Our programmes
Fondazione Riccardo Catella’s commitment to enhancing public spaces and urban green areas.
THE PROGRAMMES
PROJECT ARCHIVE
Sustainable Architecture Design Competition
I Progetti della Gente 2021
The sustainable design competition, promoted by the Riccardo Catella Foundation, endorsed by the Municipality of Milan and carried out in collaboration with the Order of Architects PPC of the Province of Milan, is open to architects and engineers under 40 and involves the design of temporary, innovative and sustainable structures aimed at enhancing the use and enjoyment of BAM Park and the public spaces of Porta Nuova.
Collaboration with Fondazione Buzzi
I Progetti della Gente 2020
In 2020, the collaboration between Fondazione Riccardo Catella and Fondazione Buzzi for the Vittore Buzzi Children’s Hospital began. The project involved an artistic and landscape redevelopment of the hospital’s outdoor courtyard and entrance garden, with the aim of improving the usability and experience of these spaces. Completed in spring 2022, the project featured the ‘artistic covering’ of the courtyard’s concrete structure, created by students from the Accademia di Brera, based on a design by artist and landscape architect Gianni Burattoni.
BAM- Biblioteca degli Alberi Milano
I Progetti della Gente 2019
Since 2019, through an innovative public–private partnership with the Municipality of Milan and COIMA, Fondazione Riccardo Catella has been responsible for the management, security, maintenance, and cultural programming of the public park Biblioteca degli Alberi Milano in the Porta Nuova district. Through the BAM – Biblioteca degli Alberi Milano project, the Foundation promotes a rich programme of free cultural activities, with over 300 cultural events each year open to everyone, aiming to make the park a place for meeting, culture, and wellbeing for the community.
Porta Nuova Smart Camp
I Progetti della Gente 2018
Developed in collaboration with Dynamo Camp and L’Abilità, Porta Nuova Smart Camp is an inclusive pilot project that offers children living with serious illnesses and disabilities the opportunity to experience public spaces and urban green areas, specifically in the Porta Nuova district of Milan. The project’s main objective is to offer free moments of leisure and enjoyment to children affected by serious and chronic conditions, while also helping them develop confidence in their abilities and potential. Porta Nuova Smart Camp involves children in morning sessions of creative, expressive, fun, and emotionally engaging activities, structured according to the recreational therapy model and coordinated by a team of professionals. Activities take place at Fondazione Riccardo Catella headquarters, in the adjacent public garden, and at selected companies based in the Porta Nuova district.
Video Installation: Biblioteca degli Alberi
I Progetti della Gente 2017-2018
Promoted with the patronage of the Municipality of Milan and the Lombardy Region, this 360° immersive video installation was dedicated to Biblioteca degli Alberi, an urban park designed to be experienced and enjoyed. While awaiting the completion of the new park designed by the Dutch studio Inside Outside | Petra Blaisse, the installation—hosted on the ground floor of the Foundation from September 2017 to January 2018—illustrated the benefits of nature in the city and the contribution of parks to urban quality of life.
Milano open portrait
I progetti della Gente 2017
Promoted with the patronage of the Municipality of Milan, the Politecnico di Milano, and Triennale Milano as part of the Porta Nuova Smart Community. Between 11 and 18 June 2017, a life-size Camera Obscura was installed in the Porta Nuova area. Conceived at the intersection of landscape photography, design, and public art, the project was designed as a bridge event between Milan PhotoWeek and Milan Arch Week. By framing a specific view of Porta Nuova, the device created a monumental, moving portrait of that area and its everyday life.
MiColtivo nel parco (MiColtivo in the park)
I Progetti della Gente 2016-2017
Promoted within the Porta Nuova Smart Community, a programme of initiatives dedicated to citizens to explore the evolution of and actively participate in the development of the Biblioteca degli Alberi park, the third-largest public park in central Milan. Designed by Studio Inside Outside | Petra Blaisse, the park spans approximately 9 hectares and offers citizens a mosaic of pathways through themed gardens, lawns, circular forests, aromatic herbs and flowers, creating a place for relaxation and for hosting a wide range of outdoor activities.
MiColtivo the green circle
I Progetti della Gente 2015
Promoted in collaboration with Fondazione Nicola Trussardi and Confagricoltura, the project featured a circular pathway dedicated to urban agriculture, developed around 50,000 square metres of wheat fields cultivated in the heart of Porta Nuova, as part of the environmental art installation Wheatfield by Agnes Denes. Along the route, a 4,000-square-metre area was designated as a community vegetable garden and orchard, ‘Coltiviamo insieme!’ (Let’s Grow Together!), open to citizens and offering educational programmes on cultivation and food awareness for children and families.
Orto didattico Coltiviamo insieme!
I Progetti della Gente 2015
Coltiviamo Insieme! is a program of educational activities promoted by Fondazione Riccardo Catella for children and families, focused on food education and urban gardening. Coltiviamo Insieme! is carried out through weekly workshops from April to October in the vegetable garden of the public park surrounding the Foundation, in collaboration with professional agronomists. From 2016 to 2019, more than 40 educational workshops were held, involving well over 300 children.
L’Italia si alza! (Italy rises!)
I Progetti della Gente 2014
A project promoted in collaboration with Associazione Cometa, aimed at designing a new outdoor chair for urban public spaces, created by students at the Oliver Twist school through a dedicated educational program guided by three designers.
Research projects in the field of sustainable and responsible real estate investments
Città Generative 2013-2017
From 2013 to 2017, the Foundation collaborated with the non-profit association Forum per la Finanza Sostenibile with the aim of promoting initiatives to raise awareness of the economic and financial value of responsible and sustainable management of real estate portfolios.
From 2016 to 2017, the Foundation also promoted, together with the Sovereign Investment Lab (SIL), a research centre of Bocconi University, a research project and an annual workshop focused on the management and investment of cultural heritage and tourism as drivers of sustainable development in Italy.
MiColtivo, Orto a Scuola
I progetti della Gente 2012
Launched in 2012, MiColtivo, Orto a Scuola promotes environmental education in the city’s public schools, with a particular focus on more peripheral areas. Through the redevelopment of school courtyards and the creation of accessible educational gardens, the initiative also provides training for teachers, enabling the garden to be integrated as a cross-disciplinary educational tool and fostering the active inclusion of environmental topics across all school subjects.
Redevelopment of public spaces in the Isola neighbourhood
I Progetti della Gente 2010-2011
Between 2010 and 2011, within the framework of the Isola Urban Commercial District (DUC Isola) promoted by the Municipality of Milan, Fondazione Riccardo Catella carried out two public space redevelopment projects in the Isola neighborhood. The Foundation played a coordinating role with the Municipality and acted as a local liaison in the design and implementation of the regeneration of Via Borsieri and the green areas of Piazzale Archinto.
I Cantieri dei bambini (The Construction sites for children)
I Progetti della Gente 2010
Fondazione Riccardo Catella involved three major construction sites active in Milan—alongside the Porta Nuova site—by opening them for an entire weekend in May 2010 to children aged five to eleven, accompanied by their parents. Visitors took part in typical construction activities presented in a playful format, discovering how a construction site operates safely and efficiently.
The event was preceded by a communication campaign displayed on the Porta Nuova construction hoardings, portraying workers both on site and together with their children. The campaign aimed to raise public awareness about shared safety on construction sites and to highlight the work and daily life that take place behind the barriers.
Relocation of the Isola War Memorial by Carlo Ramous
I Progetti della Gente December 2009
In December 2009, at the request of the residents of the Isola district and in collaboration with the Municipality of Milan and local neighborhood associations, Fondazione Riccardo Catella relocated Carlo Ramous’s Isola War Memorial to Piazzale Segrino. The new location enhances the monument’s visibility and significance, while also restoring and upgrading the surrounding green area.
I bambini disegnano la città (Children design the city)
I Progetti della Gente April-May 2009
The Foundation launched a listening and engagement initiative dedicated to children from Milan’s primary schools, inviting them to draw how they would like their neighborhoods to be improved. The works produced were showcased in a large open-air exhibition displayed on the construction fences of the Porta Nuova area from April to May 2009.
“Emilio Cazzani – Giuseppe Sala” Scholarship
I Progetti della Gente 2008
An initiative promoted in 2008 by Fondazione Riccardo Catella to support young Italian talent, which led to the awarding of the “Emilio Cazzani – Giuseppe Sala” Scholarship, aimed at young Italian graduates or undergraduate students nearing graduation from Faculties of Architecture. The scholarship enabled one selected recipient to attend the Master of Architecture II Degree Program at Yale University in Connecticut (USA), one of the most prestigious and innovative universities internationally in the fields of architecture and urban planning.
Il Parco dei Diritti dei Bambini (The Park of Children’s Rights)
I Progetti della Gente 2008
An innovative playground, accessible also to children with disabilities, designed by internationally recognized designers. On the 2008 Salone Internazionale del Mobile di Milano, the Foundation inaugurated in the garden surrounding its headquarters the Percorso dei Diritti dei Bambini (Children’s Rights Path): a display of prototype play structures that children and parents could explore until June. Some of these playground installations are currently located in the garden at Fondazione Riccardo Catella.
Milano si mostra: 1 km of Gabriele Basilico
I Progetti della Gente 2008
From October to January 2008, through 150 photographs by Gabriele Basilico displayed in an open-air exhibition along the construction hoardings of Porta Nuova, all Milanese citizens were offered a visual narrative of the city and its transformations. The major retrospective of Basilico’s work was accompanied by the photographic exhibition “Passaggio 35” by reporter Marco Garofalo, set up at Fondazione Riccardo Catella, which illustrated the ongoing urban transformation in the Isola district.