APCOM

By April 2009, Milano's legendary youth hostel 'Piero Rotta', in the FieraMilanoCity area, will be refurbished. The object is both to improve the city's hospitality, also in view of the 2015 Expo, and to turn the facility, which was built back in 1948, into a zero-impact structure. By following the criteria concerning bio and sustainable building, the latter aims at getting the certification 'Green Key' of the Foundation for Environmental Education. The housing project will cost 3 million euros on the whole and it will start in December.

Throughout 2007, over 72,000 young visitors (85% coming from abroad) stayed in the hostel, around 60% of the attendances recorded in the seven similar facilities based in the Lombardia region. After the redevelopment, the sleeping accommodations will drop from 388 to 260: however, the rooms' quality will take benefit from it. All the rooms will be equipped with private bathrooms and wireless Internet connections. Specific bedrooms will be built to host disabled people.

The use of photovoltaic panels for the production of electric energy and hot water has already been planned, while Milano's Politecnico is considering the possibility to build a heat pump cooling system for the summer by taking advantage of the Milanese groundwater table. It won't be utopian to dream of the 'Green Key' certification, which guarantees the structure's absolute respect of eco-sustainable and environmental principles.

"This work is the first step towards the creation of an offer of tourist facilities built according to the most modern criteria of eco-sustainable architecture and intended for young students and families," underlined Milano's mayor Letizia Moratti. "We pay specific attention to low cost tourism: it doesn't mean a poor tourism, but a kind of tourism that cares about saving without giving up the services' quality."