San Donato Milanese Competition

San Donato Milanese, Italy | 2006 | Competition entry

In the centre of San Donato Milanese, Italy, sits Centro Città, the centre of town, an open space waiting for a purpose. We have retained views and routes into its centre from its four corners and enhanced these views with an arc of water that glistens with reflections of its surroundings and the sky.

The second section, Sottostazione Elletrica, provides a formal tree lined avenue and pavement to either side of the road. De Gasperi Ovest is a residential district that sits at the heart of the original company town. Taking inspiration from the existing landscape we wish to enhance the formal character of the rectangular grid of roads and new linear paths by planting avenues of trees bordered by hedges and verges of groundcover plants and grass.

We have extended the use of formal lines of avenue trees to the 1 km long Boulevard. The planning application for San Donato presented covered all three areas: The Centro Città area is nearly 9 ha including a park of about 6 to 6.5 ha, the former electrical substation covers nearly 0.5 ha, and De Gasperi Ovest approximately 8.5 ha.