Upside Down Flows: Redeeming the landscapes crossed by the Olona River in Milan | Landscape Architecture Thesis

Site Context

The research examines the prospects that deculverting underground streams (as is the case with the Olona River) might bring along and evaluates its potential to spark a green revolution in Milan, a city that has lost touch with its distinctive waterways. The river rises in northern Italy and flows southward to Milan, where it enters the city as a culvert and ceases any interaction with the built environment and its inhabitants, becoming a living but invisible entity.

The river and the valley that it crosses have an important place in Italian history, as their characteristic rich biodiversity created the perfect location for agricultural and industrial activity that helped boost the economy of the country. But like many other rivers in the world, the history of the Olona river is a love and hate story, marked by its mismanagement at the peak of industrialization and facing significant environmental challenges due to pollution.

All of this contributed to the emergence of the “Downside,” the buried underground landscapes that resulted from the complete collapse that occurred between the 1930s and the 1970s. Parallel to this, a fabric known as the “Upside” formed, leaving behind a number of liminal areas that were similar to one another, lacked amenities and diversity, and performed very poorly in terms of ecosystem services in spite of their green spaces.

Design Process

The project aims to restore the city’s lost “water spirit,” reunite residents with their “water heritage,” and create a green revolution in the public places through the deculverting of the Olona river.

In order to achieve this, four strategic pillars are seen as the main development objectives: reprogramming the green open spaces with quality and variety into the vegetal selection, providing the means to carry out “soft engineering” processes, and delivering new and rich experiences through the interaction of the senses all year long. Following that, slow-mobility strategies are employed to draw people in and establish a connection to the wider transportation network.

Final Outcome

The project’s final product is an experimental proposal for urban regeneration, built on tactics and measures intended to remodel the urban fabric’s cross-sections with daylighting from the Olona river.

By combining nature-based solutions (NBS) and sustainable urban drainage systems (SUDS), the project achieves a holistic balance between the past, present, and future while reimagining the city’s streetscape. In doing so, it builds a blue-green corridor of open public spaces that extends into the surrounding neighbourhoods and employs a number of placemaking strategies along slow mobility connections to the larger transport system.

While employing “soft engineering” and co-participation strategies to self-maintain public open spaces, this landscape architecture thesis strives to recognise the good impacts of restoring natural capital like the Olona into the city, improving and strengthening the mental and physical well-being of the inhabitants. 

[This Academic Project has been published with text submitted by the student]