On the road city MILAN

Milan is the first Italian city to be included in the On the Road travel guide collection. The guide will be published in 2015 to coincide with the World’s Trade Fair in Milan. In recent years, Milan has become a metropolis involved in transformations that are well worthy of interest for the architectural and urbanistic experiments that have been carried out. The complex dialectics between innovation and respect for the existing urban form is the distinctive characteristic of Milan: recovery of downgraded neighbourhoods, redevelopment of decommissioned industrial zones, technological experimentation, and vertical development are the aspects that mark Milan as a strongly contemporary city. This guide is being launched in answer to a moment of great focus on Milan. As it guides the reader through the wide range of contemporary architectural projects, it emphasises the unique nature of its complex character. The transformations are still underway and for this reason, it is difficult to foresee how a city of such size will manage to redefine its personal equilibrium: but this too is part of the contemporary nature of Milan.

Matteo Moscatelli holds a PhD in "Architecture, Urban Design, Conservation of Housing and Landscape". He is professor of “Composition and urban design” at Politecnico di Milano and of “History of contemporary architecture and interior design” at Istituto Europeo del Design. He collaborates with the Spring Semester of University of Southern California. He writes for the magazine “Area”, for which he edited the contemporary architecture itineraries of Zurich, Seville, Munich and Hamburg.