LAND presents Parco Unione, the green lung of the former Falck areas

The LAND international landscape consultancy firm has recently presented the Parco Unione project, the first important step in the massive transformation involving the former Falck areas in Sesto San Giovanni, in the province of Milan. Parco Unione aims to restore to the community "a flexible space for leisure time in full harmony with nature".
"The recovery of such a large industrial area is an unmissable opportunity to redevelop and rediscover the entire context", explains Andreas Kipar, co-founder and CEO of LAND. As he further clarifies, the project addresses the multiplicity of elements in the Sesto San Giovanni area to offer an all-inclusive landscape project, as well as playing a mending role between the different existing urban textures: "the matrix of the historic fabric, the most recent productive transformations, the great infrastructural signs of the railway line and Viale Italia.".

The landscape constitutes an important element of this transition as the area subject to intervention in fact covers over 13.5 hectares of land to be re-naturalised with innovative solutions guided by principles of sustainability in the use of resources – water first and foremost, as well as energy.
Responding to the influences and stimuli provided by the broader context and following some key points – attractiveness, naturalness, sustainability, accessibility and safety – the project aims to activate new functions in the area, linking them to the historical memory of the places and to its important industrial past.
The park will be articulated through a series of "loops" and the main loop will be intersected by other themes, referring to a well-defined and identifiable category of users. This will allow the park to become an important focal point for aggregation and attraction for different types of users.

The themes of the loops will also cover some areas that will be defined and equipped for specific purposes. When it comes to sports, for example, there will be dispersed spaces, such as the fitness trail in the woods, or concentrated spaces such as the pitches dedicated to certain sports, or the Street Sport area with the SkatePlaza, which will be able to host international Street Skate competitions.
The definition of the various themes of the spaces will also affect the greenery of the park, which will be structured in macro-areas. The species selection will, in fact, reference the typical vegetation of the Po Valley, also found in the nearby North Park, as well as to the crops of the Lombard productive plain, with specimens arranged in rows specific of the separation between fields. In terms of numbers, more than 1300 trees will be planted, with 37,000 square metres of forest with plants of different ages and sizes, and 17,000 square metres of clearing articulated into mowed and irrigated lawns, solutions that will guarantee an important increase in biodiversity, making Parco Unione the new green lung of this territory.

(Agnese Bifulco)

Images courtesy of LAND

Credits
Client: Hines Italy RE S.r.l., Prelios SGR S.p.A., Milanosesto S.p.a.
Partners: ERRE.VI.A, Montana S.p.A., J+S S.r.l., Ctrl-Z Skatepark, Francesca Oggionni, Ghezzi Efrem & C.
Team LAND Italy: Andreas Kipar, Jens Hoffmann, Luisa Bellini, Andrea Bulloni, Valeria Pagliaro, Valerio Bozzoli, Francesca Villa, Maria Elena Galassi, Elena Aste, Ilaria Sangaletti, Alessia Giampaolino, Virgina Pozzi, Aurora Fleres, Mirco Santi
Project data: 144,608 m2 public urban park, 37,000 m2 woodland, 17,000 m2 large clearing 17 autochthonous tree species, 1383 new trees, + 65.000 kg/C02 absorbed per year, +6500 ml of cycle-pedes-trian paths, 1 main loop, 3 thematic loops, 4 urban access squares, +200 ml of vegetated canal, 1 skatepark for national competitions, 7,600 m2 of activity areas (leisure, playground, sports fields)
Images: NUBE (01-03)

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