urban – Politecnico di Milano – Progress in Research

YouRban: co-creating innovative solutions for recycling and reuse of composite materials

Posted on 05/02/202409/02/2024 by admin

The YouRban project, funded by the European Union as part of Horizon Europe, coordinated by Professor Marcello Colledani of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Politecnico di Milano and also involving the Department of Design, has kicked off.

Europe is expected to generate almost 700,000 tonnes of reinforced polymer waste in 2025 and YouRban aims to address this challenge in an innovative and participatory manner. The project aims to create an active and aware urban community to find creative solutions for recycling and upcycling, in particular for reinforced polymers. By promoting the values of sustainability and inclusiveness and the knowledge of circular economy processes, the project will activate an urban ecosystem involving citizens, artists, designers, architects and small-scale producers (e.g., FabLabs and artisans’ workshops or Urban Factories).

YouRban is based on an innovative research strategy which draws on the European Union’s Green Deal and New European Bauhaus initiatives, promoting workshop and training activities for artists and designers.

The beating heart of the project is its truck, a mobile laboratory conceived as a true travelling workshop. This plant houses recycling and reprocessing technologies for end-of-life composite materials. The truck is not just a production tool, as it is also a powerful dissemination medium designed to promote the new values of the circular economy through exhibitions, artistic events and participatory activities related to the circular economy. Citizens, artists and FabLabs will be involved in co-creation activities and will also be able to explore demanufacturing and reprocessing technologies, gaining awareness of the economic, social and environmental benefits of the circular economy for their community.

The project is developed around two pillars: a pilot project in Milan and a pilot project in Barcelona. The approach of the pilot project in Milan is based on ‘problems in search of solutions’. Citizens point out concrete problems and artists design solutions through an innovative co-creation process. The involvement of YouRban’s technical experts ensures specialised expertise and training. The approach of the pilot project in Barcelona is reversed, as it adopts a ‘solutions in search of a problem’ perspective. Artists and creative networks design solutions for change, then look for stakeholders willing to adopt them to solve specific problems and meet community needs.

Finally, YouRban exploits the Open Call mechanism to involve micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, laboratories and associations interested in understanding material recycling technologies and opportunities, helping to raise awareness, train and create new jobs and business opportunities within the involved cities after the end of the project.

The hidden role of food in urban conflicts in Central America

Posted on 07/04/202307/04/2023 by admin

Extreme water events affect human security, starting from alimentation. In a research article published in the prestigious journal Nature Water researchers from Politecnico di Milano and University of California at Berkeley delve deeper into the complex nexus between droughts and conflicts in Central America.

For the decades from 1996 to 2016, researchers explored how water availability affected agricultural production and food security, and investigated the nexus between drought-induced food insecurity and the emergence of conflict in the region.

Cities in Central America are known for their high rates of homicides and urban violence linked to the proliferation of young street gangs known as maras. Moreover, the rural communities are threatened by the canícula, a dry season occurring in July and August, and its severe impacts on agriculture, which constitutes the main source of food supply and income.

For the first time, in our study we explicitly consider food security as a central mechanism in the chain linking drought-induced water shortage and conflict. We also analyze how the internal food trade can influence the level of food security from food-producing areas to food-consuming areas, such as cities.
Martina Sardo, PhD Student at Politecnico di Milano and lead author

The study offers insight into how climate and water availability can interact with human well-being and social unrest through food security. It also shows the importance of strengthening the resilience of rural communities in the developing world to prevent the rise of social tension.

Decreases in availability and access to water and food play a major role in conflict insurgences, while the stable conditions of peace are more influenced by favorable socio-economic conditions. Furthermore, conflicts in a given place can also be influenced by water scarcity conditions in distant places, which explains how the internal food trade can strengthen and spatially expand the water-food-conflict nexus.
Professor Maria Cristina Rulli, senior author of the article and coordinator of Glob3ScienCE

PALIMPSEST – Creative Drivers for Sustainable Heritage Landscapes

Posted on 21/02/202306/04/2023 by admin

The Politecnico di Milano continues to affirm its leading role in European research with new projects in the context of the New European Bauhaus initiative, launched by the European Union to spread the culture of the European Green Deal among citizens.

PALIMPSEST activities are coordinated by the group of prof. Grazia Concilio of the Department of Architecture and Urban Studies.

Inspired by the idea that territories are “palimpsests” shaped by the stratification of projects and practices that have acted on the natural environment, the project looks at landscapes that make this stratification visible, focusing in particular on three agricultural and urban landscapes called to face significant environmental and climatic challenges.

PALIMPSEST, whose activities will be carried out in Milan, Jerez de la Frontera and Lodz, aims to reconnect to a lost “wisdom” by triggering co-creation processes in which architecture, design and artistic practices are in dialogue with technical-scientific knowledge, specific needs of places and the great systemic challenges, to imagine new scenarios and experiment with innovative practices capable of combining human actions, landscape heritage and sustainability goals.

New play area opened in Milan’s San Siro neighbourhood

Posted on 12/12/202219/01/2023 by admin

A new space developed by the Politecnico di Milano’s WRP research group has been unveiled in viale Aretusa, in Milan’s San Siro neighbourhood. Activities and shows were arranged for children from the nursery school in via Dolci, who attended the opening alongside their teachers.

The urban regeneration project, developed by the WRP group at Department of Architecture and Urban Studies with the support of Vivaio Cascina Bollate (the Cascina Bollate prison nursery), involved the transformation of three residual spaces: a median strip, which has been turned into a play area, and two triangle-shaped lateral areas that run along via Civitali and via Ricciarelli, which have been redeveloped into green spaces.

The work in the play area saw the installation of soft flooring, specific equipment and a new tree. Additionally, the project created three small “urban rooms”, built using lightweight mesh structures; spaces that are open yet have boundaries at the same time. The aim is to return a residual space to the neighbourhood, in a search for new relationships, forms and unexpected uses of public space.

The new playground was built with technical support from Recordati S.p.A. as part of the Cura e Adotta il Verde Pubblico (Take Care of and Adopt Public Green Spaces) project organised by the Municipality of Milan, with the aim of donating a new, green play area to children in the neighbourhood, redeveloping a space near which the Group’s headquarters have stood since 1953.

For the first year, the project will also receive backing from Equa Cooperativa Sociale, which will support the project among the residents, the local associations and schoolteachers, regularly organising recreational and educational activities in the new play area.

WRP – West Road Project is an action research project for the areas surrounding via Novara, in the west of Milan. It is co-financed by Polisocial, the Politecnico di Milano’s social engagement and responsibility programme, through the 2017 Polisocial Award. The project was conceived as a means of activating public networks and spaces through the suburban periphery. The possibilities and issues in the area have been investigated as part of a participatory design process, aiming to regenerate marginal spaces and promote cyclability along via Novara.

Uforest: from grey to green

Posted on 18/11/202210/03/2023 by admin

According to the United Nation Department for Economic and Social Affairs, by 2050 68% of the world’s population is expected to live in urban areas. Over the next few years, climate change and urbanisation will be two of the most important challenges our societies have ever faced.

Uforest is a project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Commission and it aims at promoting Europe’s innovation capacity among universities, cities and businesses to deliver a new approach to Urban Forestry. The project created a cross-sectoral alliance for the development of new training and support for students and professionals working towards innovative urban forestry projects.

Join, learn and green your city!

Urban forests can provide an efficient solution for greener, healthier, and more sustainable cities, but often their implementation faces many barriers. For this reason, facilitating the implementation of urban forestry projects is fundamental.

During the last few months, the Uforest team produced 20 case studies on innovative urban forestry initiatives around Europe and Reports about the theme, such as the “Blueprint for Innovation in Urban Forestry” which provides a comprehensive overview of the main challenges faced by the European urban forestry sector. The aim was to better understand the current framework in which urban forestry projects are implemented and how innovation grows.

Discover more on the project