APCOM

City planners and sociologists together to analyze Milano's next challenges. The latter, is the main objective of "Where is the city going? How is it changing?", a meeting organised by the Ambrosianeum Foundation in Milan. City planners Giuseppe Boatti and Maria Cristina Treu spoke about the city's future with sociologist Enrico Maria Tacchi and assessor of Territorial Development Carlo Masseroli.

Milano's environment needs to be saved, as real estate market has invaded every unutilised spaces of the city. This was one of the main topics of the discussion. "Until now, in Milano there wasn't a strategic vision", said Boatti. "Last city's administrations thought that real estate was more important than environmental consequences. Now, we have to balance enterpriser's interests and enviroment needs, We have the chance to create new parks, for example, in the old and unutilised railway stations".

But what is Milano's next challenge? "Understand its own identity", said Treu. "Milano is not a industrial city anymore, nor a pyramidal or a tertiary-based town. We have to think about it as an extended city, giving a message that can express a coral vision of the city". Sociologist Tacchi said that now it's important "to give Milanese's people strong identification's elements, useful to help them in recognising and living city's spaces". Assessor Masseroli confirmed the importance of balancing the city's development with its needs. "That's why I created the borough's manager - Masseroli said - a new professional figure helping to find out problems and potentials in single city's areas". The conference is intended to be one of a series of events, which analyse Milano's new perspectives.