LAND presents Parco Unione, the Green Lung of the ex-Falck Areas

Sustainable development, productivity, and historical memory: these are the themes underlying the masterplan for the former Falck areas, a project promoted by a partnership between Hines, who is the strategic advisor and development manager for the project, as well as investor, and Cale Street Partners for the development of the first private lot Unione 0, and the Prelios Group, which acts as manager of the Unione 0 fund and as asset and project manager for the entire initiative.

Parco Unione by LAND is the first step in this transformation from brownfield to Green Lung, making the landscape a vital transition element. It is a green system of about 13.5 hectares, stretching from the Station to Viale Italia, rich in new functions and linked to the industrial past.

The process of re-naturalising the area will be initiated through the application of innovative solutions—Nature-Based solutions—which today represent the most efficient and economical strategies to guarantee the correct use of resources and energy while ensuring the functioning of ecosystems.

In this innovative context, “Parco Unione,” designed by the international landscape consultancy firm LAND, is the first step towards the area’s wider regeneration. “The recovery of such a large industrial area is an unmissable opportunity to redevelop and rediscover the entire context. The green space project will involve creating one of the largest parks in the Milan metropolitan area, linked to Parco Nord and Parco Media Valle del Lambro by cycle paths and trails. This is where Parco Unione fits in, whose project confronts the multiplicity of elements in the Sesto San Giovanni area: the matrix of the historic fabric, the most recent productive transformations, the great infrastructural signs of the railway line, and Viale Italia. Therefore, the park’s objective is to act as a link between the various existing urban structures, bringing together all the existing realities in the area,” explains Andreas Kipar.

The functional programme within the park responds to the influences and stimuli coming from the broader context and the uses that will soon be activated. It follows some key points: attractiveness, naturalness, sustainability, accessibility, and safety.

The structure of the functions of Parco Unione is defined by a main loop intersected by thematic loops. Each loop has its uniqueness linked to the theme it represents, referring to a well-defined and identifiable category of users. Alongside the definition of loops as circular routes, the park is also articulated through the theming of the different areas with a specific vocation each: neighbourhood spaces that can guarantee services and recreation areas for future inhabitants, refreshment areas with the possibility of hosting kiosks, sports areas, diffused like the fitness trail in the woods and concentrated like the sports fields and the Street Sport area. This area includes the SkatePlaza, a new concept of multifunctional public space equipped for sports use and able to host international competitions related to the street skate discipline.

These activities and their specific targeting of users will make Parco Unione a pole of aggregation and integration in the fabric of Sesto San Giovanni, extending its catchment area to the entire Metropolitan City of Milan.

Much emphasis is placed on increasing the quality and character of the environmental landscape: the project gives ample space to areas planted with woodland and rows of trees. The introduction of light earth movements articulates the surface of the woods and makes the user’s experience always varied, characterising the immersive paths that cross it decisively. The free-use meadow areas are articulated into mowed and irrigated lawns, where there are areas of frequent use and rustic flower meadows with annual or biennial mowing and a high concentration of biodiversity.

The greenery of Parco Unione is structured in macro-areas that define the theme in terms of species selection: the lowland forest, typical of the Po Valley with reference to the species present in the nearby Parco Nord; the Lombard productive plain, with specimens arranged in rows specific to the separation between fields; and the ornamental rows, with regular planting that implements the ornamental characteristics.

More than 1,300 trees will be planted to provide ecosystem benefits, such as improving the microclimate and air quality thanks to their absorption of C02. Seventeen thousand square metres of large clearing will provide wide-open spaces for various activities, and 37,000 square metres of trees of different ages and sizes will provide an important ecological and landscape function and consequently increase biodiversity.

Water is considered an essential element in the park, both as an attractor that gives quality to the public space and a precious resource to manage sustainably.

The project is also attentive to issues of accessibility and inclusiveness, thanks to signs integrating tactile elements to aid orientation.

The transformation of the area from a brownfield to a green lung in Sesto S. Giovanni will take the form of an inspiring landscape project characterised by innovative solutions, a choice of materials and functions, and a mindful language of the site’s industrial history.

Parco Unione is a place returned to the community where redeveloped industrial archaeology blends with greenery to offer residents, city users, and visitors a flexible space for leisure time in complete harmony with nature.