Communicating city identity through public spaces : case study scalo Farini Milan

SCALO FARINI : Communicating city identity through public spaces . Throughout the history of the city of Milan , it has gone through many major urban transformations that formed the city as it is today . However due the urban sprawl of the city and the expansion of its Metropolitan scale in result , the image and character of the city are getting blurred and diffused in its newly developed areas despite being not so far in distance from the city`s historic center with its intact and charismatic identity . Since the late 80s and until recently urban plans are being laid out on the regional and city level promising to solve such issues or mitigate them at minimum , promising new definition for the city being "the public city " , a city that would be supposedly oriented to its inhabitants rather than to its co-operates . Such plans include the urban revitalization of many of the city`s old industrial and abandoned sites as well as defining the city`s new edge on all its axis . In the light of such context , this project seeks to reflect upon the potential of the urban re-structure of Scalo Farini area being one of the city`s large and relatively central brownfield site to contribute to the major urban invigoration of the city . The Masterplan aims to create mixed use cultural and residential district with a focus upon public space design with its variety of scales and possible activities , highlighting role of the "the space in between" as a common ground for the community and a mean of mutual communication between the city and its inhabitants .