Contemporary cities Commented walk studio
Corso Buenos Aires The 5th Avenue of Milan Ismat Jahangirova – Guo Lei - Mara Ragazzoni – Silvia Tancredi
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CONTENTS Abstract Explanation of the area Interpretations and interviews in different places:
- Giardini Pubblici “Indro Montanelli” - Porta Venezia, Piazza Oberdan - Viale Tunisia - Piazza Lima - Piazza Argentina - Piazzale Loreto Connections Conclusion Possible future
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Abstract The Commented City Walk studies the perception in motion of the sensory experience of passers-by. The walk in the public space from point A to point B is interpreted through different senses. For this mini-studio we choose Corso Buenos Aires. Our point A became park “Indro Montanelli” near Porta Venezia where the street starts itself, and Piazzale Loreto as a Point B which is the end of the Corso. During the long walk and observation of the area, we tried to understand, perceive and comment for ourselves: What people are experiencing in this area? What is the behavior of this urban space, and at the same time how people interact with the space? What are their feelings here? We interviewed several inhabitants/tourists and also two people we are familiar with to perceive the walk through their senses. However, as each person bases his answers through his/her way of perceiving and through their own very different experiences, we gained opinions from various perspectives. To get a more precise picture, we made three walks from A to B at different phases of the day. At 13.00 in the afternoon, at 7.00 in the evening, and in the midnight.
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Explanation of the area Walking in the long street of Corso Buenos Aires, which is a major street in north-eastern Milan, with over 350 shops and outlets, it features the highest concentration of clothing stores in Europe. The architecture of the area is mostly late 19th and 20th century style. In the course of the 19th century Corso Buenos Aires became the privileged connection among Monza and Milano, playing this role until the very construction Viale Fulvio Testi and Viale Zara (happened in 10 years). The street and its surroundings are pointed with several neoclassical and art nouveau buildings. Its one of the hugest streets in Milan, at the same time one of the most modern ones. It connects what two important poles that are known to be Piazzale Loreto and Porta Venezia (there are two metro lines that connect these parts the red and green one). The Corso consists of a wide car road and parallel streets around it. There is a very welldesigned transportation system there: buses, metro and tramlines that cross it. The street mainly consists of mass market shops, there are several cafes on the Corso, and much more patisseries and places offering street food. Along the road immigrants are selling bags, jewelry and other stuff interesting for the people passing by. In despite to the city center (the area of Duomo) here everyone is more in a hurry, everyone came with a certain “goal”. Its hard to call Corso Buenos Aires a place for a casual walk. The Corso is full of facilities, with anything that can be imagined but its not a place for sightseeing. At some parts the sidewalk is not enough wide, so if it’s the rush hour, there can be observed a pedestrian “traffic” that redoubles with dogs and baby carriages. It must be mentioned that the Corso is used as a place for marketing.
*examples of advertisements*
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Even though Corso is known to be relatively safe, sometime ago an act of vandalism took place in here. Some of the vitrines are still broken.
Interpretation & Interviews 1. Giardini Pubblici “Indro Montanelli” (13.00) At the end of the Corso there is an important park of Milan called “Indro Montanelli”. It’s about 172.000 m² of surface and inside there are a lot of different types of trees and flowers. There is also a water element that is a small lake. In the area of the parks there are also important buildings like “Palazzo Dugnani” realized in 1600 the “Museo Civico di storia naturale”, “Il Planetario Ulrico Hoepli” and a sculpture realized by Vito Tognani. This park attracts people from different part of the city because is a healthy place where people can do different sports with lot of equipment useful for these and is used by kids that can play in a safe way encircled by a lot of green. This place is a very green lung of Milan. Marta 40 y.o We met Marta with little Sofia (5 y.o) at the public garden of Indro Montanelli. She told us about being a full-time mom, in fact in addition to Sofia, she also has two other children, Marco (10 y.o) and Francesco (14 y.o). they live in 10 minutes’ walk from the park and for this reason they frequently go there. They also have a dog and for them it is convenient to have a park near the house mainly because the park is perfectly equipped with spaces for animals. Sofia also wanted to give us some useful information, in fact when we asked her what she liked to do in the park, first she gave us a huge smile and then she told that the swing is her favorite game. As Marta 5
then told us, having an equipped park near the house, especially when you live in a condominium, is an added value. She and her husband appreciate living in the city center, especially in such a well-equipped area, but having a park like the Indro Montanelli public gardens near the house gives them the chance to have a place to disconnect from the city chaos. Paolo 75 y.o Paul is a retired man. He told us that he and his wife used to live in the countryside, but after their daughter has decided to move to Milan for work and got married, they followed her to the city so they could enjoy the company of their grandchildren. Paolo likes Parco Indro Montanelli, in fact, every morning he leaves the house for some commission and before returning it has become his habit to stay a little in the park to read the newspaper and chat with other pensioners who like him, on sunny days, spend a few hours in the park. Maria 30 y.o. We met Maria in a Coffee place inside the Giardini Pubblici. Maria comes from Saint Petersburg but used to live in Milan for more than 8 years. Today, Maria is based in Berlin as she received a better job proposal there. She is an architect but currently works in a firm designing urban transportation systems. We weren’t surprised when she explained us that she is a former Politecnico student. We got very lucky to get a chance to talk to her, as she only came here back for a weekend. In fact, all these years she was on living on Via Lazzaretto, and Giardini Pubblici was one of her most favorite places around and maybe even the main reason why she preferred to live in this area. She was always a morning person, and her first thing to do in the morning was having a nice intensive jog in the park. She showed us the park is also equipped with some stuff for sports, and she was happy to do some workouts with their help from time to time. However, she enjoyed the park not only for sports. She said Giardini Pubblici is very dear for her, with its unique ambiance, its green spaces and all the good memories she gained thanks to him. She said even Sempione is not as “cool� as her park is. Before saying goodbye, she promised if she ever moves back to Milan again, she would definitely pick the area around the park.
2. Porta Venezia, Piazza Oberdan (13.00 p.m.) Porta Venezia is one of the most important historical gates of the city of Milan. Its origins can be traced back to the Medieval and even the Roman walls of the city. It was made along the Spanish bastions now demolished. Porta Venezia now is used not only for both gates but also consider the district around them. Standing in front of the long Corso Buenos Aires we can almost see how the two parallels converge at one point in the distance. Life is in full swing all around us, the sound of traffic mixes up with the music of street bands that are playing on Piazza Oberdan, at the end of the Corso; volunteers are invoking citizens to donate money for African kids. The donated resources will be spent on developing their insurance system and education. At the left side, a bigger public space is present (also P.za Oberdan). A space with cafes, tobacco shops, a small filial of the bank of Unicredit and metro exit of Porta Venezia. The space is known to be a meeting point for strangers, a constant point for immigrants, teenagers and young people where they interact and hang out. 6
Porta Venezia
Piazza Oberdan
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Giardini Pubblici “Indro Montanelli�
(12.00 am) However, when we came back here at midnight things changed. A significant amount of homeless people some of which have dogs stay there overnight. But also, at other hand there are a lot of night locals that attract a lot of people until 2 am. Chiara, 25 y.o. Young woman Chiara comes from Puglia, but lives in Milan near the area of via Cenisio for 7 years already. She works in Publishing house from 9 AM til 4.30 PM. At her lunch break she likes to walk around from Piazzale Oberdan (where got the chance to meet her) to Porta Venezia neighborhood, ending at the Piazzale Loreto. She says that walking in this area helps her absorbing the books she read at work, watching buildings and people passing by she imagines the figures of the novels that will or will not be published eventually. The life in the street is her platform to make the heroes from books become alive. She claims, she enjoys the area more when her walks are filled with people around, its interesting for her to watch people around. Antonio, 23 y.o. Antonio was born in Milan, he is a student and not working yet, but he is quite into sports. He lives in Viale Abruzzi, and he thinks that Giardini Publicci is the perfect green area to do jogging. On his way from Loreto to the park of Porta Venezia he meets a lot of familiar faces, same people who run at Giardini Publicci just as frequently as he does. As for every jogger, it is important for him to have a safe and constant place to run, and to reach the running place. It’s a pity for him that Giardini is constantly closing around 9 pm, considering the fact that he is still studying its hard to always manage the time right. Gulia, 45 y.o. Of course, one of the main identities of Corso Buenos Aires is shopping. For example, Gulia is 45 and she works in a big office center near Porta Venezia. She is a sales manager, very organized, but a shopaholic at heart. She believes age is just a number, and that even at her age
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she can still follow the latest trends. She takes her lunch break to go to the big shopping street of Corso Buenos Aires to find new clothes in ZARA or HM on sale. (Which is where we got the chance to talk to her) Being very career oriented and fashionista at the time, this place is perfect for her to be around. She dreams to move near Corso Buenos Aires, as she prefers to be closer to her “shopping hobby� (at the moment she lives near to Fondazione Prada)
3. Viale Tunisia Another important street that crosses the Corso, it’s a considerably long street that leads to the corporate area of Centrale, it filled with shops, bars, tobacco shops and many other things. In terms of transportation, there is a two-sided tramline that connect this part of the city with important infrastructures like Politecnico di Milano, one of the most important university in Milan and Central railway station. When we walk a bit further on the Corso after the cross of Viale Tunisia we are able to notice that the sidewalks are getting wider, benches begin to appear. Also, in this part of the road homeless people are staying overnight too.
Moving forward from the cross of Viale Tunisia
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Francesca, 34 y.o. A vast amount of people has their regular habits at the Corso, like Francesca who lives in Viale Tunisia and works in the same area. She works in the flower shop and is a main designer of bouquets. She likes to have lunch in Ca’ppucino on via Marcello Malpighi – a very bright place with big space where she is able to give herself a break from a floral world and be back with new ideas. She used to live near Abiategrasso, now she is happy to move to the center. She enjoys her neighborhood, and she likes living near to the Corso. It makes her life easier, as it provides her with all the facilities that she needs in her daily life. She states that she belongs here much more than to the old place she was living in.
4. Piazza Lima Lima it’s place in the medium of the Corso Buenos Aires. It’s an important place because there is a metro station (red line) that connects this part of the city with the other part, overall the central ones. This part, like the others on the Corso is full of shops, cafes and also street food restaurant. But inside this part there is, also, a three-floor parking which is very suitable for those who come here with a car, as far as finding a place to park on the street is almost impossible. This part also intersects two important street called Via Vitruvio and Via Plinio that are important because there some bus lines and tramlines that pass through these two streets. Lucrezia 65 y.o. Lucrezia is 65, and she is a Milanese pensioner. She lives near Corso Buenos Aires from 50 years when her family decide to come there from Trieste. Now she lives in Via Vitruvio with her husband that he’s pensioner too, in the house of her family. In the past she worked outside Milan, but she preferred live there because she was and also is in love with this part of the city of Milan. She is very attached at this place but is not happy with what it has become compared with last decades. She wishes she could take walks near her house, but she prefers to take other narrow streets, as Corso Buenos Aires is to crowd for her and is filled with tourists, and people she can not take the flow with.
Ambre and Sophie 21 and 22 y.o. Also, there are a lot of tourists in this time like two girls Ambre and Sophie from Paris that came for design week. They went there with a train because they have some students discount. They are student of design in Paris and they went there to study something new in the most import city of design in Europe. They find Milan huge and very active and are thinking about moving here in future to fulfil their goals in fashion career. As tourists they found Corso very comfortable to use, but too noisy comparing to the ambiance of shopping districts in their city.
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5. Piazza Argentina A piazza of significant value in this area, it has more than 6 metro exists of Loreto, express mercato, multi-national fast food places, shops, bars, bus stops, Pharmacia, rent a car spot, gelato places, and etc. It’s one of the most common places for many. This place is both residential and commercial, there are some people that live there for the comfortable presence of lot of surface transports and also two metro lines. This square present all the facilities that a person needs living there.
Marco 25 y.o. Many people are using Corso Buenos Aires for transportation, like Mario who is a student, and who lives in Via Claudio Monteverdi, that is in two minutes’ walk from Corso Buenos Aires. As someone who is studying a lot, and always in a hurry he uses subway most of the time, he is happy to have to a chance to use the metro to get to his university Statale di Milano. He is studying at Master of Modern Literature. He believes Corso Buenos Aires is a comfortable way of connection for those who leave near it, he appreciates the existence of both red and green line in the subway.
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P.za Argentina
6. Piazzale Loreto A huge complicated piazza, not so comfortable to use for pedestrians as it creates a sort fences for those who want to cross the road. Its an important junction for the city’s road system. It borders with Municipality 3, avenue of Monza and Via Padova, Viale Abruzzi and Viale Brianza that unfortunately gained the reputation of unsafe square in Milan. In fact, this is, overall at night is unsafe for lot of criminal acts, and also for the proximity of Viale Padova known as an unsafe place, with lot of criminals and pushers. Overall for woman is advise against to go lonely at night in these places. Nadir 22 y.o. Nadir comes is from Baku, and he is an Erasmus student in Politecnico di Milano in the Architecture faculty. He lives in Viale Abruzzi, and he is only here for a semester. In school he went for an exchange program to New York, and he claims Corso Buenos Aires reminds him a little bit of Times Square and 5th Avenue together. He is a gamer, passionate about superheroes, and works as a graphic designer freelancer. He uses Corso Buenos Aires almost every single day. He takes his espresso in the morning at Piazza Argentina, does his grocery shopping in Pam at the cross with Corso. The area responds very well to all his needs, also in terms of transportation. He walks every night from Loreto to Viale Tunisia as his friend lives there. He enjoys more his way back, as he prefers to walk at night alone with music in his headphones. Aytan 29 y.o. Aytan has Georgian, Russian and Azeri origins. She comes from Baku, and she is living in Milan right near Loreto station for almost four years. She is a freelancer in interior design right now, and she finished her master in Milan. As she is working at home, the place she lives in plays vital 12
role for her. She told us she likes Loreto very much, but unfortunately, she hates Corso Buenos Aires during the day and in the evening. She only appreciates it at night. Aytan is a quick walker, its hard for to move in the pedestrian traffic that appears during the day on the Corso. She complains the sidewalks are too narrow, especially when its raining and everyone is walking umbrellas.
Connections Corso Buenos Aires one of the most important street of Milan, not only for shops, local and so on, or only for its hugeness, but also because is and important way of connections. First it possible to see two crucial poles like Loreto and Porta Venezia, that are essential for metro stations (red and green lines) and also for the passage of lot of surface transports. The first one, is also a way of connection with two streets that very relevant for connection inside the city: Viale Monza and Viale Brianza. The second one is also fundamental as connects with the major street called Corso di Porta Venezia this part of the city with the central one. Also, near Porta Venezia, connected with come tram lines there is Repubblica, and is the one of the most principal squares because there is another metro station, not present in the Corso: the yellow metro line. Another important way of connection is Viale Tunisia where pass through tram lines and also bus lines that connect this part with some important infrastructures like Central railway station and Politecinico di Milano, one of the most significant universities in Milan.
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Conclusion To conclude, it is possible to mention that this public space, Corso Buenos Aires, with its hugeness is mostly used by citizens, tourists and foreigners for shopping However, other ways how people use it also exist. For transportation, connection, as a place for meetings, coffee breaks, lunch or dinner breaks (fast and street food). Loreto and Lima are more used for daily activities, or until the time when shops are open, on the other hand parts closer to Porta Venezia are also used during the evening and in the night as there is a significant number of bars and restaurants and other night activities. It can be called a multifunctional street, very well designed, attractive to inhabitants and visitors. Sure, enough this part of the city is both residential and commercial, for these reasons its very useful and well connected. These characteristics are very important for place to attract inhabitants or people all over the city and tourists that are the main actor of Corso Buenos Aires.
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Possible future In the future this area could be improved, more necessary in the part of Loreto. Sure enough, it possible see that the poles, Loreto and Porta Venezia, are both similar and different: similar because they are poles for connections, they host important metro station that are the most important way to connect this part of the city with the others; but different because Porta Venezia is known a very rich place, well-design, full of facilities, safe and active all day; on the other and Loreto is known as a boundary, difficult to cross for pedestrians and also not so safe and attractive. Sure enough, this place could be regenerate, overall Via Padova, that make this place more unsafe. A possible regeneration could be a pedestrian path that make more accessible Piazzale Loreto passing through it, in this way its role as a boundary could be demolished. On the other hand, another crucial regeneration could concern buildings and some facilities inside Via Padova. This place could be more attractive, safe and well-designed. An example of that can be observed in the regeneration that happened in Isola district. Also, could be more interesting for its multiethnic aim that makes this place different from others. This place could be for this reason a possible abstract connection with some others multiethnic areas around Milan. This particularity about the presence of different people with different origins makes Milan as an international city respecting the differences on various levels.
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