Milan, IT, 2022-23

research

In postwar Milan, mass housing advanced plot by plot rather than by a single master plan. Out of codes, negotiations, and middle-class aspirations emerged a “halfway modernism” — and with it an unintended typology: the street-front garden grafted into the dense grid.

The 1953 General Regulatory Plan formalised setbacks that effectively moved the courtyard to the street, raising density while seeding a thin ribbon of green along the facades. Through journals, collaborations, and a culture of professionismo colto, ideas travelled across offices and scales, turning radical ambitions into everyday fabric. Our research is about both a history and a method: it shows how architects can work from within existing rules—setbacks, codes, incentives, and professional networks—to steer many small projects toward public value, shifting agency from isolated objects to the frameworks that shape the city.

more on: e-flux, sophia journal