Interview with Stefano Boeri about Green River project for “The future has an ancient heart. Travel in the footsteps of the Fathers of Design”, conceived and curated by Manuela Alessandra Filippi, sponsored by Municipality of Milan – Department of Culture and produced by Città Nascosta Milano.
The aim is to retrace the lives of the founding fathers of contemporary design between World War II: Franco Albini, Marco Zanuso, the collective BBPR (Gian Luigi Banfi, Lodovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso, Enrico Peressutti, Ernesto Nathan Rogers), Livio, Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni, Luigi Caccia Dominioni, Albe and Lica Steiner, Ettore Sottsass and Vico Magistretti, without forgetting two key figures in this story: Edoardo Persico and Giuseppe Pagano.
Each of them has incarnated and contributed to shape the cardinal points of the modern conception of Design which has grown and developed, transforming the capital Lombard into one of the main points of reference for this discipline.
Together with others, they laid the basis for building the future. Which has already passed. And that has always been contemporary.
The cap. 1 is dedicated to the dismissed railway station and the “Green River” project designed by Stefano Boeri Architetti. According to Stefano Boeri, the future of Milan passes from the reconversion of the dismissed railway stations into a connected system of green areas, dedicated to sociality and free time. This vision was presented during the Milan Design Week 2017 as Urban Forestry project, in response to the “Scali Milano” consultation announced by FS Sistemi Urbani.
Green River aims to transform the 90% of the seven rail yards into a network of uninterrupted parks, gardens, woods, oasis and fruit gardens for communal uses – linked together by green cycle paths realized on rail trail lines, the remaining 10% could be employed to build high density urban areas that will host all those facilities Milan’s districts now lack of: especially young professional housings and student hotels, but also cultural services and people support areas (libraries, clinics, kindergartens), social and market housing.
Video by Paolo Bovio and Giuseppe Barbieri.
Directed and edited by Paolo Pegorari.