiet spot in the middle of a dynamic area of Milan. Perfect for nature and animals ?

Bridge We keep on walking, following the wall of the railways, until the intersection leading to Porta Romana. It is the second step of our escapade.

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1 pm-3 pm - Porta Romana On our way, we observe a quantity of parks, open spaces, and voids. We notice the quality of the environment, but also that it is not fully used. We arrive to Porta Romana. Impossible to get inside, or even to see the wide void of the station from behind the wall. We need to walk to a higher point : the crossing point between the centre of Milan and the suburbs, where there is the station, to visualise the inner space.

4 pm - Train We take the train. It is the only way to see the interior of the railway space. We decide to retrace our steps, to Porta Genova, to compare what we see with what we observed from the outside.

Inside the railway space, we see voids, vegetation, voids again, and the wideness variates depending on the surrounding buildings.

4.45 pm - Stop : San Cristoforo Here, we get out of the train, and wait for an other one, to go to Porta Genova. A few trains are passing, slowly. We get inside the second train. The journey is shorter. We can feel the presence of the Navigli, but we can’t see it from behind the walls. The train stops. We are back to Porta Genova, after the visit of the site we are going to work on.

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N E S T I N G

MILAN

A project to re - populate the urban voids

STEP 1

inside Milan, which links the old city center with the suburbs, a part in development.

The becoming of the railways is an important issue even within contemporary political debate.

Over 1’000’000 square meters of future unused space, surrounding the old part of Milan, represents a great opportunity of action.

RECYCLING THE RAILWAY SPACE As said before, our first intention is to have animals and humans living without physically interfering together. The site, therefore, has to be part of the urban fabric without being too important in human activities : an urban void.

The railways appeared to be the perfect combination of that two aspects for our first approach. Indeed, parts of the railway are going to be dismantled and train activities are slowing down. Moreover, we noticed that they were punctuated by small or wide unused spaces and linked to natural elements of Milan, such as parcs, canals, or voids that could become so.

With the railways,we are building a green belt

FROM AN URBAN MEGASTRUCTURE …

To be able to implant animals inside the city, two scale had to be considered : the urban scale, and the animal scale. We have therefore divided the structure itself of two steps of design, one connected to the city, and one to the animals.

The American architect and inventor Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) said

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P O R T A G E N O V A

P O R T A R O M A N A

phase

1

that nature is based on a continuous relationship of tension and discontinuous compression. The railway space is continuously shifting along the city, and to be able to colonise these voids, as well as to get over the railway system, we needed a structure with a modular shape, that can be settled continuously in any kind of situation. Based on Buckminsters’ shapes, which is detailed in following chapters, the structure can become wide, thin, hight, low, … It is a permeable shape, able to adapt itself to it’s environment, the surrounding streets, and urban connexion’s infrastructure, as well as in the nature itself.

animals strongly vary depending on the species. They vary on an aspect level (from the underground to the canopy), on the different ways of nesting (from a closed environment to an open vision) etc…

Thus, obsessively following strict rules from scientific observations, we obtain a variety of modules, that, when connected together, create different ecosystems.

From the geometrical characteristics of a tree branch, it becomes a closed box, a flowerpot, … to a bat environment, a community of birds, or a single bird environment, all flexible in specific highs.

All of these ecosystems are assembled together as explained before, generating a lively green infrastructure, made on a non anthropocentric point of view.

…TO ANIMALS’ NESTS! For our first step of implantation of biodiversity, only the wild species already observed in Milan where chosen as a starting point, with the idea that this list will expand in the future.

Birds, bats, insects, rats, ducks, fishes, are the animals that can be found today. To bring these animals within our structure, we designed modular nests, all based on the same shape so they could be assembled together : the TETRAHEDRON. The nest is our main tool to bring animals inside the city. The Tetrahedron shape is the result of an accurate analysis of each animals in their natural environment, the merging of different needs and nesting habits. Indeed, the requirements of the

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STEP 2

In that way, we hope to head to equal rights between animals and humans.

What is the shape resulting from this combination? The observations made from our experimental part will strongly guide the new methods, as well as the evolution of man vision.

TOWARDS A NEW LIFE APPROACH Our first approach is based on the observations made from nature and city, from a general scale to a more specific one.

It is also based on the way we are creating the relation between Animals and Humans.

The structure is non habitable by humans, they can only partially access it.

Inside the Animal space, the relationship between species respects the same hierarchy in Nature. Animals’ nests are located at different heights, and Humans stays on a horizontal level. People can’t physically look into the nests, they can only guess their presence, as it happens during a promenade inside a forest. We are not proposing an escape route for humans, some parts of the structure as it is not closed.

On an other side, the structure is not build near Humans’ habitations in order not to disturb the initial architectural system of buildings, the lightning access, etc…

This theory is the founding of our second step, the merging of both habitats together.

The design of these new buildings will depend on the observations made with the previous work, and on human acceptance.

By progressively introducing dense biodiversity into cities, we bring new acceptance of diversity to a population more and more able to understand the priorities, thus, slowly conceiving a new way of living.

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Two-tones Serotine

Spotted Flycatcher

Europian Green finch

Common Nightingale

Earthworm

T H E “U S E R S” The Two-tones Serotine (Vespertilio murinus) is a species of vesper bat that lives in temperate Eurasia. Their twittering call, similar to a bird’s call, are to be heard particularly in the autumn during the mating season. The parti-coloured bat has a body size of 4.8–6.4 centimetres with a wingspan of 26–33 cm, and a weight of 11–24 grams. Its name is derived from its fur, which has two colours. Its back (dorsal side) is red to dark-brown, with silver-white-frosted hair. The ventral side is white or grey. The ears, wings and face are black or dark brown. The wings are narrow. The ears are short, broad and roundish. The highest known age is 12 years.

The European Greenfinch or just green- finch (Chloris chloris) is a small passer- ine bird in the finch family Fringillidae. This bird is widespread throughout Eu- rope, north Africa and south west Asia. It is mainly resident, but some northern- most populations migrate further south.

The greenfinch is 15 cm long with a wing span of 24.5 to 27.5 cm. It is similar in size and shape to a house sparrow, but is main- ly green, with yellow in the wings and tail. They move to natural woodland edge where group of trees, orchards and co- nifers shape the perfect habitat for them. As it is well known, they appear in the early hours of the day and during the night they sleep perched up high on trees typically close to the trunk which hold heat from the daylight providing bet- ter shelter. Moreover, the bird will be alerted to any vibration predators. This species can also form large flocks out- side the breeding season, sometimes mixing with other finches and buntings.

The Spotted Flycatcher (Muscicapa striata) is a small passerine bird in the Old World flycatcher family. It breeds in most of Europe and western Asia, and is migratory, wintering in Africa and south western Asia. It is declining in parts of its range.

This is an undistinguished looking bird with long wings and tail. The adults have grey-brown upperparts and whitish underparts, with a streaked crown and breast, giving rise to the bird’s common name. The legs are short and black, and the bill is black and has the broad but pointed shape typical of aerial insectivores. Juveniles are browner than adults and have spots on the upperparts.

The Common Nightingale or simply nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos), also known as rufous nightingale, is a small passerine bird best known for its powerful and beautiful song.

It was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae. It belongs to a group of more terrestrial species, often called chats.

An Earthworm is a tube-shaped, segmented worm found in the phylum Annelida. They are commonly found living in soil, feeding on live and dead organic matter. Its digestive system runs through the length of its body. It conducts respiration through its skin. An earthworm has a double transport system composed of coelomic fluid that moves within the fluid-filled coelom and a simple, closed blood circulatory system.

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N E S T I N G - M O D U L E

DIFFERENT COLONIZATION OPPORTUNITIES

Our module is made not to force living, but to guarantee the conditions in which LIFE CAN OCCUR, givng the chance to animals to C O L O N I Z E it.

We are not not providing an actual “house�, we are creating a structure in which animals can start nesting colonization according to characteristic criteria and methods of their species.

The result of the shape is made out of different animalspecific issues, analyzed and considered during our studies about nesting issues e and measurement.

The aim is to provide all the conditions needed from animals, to stimulate in a way a natural re-population of our structure and, consequently, of the railway system

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Spotted Flycatcher

Common Nightingale

European Green Finch

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Earthworm

Two-tones Serotine

Providing ANIMAL - SPECIFIC

NESTING CONDITIONS

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Falling greenery Humidity Increasing

R A I N C O L L E C T I O N

Aerial Plantations

Smog/Electromagnetic radiation controller

Insect Boxes

Feeding/biodiversity source

Insect-Attracting Greenery

L I G H T S P O T T I N G

Providing environment-specific IMPROVEMENTS

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VEGETATION SPECIES for a biodiversifie d ecosystem

Of a total of approximately 9 million known species, it is certain that only a small percentage of insects (1%) is resulting damaging, while the remaining 99% is in charge of pollination of plants, of ‘soil aeration and its enrichment, again making available the nutrients contained in the remains of animal and plant organisms, and thus being able (directly or indirectly) to provide nourishment for living beings.

In addition to butterflies, good pollinator (of which only a small percentage can be harmful to crops when supernumerary, mainly cabbage for Brassicaceae), also many other interesting species such as dragonflies, mantises, grasshoppers, beetles, hoverflies, lacewings (a small fly green with enormous wings veined) are able to guarantee biodiversified life in natural environment.

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BUILDING ECOSYSTEMS

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Providing environment-specific

conditions

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Animals’ nests are located at different heights, and Humans stay on a horizontal level.

They cannot look into the nests, they can only guess their presence, like a promenade inside a forest.

We are not proposing an escape route for humans, but they can access some parts of the structure as it is not closed.

On an other side, the structure is not build near Humans’ habitations in order not to disturb the initial architectural system of buildings, the lightning access, etc‌

Towards new life approach

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a

T E N S E G R I T Y

R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER

T H E O R Y

f r o m

N A T U R E

burn in terms of everyday design, but its influence should never be underestimated.

Born in 1895, Fuller was a more or less a practical dreamer. Expelled twice from Harvard, he took on such unlikely jobs as a labourer in a stockyard and commander of a crash rescue boat in World War I before finding funds – through persuasion and charm – to develop a number of prototypes for factory made homes.

He called these radical devices Dymaxion houses.

The term TENSEGRITY was created

by Richard buckminister fuller as a construction of ‘tensional’ and ‘integrity’. it refers to the stable structure balanced by continuous structural member (cables) in tension and discontinuous structural members struts in compression. more over the cables are flexible and global components while struts are stiff and local components.

Fuller, a brave and enterprising inventor, designer and thinker pointed an intriguing way forward. We might not be living in steel domes delivered by helicopters, with or without US Marines in tow, but the shadow of Fuller’s brave new domes is proving to be a long one.

The geodesic dome had been a slow

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D E T A I L S

shaping STRUCTURAL ECOSYSTEMS

D E T A I L S

shaping STRUCTURAL ECOSYSTEMS

WOOD

1

WOOD

1

equilater triangular base equilater triangular base

STEEL

STEEL

horizontally suspended cables

STEEL

STEEL

horizontally suspended cables

2 2

3 3

compression struts

nesting tensegrity structure nesting tensegrity structure

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compression struts MAX

MAX

MIN

MAX

vertical elements

d = 250 mm d = 180 mm = 10 mm s = 20 mm scables suspension under

vertical elements

tension

suspension cables under tension ancorage

STEEL

4

axonometry

ancorage

STEEL

4

MIN

MAX

MIN d = 250 mm d = 180 mm s = 20 mm s = 10 mm

2

MIN

2

D=42mm A=8.21kg/mm

d=0.8mm A=1.3kg/mm

D=42mm A=8.21kg/mm

d=0.8mm A=1.3kg/mm

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TENSIONED CABLE COMPRESSION TUBULAR STRUT

detail plan of ancorage

COMPRESSION TUBULAR STRUT

detail plan of ancorage

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SCREW TENDONS

axonometry

SCREW TENDONS SCREW NODE

assembly assembly

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TENSIONED CABLE

250 mm

250 mm

250 mm

250 mm

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SCREW NODE

3 detail section of ancorage detail section of ancorage

CHARACTERISTICS: 1. structure is free standing 2. structure members are straight 3. structure is very light 4. only 2 types of structural members: 4.1 struts carrying compression 4.2 cables carrying tension Shiny aluminium metal rods, held together by networks of tensed aluminium wires, climb into the air at improbable angles, with an apparent disregard for gravity.

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H 2 O

HUMIDITY + WATER SUPPLY

Animals and plants, to reach their comfort and ideal habitat, require a high percentage of humidity. In order to satisfy this need, the mega-structure uses its own cable compression struts to conduct the water of the canal up to certain altitude and spray it inside the nesting space.

This process will increase the percentage of water vapor in the atmosphere making possible the growth of new plantings and the state of well-being in general.

A motorized system allows the control of the water vapor distribution depending on the seasons.

The man, therefore, will be considered an important part of the megastructure's life going to be the final piece of the puzzle required for an ideal coexistence between species.

HUMIDITY C

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PORTA GENOVA

PORTA GENOVA

I N S E R T I N G B I O D I V E R S I T Y in the U R B A N T I S S U E

C H A N G I N G H I E R A R C H I E S

pedestrian walkway that allows access to the human being in a position to be able to get in touch with this place.

Our structure is able to fit in the urban tissue, perfectly adapting to the great void of Porta Genova.

In this really characterized part of the city, animals and the inhabitants come into direct contact, going to COEXIST WITHIN THE SAME SPACE. By doing this, we are trying toestablish a hierarchy where Humans are no longer able to dictate the rules, in this case are the animals ‘’ bosses ‘’ of their space and their ‘’ home ‘’, while humans become the ‘’ visitors ‘’ who can cross and admire this place without being able to interact directly with it.

The interaction between the two worlds is favored by the presence of a

The structure, in addition to the colonization of this wide void area, grows reaching heights that allow the nesting and life of different animals.

Thanks to the tensegrity structure it was possible for us to locate the various nests in different ways.

Being a structure based on the principle of tension and compression, it means that our modules can be applied in such a way that the space can always be permeable both from the animal’s eyes both with man’s eyes, without, therefore, be a new limit.

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L O N G I T U D I N A L

S E C T I O N

T R A N S V E R S A L

S E C T I O N

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illuminate

In addition, In this stretch the structure interacts directly with the Naviglio Pavese.

the

space

that

surrounds.

Another lighting factor is determined by the ‘’ light ‘’ modules, attracting insects, which is the primary food source for bats.

Thanks to this contact, we’ll be able to guarante the achievement of the amount of moisture required to allow the life of certain animals and some species of plants.

This condition is further guaranteed by the presence of an internal turbine to the structure, which draws the water from Naviglio, pumping it upwards making it finally leak out, with a very gentle stream, from small pipes.

The structure, during night, comes alive with nocturnal animal species, such as fireflies, that until now were species endangered in the city of Milan.

Fireflies will become again a strong landmark because they are able to gently

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PORTA ROMANA

PORTA ROMANA

F I L L I N G and C O N N E C T I N G an urban void

A NEW APPROACH TO RE - CONNECT A GAP

human beings, who in this case can only cross the Roman port area via a bridge made entirely in tensegrity structure.

In Porta Romana, the basic structure will colonize the great void, but in parallel there will be new “rules” and variables which will affect the process.

Thanks to the design of this bridge, you can fill a need of humankind, the connection between the two ‘’ banks ‘’, Prada Foundation and Viale Isonzo, bordering the great void of the railway station.

Unlike Porta Genova, Porta Romana station will not be totally abandoned, this will involve the continuous passage of the train, in the central part, totally surrounded by wilderness.

The running track will be enveloped by the tensegrity structure and our modules.

The bridge has the same treatment we adopted in other cases, namely being a tensegrity structure the modules are then applied with environment consideration, so that the animal can settle without any limit in this space, where ‘ human being is always and only a guest.

Being the largest railway station, we tried to think about this soace as a wild space where the animal can easily settle not entering into direct contact with

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L O N G I T U D I N A L

S E C T I O N

T R A N S V E R S A L

S E C T I O N

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NEW RULES A final rule that has been defined by us, in relation to Scalo di Porta Romana, about the future project of multiple multi-purpose buildings on both sides of the great void.

In this case our intervention is determining to ensure that biodiversity within the city, it is necessary to impose as a basic rule, the need to apply our structure of all new buildings.

Only through this gesture you can restore that balance between man and animal is now lost for centuries.Â

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HOW WOULD IT FEEL TO BE INSIDE

NESTING MILAN

VISION?

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N E S T I N G

MILAN a project designed by : Federica Giorgetta Alberto Lunardi Giovanni Nardi De Saint Blanquat Marion Sanjeev Rahul