Milano Arch Week 2022, all scheduled events

Milano Arch Week, the event dedicated to architecture, urban transformations and the future of cities founded and promoted since 2017 by Comune di Milano, Politecnico di Milano and Triennale Milano, presents two days of lectures and discussion tables, as a preview of the fifth edition to be held in spring 2023.

Under the artistic direction of Stefano Boeri, President of Triennale Milano, the 2022 anticipation and the 2023 edition are curated by Nina Bassoli, curator for Architecture, Urban Regeneration, Cities at Triennale Milano, and Matteo Ruta, lecturer at Politecnico di Milano.

Two great figures of international architecture such as Anne Lacaton, founder of Lacaton & Vassal Architectes, Pritzker Prize 2021, and Anna Heringer, winner of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture 2007 and the Obel Award 2020, will be the protagonists of the September appointment, which as in previous editions will be inaugurated at the Milan Polytechnic on 26 September, while on 27 September there will be a day of in-depth discussions and debates on the transformations of Milan at the Triennale.

Waiting for Peripheries is intended as a moment of reconnaissance of the city’s social and cultural energies, aimed at initiating a collective reflection on the theme of the peripheries, which will find ideal fulfilment in the next edition of the event.

What can we learn from marginal areas? What do we expect from housing? Is there a new way of conceiving social housing? What are the boundaries of the centre? Are neighbourhoods islands or are they rather thematic layers? And again: how can we build a solid social infrastructure that can penetrate every neighbourhood? Can schools be the new foundation? These are some of the questions that will guide the 2022-2023 edition.

Presenting itself in a brand new guise, the event will open up to dialogue with the city’s various institutions and neighbourhoods, involving local activities and initiatives, and recounting the polycentric, complex and vital nature of Milan. A call for proposals and initiatives to be included in the 2023 event programme will be launched during the two-day event in September.

This anticipation of Milano Arch Week 2023 is therefore an important moment of sharing aimed at catalysing the different realities active on the territory and encouraging a more capillary activation of places.

The inauguration of Milano Arch Week will be held at the Politecnico di Milano on Monday 26 September. The programme includes institutional greetings at 5.15 pm and a lecture by Anne Lacaton at 6 pm.

Anna Heringer’s lecture is scheduled at the Triennale on Tuesday 27 September at 7.00 p.m. to close the study day open to the whole city. Local institutions and independent realities active in the area will be involved in interweaving reflections on the theme of the suburbs, starting with the presentation of some best practices during the morning and continuing with an afternoon of discussion around working tables also open to the public.

During the morning, some pilot projects will be presented as part of the “PINQUA Housing Quality Programme”; the first outcomes of the initiative “Off Campus. Il Cantiere per le Periferie” promoted by the Politecnico di Milano and the first Area Studies, an ongoing mapping programme by the Department for Urban Regeneration of the Municipality of Milan, with a special focus on the San Siro district. In the afternoon, discussion roundtables between institutions, planners and critical voices will take place, followed by a cross-public discussion.

All appointments are free admission.

The lectures by Anne Lacaton and Anna Heringer will be held in English, by reservation at the following links (subject to availability): 26 September Anne Lacaton 27 September Anna Heringer.

Programme

26 September 2022

Politecnico di Milano – Patio

5.15 p.m.

Institutional Inauguration

6 p.m.

Lectio magistralis Anne Lacaton

27th September 2022

Triennale Milan – Hall of Honour

10.00 a.m. Greetings and launch of the call addressed to local realities

Nina Bassoli and Matteo Ruta

10.45 – 12.45 Best practices

14.00 – 16.30 Thematic tables Major transformations and inequalities (Complexities and contradictions of the Milan Model) Housing for all? (Why is living in Milan so exhausting?) The Public City: 15, 30 or 60 minutes? (Thematic maps and proximity) Urban acupuncture (Cultural institutions, services and the city. With a special focus on the possible role of the New School)

17.00 – 18.30 Table return

19.00 Lectio magistralis Anna Heringer