Community and Healing Gardens in the center of Milan: regeneration and connection of the “hidden green”

For this project I deepened my knowledge of Healing Gardens. In fact, greenery is very important in health care facilities: both in hospitals and in places that welcome people with different types of disabilities. The garden, and nature in general, have curative capacities through two complementary methodologies: the first, a simple “passive” enjoyment of the garden, i.e. the vision of a green landscape, the second involving the patient in gardening activities, through horticultural therapy in a professional sense.

Community Gardens are another important theme for the project: the reality of gardens like these is growing more and more in the city of Milan as “a public space whose management is the result of a collective and concerted activity. Community Gardens involve all citizens because they are created and planned by the inhabitants themselves to make their neighbourhood more pleasant and represent an innovative method of recovering and using degraded public areas”.

The combination of Community and Healing Gardens led to the creation of the two redeveloped areas of this project. Hence the name of these gardens: “Rediscovered Gardens”, i.e. small parks reborn to be rediscovered and enhanced by its inhabitants and spaces where the possibility of finding each other and sharing time is a prerogative.

With the term “hidden greenery” I would like to describe the greenery that is not expected, not imagined in that place, but at the same time it gives identity to the city and creates places for meeting and detachment from the chaos of the city. It is important to note that attention is shifting to this topic and the consequent need to implement greenery within urban spaces.
Importante notare come l’attenzione si stia spostando su questo tema e sulla necessità di implementare il verde entro gli spazi urbani.

In this way, starting from the protection and enhancement of existing green spaces, both private and public, and from greater attention to small interventions, we can succeed in improving the quality of life and the appearance of cities.

In conclusion, I would like to emphasise the importance of a large-scale vision of the project. The green spaces presented here are the subject of a study concerning both the needs of the neighbourhood in which they are located and the needs of the city in which they are located.
In fact, it is necessary to create a system that is connected so that public places can be implemented and improved.