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Reusing Former Industrial Areas in the North-West of Italy

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Deindustrialisation in Twentieth-Century Europe

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements ((PSHSM))

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Abstract

The essay discusses the architectural and territorial value of heritage in a comprehensive process of urban regeneration. The focus is on the Italian North-West, and the responses to the processes of deindustrialization in the region. The chapter offers a selection of best and worst practices in the North-West, which has experienced heritage approaches ranging from complete conservation to complete abandonment. The author suggests a stronger integration between heritage redevelopment and urban regeneration to use the full potential of heritage in regional culture. This should be linked to the collective imagery in the region, which would allow for more rooted and effective transformations of neighborhoods, cities and the postindustrial environment.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Espon Atlas, Mapping European Territorial Structures and Dynamics, November 2014, in: https://www.espon.eu-date [accessed February 2019].

  2. 2.

    In the overview of data proposed next, I limit myself to the three main areas of interest, namely Lombardy, Piedmont and Liguria.

  3. 3.

    Data are collected from the National Italian Census, Istituto Nazionale di statistica (ISTAT): https://www.istat.it/it/archivio [accessed June 2019].

  4. 4.

    AA.VV., ‘Deindustrializzazione e terziarizzazione: trasformazioni strutturali nelle regioni del Nord Ovest’, in Questioni di Economia e Finanza (Occasional papers), N. 282 (2015), Banca d’Italia.

  5. 5.

    The chart, extrapolated from the same source (AA.VV., 2015), p. 14, has been redrawn by the author.

  6. 6.

    Those elements are described in the vast reflection recently made by Angelo Pichierri and Valentina Pacetti, ‘Le ristrutturazioni industriali e il territorio: crisi, declino, metamorfosi?’, in Emiliana Armano et al. (eds.): Postfordismo e trasformazione urbana. Casi di recupero dei vuoti industriali e indicazioni per le politiche nel territorio torinese, (Torino: Centro Stampa Regione Piemonte, 2016), pp. 27–43.

  7. 7.

    The mechanisms and the outputs of this development in the Lombardy and Milan areas are analyzed from the urban and the policy-making points of view, for example in: Gabriele Pasqui and Matteo Bolocan Goldstein (eds.): Sviluppo locale in contesti metropolitani: trasformazioni economiche e territoriali nel Milanese (Milano: FrancoAngeli, 1988); and more recently: Andrea Arcidiacono et al., Governare i territori della dismissione in Lombardia: caratteri, contesti, prospettive (Santarcangelo di Romagna: Maggioli, 2015).

  8. 8.

    Peter Hall, Le città mondiali (Milano: Il Saggiatore, 1966); Peter Hall and Kathy Pain, The polycentric Metropolis: Learning from Mega-City Regions in Europe (London and Sterling: EarthScan, 2006).

  9. 9.

    Francesco Curci, Alessandro Balducci and Valeria Fedeli (eds.), Post-Metropolitan Territories: Looking for a New Urbanity (London: Routledge, 2017).

  10. 10.

    Paolo Perulli and Angelo Pichierri, La crisi italiana nel mondo globale. Economia e società nel nord (Torino: Einaudi, 2010).

  11. 11.

    An important document from this perspective is the International Cultural Tourism Charter: Managing Tourism at Places of Heritage Significance, 1999, by the ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites), an organization linked to UNESCO.

  12. 12.

    For more description see: Paolo et al. (eds.), ‘Governare l’evoluzione di un sistema urbano: Il sito UNESCO di Crespi d'Adda/Managing the evolution of an urban system. The UNESCO site of Crespi d’Adda’, in Techne: Journal of Technology for Architecture and Environment, 12 (2016), pp. 52–56.

  13. 13.

    One of the most active was ‘Associazione Culturale Villaggio Crespi’, http://www.villaggiocrespi.it/wp/salviamo-il-lavatoio/.

  14. 14.

    I refer to the ‘Piano di gestione del Sito Unesco di Crespi d’Adda 2014–2018’, edited by Prof. Paolo Gasparoli and Stefano Della Torre, Department of Architecture Built Environment and Construction Engineering, Politecnico di Milano.

  15. 15.

    The new plan for Crespi was approved in 2017, it contains the result of participatory planning oriented toward the integration of the inhabitants into the development of the site (the link to the general relation of the plan, see Chapter 2: https://www.halleyweb.com/c016051/zf/index.php/trasparenza/index/index/categoria/251/page/4 [accessed April 2019]).

  16. 16.

    For more details see: Patrizia Bonifazio and Paolo Scrivano, Olivetti Builds: Modern Architecture in Ivrea (Milan: Skira, 2001).

  17. 17.

    The candidacy and the further agreement are the result of the cooperation between the Ivrea Municipality, the Guelpa Foundation, the Adriano Olivetti Foundation, the National Department of “Beni e delle attività culturali e turistiche”, Piedmont Region, Provincia di Torino now “Città Metropolitana” (Metropolitan City). There was also support from the national and local association of companies (Confindustria).

  18. 18.

    From the Unesco website, Ivrea, Industrial City of the 20th Century, 2018, http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1538 [accessed July 2019].

  19. 19.

    Exemplary works in this direction date back to the ’70s: for instance, the works for Gare D’Orsay, Paris, which was turned into a modern art museum, and the Renault sull’Île Seguin Factory in Boulogne-Billancourt, also a space for contemporary art; and, at a later stage, some well-known works in the Ruhr area described in this volume, such as the Oberhausen gasometer, the London works at Tate Gallery in 2000, etc. From Amsterdam, with the Dutch West India Company warehouses along the Oude Schans canal, to Bratislava, with its central indoor market, from Lichthaus and from Packhaus in Bremen, to Halles Saint-Géry and to the Tour et Taxi complex in Brussels, from the Assan mill and the Electric and Pyrotechnic Factory in Bucharest to the tram depot in Cracow, from the hydro-electric factory in Geneva to the old Belgian Grand-Hornu iron and steel complex in the Museum der Arbeit in Hamburg to that of Roubaix hosting Le Centre des Archives du Monde du Travail within the former Motte-Bossut spinning complex, to the Gasometer in Saint Petersburg and the former salt warehouse in Tallinn, in Estonia. These are examples of a blossoming of initiatives aimed at enhancing and renewing dismantled constructions, which are often refurbished in an exemplary manner.

  20. 20.

    In Italy, some famous examples can be cited from Città di Castello, Fondazione Burri, where the former drying chambers of tropical tobacco hosts a contemporary art collection dedicated to the Umbrian maestro. In Rome, in the former Montemartini power plant areas, Ostiense district, there is an important museum of archaeological finds connected to the huge machines kept inside the power plant facilities. Still in Rome, we find the pertinent artistic and museum-related use of the former stables of the Peroni industries by the contemporary art Museum of Rome (MACRO), or the reuse of the former military depot in the Flaminio district, that is partially used for hosting the activities of the new MAXXI (National Museum of twenty-first century art).

  21. 21.

    i.e. the use of white painting for the black steel infrastructure.

  22. 22.

    The main players are the Municipality of Milan for its role as planner and decision-maker. Additionally, for being one of the owners of the land, the national railway company (FS) is relevant alongside the Lombardy Region.

  23. 23.

    La CRT Foundation is a private non-profit entity born from the philanthropic activity, started in 1827, of Cassa di Risparmio di Torino, a well-known bank in Turin. The Foundation started to operate at the beginning of the ’90s based in the city center of Turin, dealing with three topics: Art and Culture, Research and Arte e Cultura, Ricerca e Istruzione, Welfare and Territory.

  24. 24.

    Source Official presentation of the project Il progetto delle nuove OGR: presentazione al Teatro Carignano di Torino at http://www.ogrtorino.it/updates/presentazione-delle-nuove-ogr-al-teatro-carignano, and http://www.fondazionecrt.it/news/07.03.2017-ogr-presentazione.html [accessed June 2019].

  25. 25.

    http://www.cittadellarte.it/.

  26. 26.

    The project for the new social housing is by MTA Studio in Milan.

  27. 27.

    The declaration appears in the newspaper, in August 2018: “We have released the restrictions because, for us, it is pointless to spend Euro 6 million, of which Euro 3 million at the Municipality’s expense, to develop mini-houses that we do not need - replies Antonio Lamiranda, Town Planning Councillor -. The aim there is to generate more services and more widespread green areas” [author’s translation], in: “Aree dismesse a Sesto San Giovanni, restano i fantasmi di cemento. Dal Decappaggio al Vulcano, i piani di riconversione industriale sono di fatto fermi al palo”, in Il Giorno, 22. August 2018, https://www.ilgiorno.it/sesto/cronaca/aree-dismesse-sesto-san-giovanni-1.4100563 [accessed June 2019].

  28. 28.

    The news in the newspaper is in: ‘L'area ex Falck rinasce: un nuovo centro commerciale, multisala e una stazione alle porte di Monza. Il progetto e il rendering degli interventi, in Milano Today, 13 March 2018, http://www.monzatoday.it/foto/cronaca/rendering-area-falck-urbanfile/#rendering-area-falck-ubranfile-1.html [accessed June 2019].

  29. 29.

    Such as the Falck Observatory, the Forum for Northern Milan Development and the Northern Milan Development Agency (ASNM, Agenzia di Sviluppo Nord Milano) of which several Municipalities are members, just as the Province of Milan, the Chamber of Commerce and local companies.

  30. 30.

    Some buildings were recovered and kept for public service mission. Among these, we can find the temporary reuse of the “Bulloneria Concordia” building that was turned into MAGE by the “Temporiuso” Association, a project that combines the promotion of local heritage with new services and production, placing Sesto alongside European experiments at the forefront of the renovation of former industrial sites.

  31. 31.

    Examples are: “I racconti del Villaggio Falck”, a dialogue between Sestopedia (Sesto’s Wikipedia) and the inhabitants of Villaggio Falck; guided tours and bicycle itineraries proposed by the Sesto San Giovanni for the UNESCO team; many workshops for children around historical values of work; some projects devoted to elderly people, like “Sette No(n)ni”, recovering the workers’ memories.

  32. 32.

    Three semi-annual workshops (2012–2013) with students of different schools of Politecnico di Milano, in cooperation with the Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Bizzi & Parteners Development were an important occasion (that I had the opportunity to co-conduct) to study the area and the planning process from a privileged point of view.

  33. 33.

    For more case-studies and general overview on the issue, see: Cristina Bianchetti (ed.), Territorio e produzione (Macerata: Quodlibet, 2019).

  34. 34.

    In the newspaper the site is described as unsafe, see: ‘Degrado e spaccio nella ex Snia a Varedo: operatori Rai accerchiati e aggrediti’, MonzaToday, 7 June 2019, http://www.monzatoday.it/cronaca/snia-operatori-rai-aggrediti.html [accessed June 2019].

  35. 35.

    FAI is the “Fondo Ambiente Italiano” (Italian Environment Fund), the site is inserted within the section “I Luoghi del Cuore-Il censimento dei luoghi italiani da non dimenticare”: https://www.fondoambiente.it/luoghi/ex-stabilimento-milanese-e-azzi?ldc [accessed April 2019].

  36. 36.

    The production north of Milano is described in an Italian well-known publication by Stefano Boeri, Arturo Lanzani and Edoardo Marini, Il territorio che cambia: Ambienti, paesaggi e immagini della regione milanese (Milano: Abitare Segesta Cataloghi, 1993) and more recently described in: Arturo Lanzani, Cristina Mattioli and Giulia Setti, ‘Urbanizzazione pedemontana lombarda. Un progetto di territorio’, in Cristina Bianchetti (ed.), Territorio e produzione (Macerata: Quodlibet, 2019).

  37. 37.

    Interesting cases for the Piedmont region and the metropolitan area of Turin, but also for other regions, are also contained in Cristina Bianchetti (ed.), Territorio e produzione (Macerata: Quodlibet, 2019).

  38. 38.

    The framework of this reflection is close to the relation between heritage and regional or local identity as developed in: Stefan Berger, Jana Golombek and Christian Wicke (eds.), Industrial Heritage and Regional Identities (London: Routledge, 2018).

  39. 39.

    The equation was based on the fact that the incomes of real estate development, controlled through density (high-rise buildings), could pay for infrastructure, services and quality.

  40. 40.

    Anna Moro and Ilaria Tosoni, ‘Strategie di allineamento e micro azioni per lo spazio pubblico. Riflessioni intorno a luoghi emblematici in attesa dell’area milanese’, in AA. VV., Atti della XXI Conferenza Nazionale SIU: CONFINI, MOVIMENTI, LUOGHI. Politiche e progetti per città e territori in transizione, Firenze 6–8 giugno 2018 (Rome and Milan: Planum Publisher, 2019).

  41. 41.

    Some references for new policies of cooperation can be seen in the new season of pacts and agreement on the public sphere adopted by the Municipality of Milan. Among them those for the shared gardens, cooperation alliances on public spaces (“Patto di collaborazione”), which have led to the definition of a general large agreement (“Regolamento dei Beni comuni”) in 2018. Other regions and cities (Bologna as the first one in Italy) like Piedmont have collected a large number of agreements in line with the cooperation pacts, for a general overview see: ‘Rapporto 2017 sull’amministrazione condivisa dei beni comuni’, by Labsus, https://www.labsus.org/wp-content/themes/Labsus/media/Rapporto_Labsus_2017.pdf-date [accesses August 2019].

  42. 42.

    The program “Recycle Italy” (2015–2017) is a national research endeavor addressing the issue of abandonment and reuse that is widespread in the entire Italian territory, https://recycleitaly.net/- [accessed June 2019].

  43. 43.

    Stefan Berger, ‘Industrial Heritage and the Ambiguities of Nostalgia for an Industrial Past in the Ruhr Valley, Germany’, in Labor: Studies in Working-Class History 16/1 (2019).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DAStU—Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Anna Moro

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  1. Anna Moro
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Social Movements, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany

    Stefan Berger

  2. Department of Historical Studies, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

    Stefano Musso

  3. Department of History and Art History, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands

    Christian Wicke

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Moro, A. (2022). Reusing Former Industrial Areas in the North-West of Italy. In: Berger, S., Musso, S., Wicke, C. (eds) Deindustrialisation in Twentieth-Century Europe. Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89631-7_16

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