Water in Milan has always been a founding element for civilization, especially for its urban, working, and cultural development due to the presence of rivers, water springs, and a system of artificial canals known as Navigli. Therefore, the covering of the Navigli system in 1929 in lieu of large contemporary infrastructures led to the loss of sociability at both the urban and neighbourhood scale. This change has also led to the loss of a commercial route that connected the Alpine area with the Adriatic Coast, a system that gave the city the title of Italy’s third largest harbour during the XX century. Thus, covering the Navigli deprived Milan of the traditional features that enhanced the urban space and its continuity with a more complex context. In addition, the major rivers that cross the city has been covered. This choice, together with high levels of cementing and water pollution, has resulted in an urban fabric that is discontinuous from the water-related Roman and Medieval tissues and it is increasingly affected by the urgencies of climate change.
This project aims to restore the Navigli system as a replacement for some of the modern infrastructures to rehabilitate the water identity of Milan. The emergent landscape should increase urban quality by emphasizing sociability on a local scale. Attention will turn to participatory activities capable of attracting citizens to water-related spaces to create a sense of caring and belonging to the place. The project also focuses on the balance between nature and culture through an unconventional aesthetic that interact more healthily with the environment. Nowadays, the ecological network is interrupted by the infrastructure: roads define the shape of often marginalized green areas, so different ecosystems are fragmented. Thus, the linear form of canals may suggest a new ecological corridor through different urban realities.