A neighbourhood laboratory for the regeneration of a marginalised suburb in Milan: Towards the creation of a trading zone

Abstract

This chapter presents the case of a neighbourhood regeneration programme. It focuses on the experience of Ponte Lambro, a neighbourhood of 4,000 people in the south-east of Milan. The programme, started in 2006, is ongoing. It has accomplished the renovation of the social housing stock and public facilities, the creation of new housing units and the improvement of green spaces. In order to support the programme, Milan City Hall established a Neighbourhood Lab tasked with the promotion of public participation, building communication channels, coping with the difficulties that change might create and informing local community about the development of the programme. Both authors, as appointed consultants, have been responsible for the management of the Lab. Five years into the regeneration programme, it is possible to interpret the life of the laboratory as a trading zone’s building process that passed through different stages along its development. This chapter describes the evolution of the laboratory according to the prototype conditions formulated by Collins et al. The laboratory began work in a situation of lack of communication, of distrust between the local authority and residents and of great heterogeneity in terms of cultures, languages and forms of knowledge. It tried to encourage the collaboration, presenting the regeneration programme as a “boundary object”, a space of opportunity to fill in with projects by different actors. The laboratory made a great effort to translate technical languages for the residents, to build mutual trust and to create a sense of ownership of the programme. As a result, an “interactional expertise” has emerged. In the final section, the chapter tries to answer to more generic questions: under which conditions can this case be a lesson for other similar situations, and to what extent can the TZ theory be useful to interpret how an integrated urban approach really works?