Sustainable city development in Milan

The City of Copenhagen and the City of Milan recently signed an MoU with the aim of making the North Italian city greener by using Danish solutions. Therefore, Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster, travelled to Milan along with three Danish SMEs and the City of Copenhagen to engage in a co-creation workshop on the green future of the city.

Uniting SMEs to solve complex urban challenges
The point of departure for the Danish-Italian cooperation is Piazza Castello, a historic square in the heart of the city, which takes up an area of 18,000 m2. The City of Milan wishes to turn the space into an area for pedestrians and bicycles to increase liveability and eco mobility. Quite an ambitious goal in a city with 56 cars per every 100 inhabitants; in comparison, the number for Copenhagen is approximately 25 cars per every 100 inhabitants.

During the trip, the three Danish SMEs, Gehl Architects, HOE360 Consulting and Bikway, participated in a rainy site visit, entered into in-depth dialogue with the Milanese authorities, and took the initial steps towards co-creating a solution to the challenge of sustainable city development. As a result of the workshop, the companies are now delivering a proposal on how Piazza Castello can be turned into a green, eco mobility friendly and livable space, which will be enjoyed by the Milanese population and serve as a model for future sustainable city development.

Eco mobility and livability through co-creation
Convincing the car and scooter loving population of Milan to use the bike is indeed a complex challenge but in the past years the authorities have focused increasingly on sustainable city development. The learnings from Copenhagen and the expertise of Danish companies in the field of mobility and liveability is the next stepping stone in greening the city.

The ambition is to turn more than 200 of the city squares into pedestrian areas. Through the project ‘Complex Cleantech Solutions’, Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster is assisting in this process. Through a vital relationship between Milan and Copenhagen, the partners are now creating integrated solutions to the pressing challenges in the city. Hence, the road towards a greener Milan is being paved with Danish solutions.

Source: State of Green