The area covered by the project actions in Milan concerns the southeastern outskirts of the city, in particular the Corvetto neighborhood and the “Nosedo-Porto di Mare” area: an area characterized by a very specific urban and sociological context.

 On the one hand, the Nosedo-Porto di Mare area characterized by its proximity to important road and rail infrastructure, as well as by a well-defined boundary between compact urban space and open agricultural area-with the village of Chiaravalle at the center of the latter. On the other, the Corvetto neighborhood, also a context on the boundary between urban and rural space, characterized by public residences from the first half of the twentieth century and a large open space system formed by agricultural fields, urban woods, public parks and areas affected, in the near future, by significant urban transformations. An urban context in which elements linked to the agricultural world coexist, therefore, with systems and functions that are directing the area towards new developments: Corvetto and Nosedo-Porto di Mare show, on the one hand, significant socio-economic challenges and, on the other, reveal a particularly lively socio-cultural fabric, in many cases characterized by a strong and distinctive identity and community spirit compared to the rest of the city.

The performative actions developed by the Piccolo Teatro di Milano aim to explore between the neighborhood and the systems of parks and open spaces that make up the landscape, paying particular attention to their physical morphologies, modes of use and their boundaries (often deceptive) between natural and artificial landscapes.

The city and 
the areas involved

The Corvetto neighbourhood is among the most densely populated in the city of Milan, with a historic heritage of public housing of great urban and architectural quality- though in many parts degraded - built between the 1930s and 1960s. The first part was designed by Giovanni Broglio between 1925 and 1928, with a nineteenth-century layout with large sections of tree-lined streets, a central avenue in continuity with the main development axis of the western part of the city of Milan (viale Omero), a system of squares (Piazza Gabrio Rosa, Piazza Ferrara, Piazzale Corvetto), the characteristic building structure with enclosed courtyards and tree-lined interior gardens. The second part was designed and built in the 1960s by the technical office of the City of Milan led by Arrigo Arrighetti and is a modernist structure with in-line building, separated by large courtyards and tree-lined gardens.

The neighbourhood has a strong presence of foreign population of recent immigration: since 2011 the Lodi-Corvetto-Chiaravalle area has seen an increase in the foreign population of 6 percent for a total of 24 percent in 2021, a high presence of young people -about 13 percent of the total population in this area - and is characterized by significant social fragilities. At the same time, it is also one of the most dynamic and vibrant in the city due to the presence of associations engaged in many areas of personal care and assistance, the environment, cultural promotion and social innovation.

Broglio and Arrighetti's urban planning defined the structure of the neighbourhood’s public spaces. These are spaces of great urban quality, intensely experienced by the resident population at all hours of the day, affected twice a week by large open-air markets. To the south of the neighbourhood, beyond the precise boundary of the streets that define the edges of it, lies a large landscape area, open to the agricultural plain of South Milan.
 

Landscapes, spaces, communities 
and theatre 

The agricultural fields of Nosedo and the urban park of Porto di Mare, together with the Vettabbia Park, form a composite system of open spaces, located south of the city and separated from the Corvetto neighbourhood by the precise boundary of Via San Dionigi. Nosedo and Porto di Mare are included in the boundaries of the Parco Agricolo Sud Milano, the protected area that also includes the largest of the water purification plants serving the city of Milan. The roggia Vettabbia, a historic waterway that originates in the centre of the city of Milan, connects the district with the Chiaravalle Abbey, the ancient site of Cistercian monks.

The area of Porto di Mare owes its name to a large port basin that was never completed and whose traces are still recognizable today in the slopes and depressions of the ground. The Port was designed to connect the city of Milan to the Po River and, from there, to the Adriatic Sea. After excavations in the 1920s and a long period in which it was flooded and used by citizens for leisure, since the early 1970s the port has been filled in, used as a dumping ground for urban waste and digging materials, until it formed an artificial hill. From a place frequented by citizens, it has become one of the most neglected and abandoned areas in the city. Only recently a process of recovery has been initiated, thanks to the intervention of the City Council and the work of Italia Nostra ONLUS, which has resulted in a public park of over sixty hectares, an unusual landscape for the city of Milan, where grasslands and large clearings prevail, with areas modified and cleaned so that nature can cooperate in forming new environments. The boundary between the city and Porto di Mare, formed by degraded and abandoned areas, will be redesigned in the coming years through major urban transformations that will bring new buildings, functions, and inhabitants.

In the process of surveys and inspections, exploring the landscape between neighbourhood and open spaces, it has been possible to recognize the boundaries between what appears natural and what is artificial, between communities of resident populations and those who frequent the park temporarily coming from the rest of the city, or sometimes from afar. Sometimes the presences in the park are the most unexpected, such as wildlife that has returned to inhabit the South Milan areas or a transhumant flock hosted twice a year, which helps to regulate the fields and grassy spaces.

Relevant issues during and after the pandemic