Seminar: Histories of Urbanism, Gender & Urbanization

Spring Semester 2022

Common Walks On Monte Stella

by Leo Paulmichl

Lecturers: Dr. César Reyes Nájera and Dr. David Peleman

Life on Monte Stella on a sunny day in April 2022. Photo: Leo Paulmichl

The QT8 neighborhood in the outskirts of Milan is emblematic of rethinking of modern
planning strategies after the Second World War. Piero Bottoni, who was responsible for the master plan of the settlement, participated in most of the CIAM congresses, including the fourth edition on the “functional city”. With the design for the QT8 estate in 1947, which was part of the eighth Triennale exhibition in Milan, he broke away from the individualistic and functionally segregated cityscape of the pre-war period. Perhaps also as a result of the wartime experiences, the need had matured to place public and collective aspects of living at the center of urban planning again. To this end, Bottoni and a number of other architects involved in the project envisaged a variety of different building typologies and public functions. The collective experience was to unfold above all in green zones that connected the different typologies and culminated at a central point in an artificially created hill for local recreation (called Monte Stella). Experiments were also made to strengthen the community within the structure of social housing units.