Shaping Ageing Neighbourhoods: Milan Gallaratese

Arup is an independent firm of designers, planners, engineers, consultants and technicalspecialists, working across every aspect of today’s built environment. Together we help ourclients solve their most complex challenges – turning exciting ideas into tangible reality as westrive to find a better way and shape a better world. Arup was founded in 1946 by Ove Arup, a gifted engineer-philosopher with an original andrestless mind. Arup is owned in trust for its members, still guided by its founder’s spirit andprinciples. We choose work where we can make a real difference in the world, stretch theboundaries of what is possible, delight our clients and achieve socially valuable outcomes. Arup made its name in the twentieth century as the designer and engineer behind some of theworld’s most ambitious structures. That creative strength and independence of mind continuesto guide us. Today, Arup employs more than 14,000 people, in more than 34 countries – in aculture underpinned by Sir Ove Arup’s aims and values. The Fondazione Housing Sociale (FHS) is a private, non-profit entity, and works for the purposesof public and social interest. The Foundation’s mission is to experiment innovative solutions forstructuring, financing, constructing and managing of economically sustainable social housinginitiatives, not based on the logic of free grants. FHS, thanks to a diversified skill set, applies anintegrated approach to the development of private social housing initiatives. The Foundation’s scope involves a set of actions, initiatives and instruments that favourthe access of people in need to a supportive living context and allow them to improve andstrengthen their housing condition. Aligned with the values of Fondazione Cariplo, whichlaunched the social housing programme in Italy in 2004, FHS promotes the growth of non-profitactors whose expertise combines community and services management for the residents. FHStakes action in the framework of public social housing policies to maximize the offer of low-rentand controlled rent houses, according to the local public authorities’ strategies. Systematica, a planning and engineering consultancy firm specialized in Town & Transport Planning,with offices in Milan, Cagliari, Beirut and Mumbai, was established in 1989. Systematica studies, plans and designs infrastructure and transport systems at all levels, ranging fromregional to urban and development scale. In particular, the company addresses urban transformationon a medium and large scale, the implementation of intermodal nodes and complex buildingstructures ensuring adequate levels of sustainability and multi-modal accessibility, as well as therequalification of urban public places and large urban districts. Endowed with a high profile Scientific Advisory Committee, Systematica operates in Italy and abroad,particularly in geographical areas characterised by strong levels of economic and demographicgrowth, such as those in the Mediterranean basin, North Africa, The United Arab Emirates, SouthAmerica, Russia, India and the Far East. Systematica guarantees to its Clients quality and competence as strategic advisors in the services ofconsulting, planning and design. Contents Introductionpg. 5 Gallaratese: Milan’s ‘oldest’ neighbourhood6 I Interact13 A framework to interactA crosscutting activity1517 II Assess19 SocietyBuilt EnvironmentMobilityDigital EnvironmentAn age-friendly neighbourhood?2127333945 III Compare47 International best practices48 IV Design 71 How to read the chapterIdentifying opportunities and actionsSummary of the recommended opportunitiesAchieving goalsA look in the heart of the neighbourhood7374929496 Looking Ahead99 References100 Images credits104 Acknowledgements105 Introduction A defining feature of the 21st century is how much longermany of us are living. A growing awareness of this andof the fact that wellbeing should be at the center of ourprojects has lead our urban planners to focus their researchon defining and designing age friendly cities. Places whichaddress the needs of the elderly citizens and simultaneouslygenerate significant benefits for residents of all ages. Greatplaces to grow up and grow old. This paper is the result of field research in the Gallarateseneighbourhood of Milan. It is based on a framework exploredby Arup in a previous study in 2015, namedShaping AgeingCities: 10 European case studies.The report published in2015identified four lenses Society, Mobility, Built and Digitalenvironment, and 25 indicative questions that urban leadersand practitioners should investigate. Starting from that basis,we updated the literature review, tested the results throughdirect field work, and refined the framework. Shaping Ageing Cities:10 European casestudiesPublished in 2015by Arup, HelpAgeInternational, Intel,Systematica Shaping Ageing Neighbourhoods. Milan Gallarateseintroduces an age-friendly approach to influence and designurban environments in ways that respect,