On 27 April, the Ferrovie dello Stato group presented the new project for the redevelopment of the two former railway yards Farini and San Cristoforo to the public and investors, for a total lot that covers an area of no less than 360,000 square metres. At the same time, the procedures for the sale of the two areas began, which will become a huge public park (250,000 square meters) alongside residences, craft and manufacturing businesses.
We are now at the point where someone is expected to come forward for the purchase, in a lot sales mechanism divided into 3 phases, the last of which is expected by 2024. Subsequently, it will be necessary to start the authorization procedures for the permission to build, and then the real work will begin.
The Farini railway yard
Of the two, the Farini railway yard is the larger, thanks to its surface area of 300,000 square meters. Its destiny will be to become 65% of a green area, a long linear public park that will be equipped with many services. But that’s not all, because 1,034 social rent apartments will be built here as well as 500 apartments in free and subsidized housing.
The solution envisaged for the elevated walkways to connect the districts divided by the tracks is interesting: in fact, they will become real green corridors. According to the idea of the Oma team, which is overseeing the project, the park will be able to cool the hot winds from the southwest, purifying the air of toxic particles and reducing the heat island effect.
As regards the buildings currently present inside the airport, they will be redeveloped and transformed into a promenade, a cycle workshop, an open courtyard, a space for events and concerts, and a winter garden, which will house some startups . On the basis of the current real estate scenario, any new buildings or skyscrapers will also be evaluated.
But that’s not all: the real star of the Farini airport project will be the arts campus of the Brera Academy, which will occupy 15,000 square meters and will be able to accommodate as many as 1,800 students. The works already started last summer, and it is estimated that they could be completed in 2025.
San Cristoforo railway yard
The redevelopment of the former San Cristoforo railway yard will instead be much simpler: it will in fact become a single enormous park, which will strengthen the environmental system of the southern agricultural park, and relations with the M4 station and the Giambellino and Lorenteggio districts.
This park too, like that of the San Felice airport, will act as an “ecological filter”: in this case, it will be able to purify the water in a completely natural way, thus allowing the creation of swimming pools and outdoor sports activities.
The former railway yards of Milan
Today, behind the boundary wall of the former Farini yard there is a huge clearing of asphalt, steel, sheds and old logistic structures. It is an infrastructure dating back to the 1920s, designed as a hub for the arrival and transit of goods, but it has never been used at full capacity, and has been totally unused for decades.
Furthermore, the Farini railway yard causes damage to the city because it cuts the northern area of the Monumental cemetery in two, and to go from one side to the other it takes 30 minutes by public transport and 15 minutes by car; if it weren’t there, it would take less than 15 minutes to walk the stretch.
Its redevelopment has been talked about for decades, but now it seems that we are finally here. The plan for the regeneration of the 7 Milanese airports was launched in July 2017 after an endless series of obstacles and authorization procedures. In addition to Farini and San Cristoforo, the redeveloped airports will be Porta Romana, Greco-Breda, Lambrate, Rogoredo and Porta Genova, with a total area of over one million square metres.
