MIC-HUB at the seminar on Accessibility and Connectivity of the 15-minute City
We are delighted to attend the seminar on ‘Accessibility and Connectivity of the 15-minute-city’ in Milan on 8th March.
Federico Parolotto, the CEO of MIC-HUB, will take part in a round table discussion with Alain L’Hostis (ACUTE / UERA), Antonella Bruzzese (Polimi), Matteo Motti (Municipality of Milan), Tito Stefanelli (TRT).
During the Seminar, Gaia Sgaramella, MIC-HUB Senior Consultant, will present a research project entitled ‘Reading the city through proximity. The case of Reggio Emilia’, written by Giulia Carnevalini and Gaia Sgaramella.
The research carried out examined concepts like chrono-urbanism and the 15-minute city to see if they could be applied to Reggio Emilia. The context analysis made it plain that basing the strategy on travel times would lead to neglecting important aspects. For these reasons, the work focused on the neighbourhood scale, analysing the connection between polarities and their relations of proximity. Proximity urbanism is therefore used in the new accessibility planning approach, rather than temporal urbanism.
The work applied concepts borrowed from ecology – habitats, transition areas, ecotones – to the urban environment. Using these principles, two distinct urban units were defined. The polarities – where active city life happens – were identified as UIC (Urban Intensity Cores) and ecotone areas – transition areas between the cores – were UTAs (Urban Transition Areas).
The approach included the timely definition of a pedestrian accessibility that can trigger the redesign of public spaces to initiate long-term physical, social, economic, and environmental benefits, increasing the sustainability of the whole urban system.
This methodology will help the creation of a 30 km/h city, supporting the humanization process of road use, which will return a better public space to the city and its citizens.
The research work of MIC-HUB was customized for Reggio Emilia Municipality by the following team: Giulia Carnevalini, Loris Sciacchitano, Gaia Sgaramella and Giuseppe Andrea Vallelonga.