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Urban II Milano PDF Print E-mail

Urban II Milano is an EU development programme designed to re-launch the huge area that lies to the north west of the city and incorporates the districts of Bovisa, Bovisasca, Certosa, Garegnano, Musocco, Quarto Oggiaro, Vialba and Villapizzone. This area accounts for approximately 7% of the surface area of metropolitan Milan and is home to 4% of the population. It enjoys a strategic position and features numerous infrastructures: it is thus complex and rich in resources, but beset too by a series of critical problems. The complexity and innovativeness of the Urban II project makes it highly strategic for the future development of both the city of Milan and of the entire metropolitan area.

Milano Metropoli took part in the Urban II project in our capacity as leaders of the Temporary Association of Enterprises (TAE) - which also included Milan's Politecnico and Bocconi universities, Asset-Aler, Banca Intesa, BIC La Fucina and Euros - and which won the contract for the "Entrepreneurship and employment pact ", developed from 2006 to 2008 according to four strategic goals:

  • improve the area's territorial, social and environmental resources
  • improve urban quality
  • support the third economy
  • support employment, work and free-lance professionals

These goals were given concrete form when we launched a series of highly innovative and far-reaching services, initiatives and experiments for the area:

  • QUARTO Laboratorio, a new service centre for the area.
    Quarto Laboratorio is a sustainable urban development promotion centre. Inaugurated in 2006 in the former  CTS in via Val Trompia, at the end of 2009 it moved to the prestigious Villa Scheibler (Via Lessona 43), an historic building recently renovated under the same Urban II Milano programme.
    Quarto Laboratorio also supports the set-up and development of social enterprises in the area by providing specialized technical assistance to new no-profit projects. The former premises in via Val Trompia are currently being modernized to house a business incubator that will offer spaces and services at subsidized rates for new no-profit enterprises.

  • An innovative competition to support the Social Economy.
    For the first time in Italy, an urban regeneration project included a public competition to promote the design and provision of services for the local population on the part of no-profit organizations. The aim of the competition - announced in June 2007 by the TAE headed by Milano Metropoli - was to support and qualify a range of services that would meet the needs emerging in Milan's north-west by funding social enterprise projects. Eight projects were selected according to criteria such as financial viability/sustainability, innovative ways of managing the products and/or services, effectively engaging local organizations or networks of partnerships. The funds set aside for each project ranged between 55 and 35 thousand euros.

  •  Key services for Villa Scheibler.
    As well as housing the Quarto Laboratorio services and cultural and social activities for the residents of the neighbouring districts, we are identifying one or more key services in the context of work, innovation and development of the area of interest for the whole metropolitan Milan system.

  • Integrated projects for re-launching the area.
    Following an initial inspection of the area and a number of pre-feasibility studies, the TAE - led by Milano Metropoli, in cooperation with Milan City Council - has identified 13 integrated projects that will help re-launch the area and turn it into an important player in the metropolitan context. The value of these projects lies in the fact that, for the first time, they set common development goals which are shared by the various stakeholders. Thanks to this approach, even the most complex and costly projects become achievable over time since they are in line with the Council's development strategies and supplement the rest of the interventions already identified by the local administration. The working group led by our Agency will focus its efforts in 2010 on finding public and private financing and possible agreements and partnerships for some of these projects.

Milano Metropoli Development Agency continues to work alongside Milan City Council in order to manage the start-up and implementation of some of the interventions planned or identified.