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The Master on Landscape Architecture and the Continuous Professional Training Courses organized in Milan by ACMA and UPC, developed in Barcelona since 1983 by the Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya, are some of the most qualified European formative programs on the field. The qualification is admitted by EFLA. The task of the II grade Master (1500 hours, 750 of which are frontal lessons) consists in reaching the European standard of training for landscape architects in conformity with the parameters established by the association in order to homologate and certificate the professional activities of the field in the E.U.. Attendance to the single modules (planning workshops, seminars, travels, meetings, itineraries, etc) implies the release of post-graduation certificates by the UPC of Barcelona, spendable in the master program too.

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Milan. Parco Agricolo Sud. (The South Agricultural Park)
Laboratory The public space project MODULE 05
Milan, April - July 2010

The history of the Po Valley coincides with that of its transformation, from an indistinct lowland forest into one of the most efficient (and sought-after) productive agricultural mechanisms in Europe. Yet this apparent uniformity of landscapes, from the suburbs of Milan to the Po Delta, conceals indentations and signs linked to heterogeneity with which the various local communities have proceeded to appropriate their territory, from reclaimed lands to the management of water resources, to agricultural distribution, etc. Now that the global economic picture assigns agriculture a different and marginal role, this cultural richness is questioned by the necessity to improve the infrastructures present on the territory and by the dynamics of the real estate market which is particularly active on the outskirts of large urban settlements. Founded in 1990 and comprising 61 municipalities of the Milanese hinterland, the “Parco Agricolo Sud” carries out activities linked to the knowledge, valorization and promotion of one of the rural landscapes with the most intense history of our country. The intent of this workshop is to develop a series of proposals and projects aimed at awakening the citizens to this heritage and restoring centrality to rural landscape in the Milanese metropolitan area.

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Paris. Architecture, parks and urban plans
Cultural journey
Paris, 23-27 June 2010

BA large part of Paris’ image as it is known today, tied to the institutional masterpieces entrusted to the most renowned names in contemporary architecture, from the National Library to French Stadium to the new residential quarters along the river Seine, stems from a careful qualitative policy suited to valorize the building qualities and define, in detail, the open space design.
The Paris ZAC (Zone d'Aménagement Concerté), an experience half way between plan and project, did indeed arise in order to re-affirm the guiding role of the institutions, including participation on behalf of private citizens during the restructuring phases of vast central areas of the city, which became free after the deindustrialization processes of the previous twenty years. As a consequence, the urban landscape thus resulted enriched: whilst maintaining a certain continuity with the noble tradition of extensive public gardens present in the city, the open spaces often represent the result of experimental planning, starting from “Villette Park” continuing with the Gilles Clément and Michael Corajoud gardens, as well as those of entire generations of landscape architects from the nearby school of Versailles.

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João Gomes da Silva - Ana Kučan.
Spontaneous vegetable patches and urban agricultural realities
Design Workshop
Milan, 30 June-4 July 2010

These are sprouting before our very eyes taking advantage of interstitial spaces between infrastructures, they favour land which borders new urbanization projects, they make the most of unlikely water flows and follow in the traces of clandestine paths, from motorways they connote the suburb landscape of the large cities: they are known as “spontaneous vegetable patches”, “unauthorized vegetable patches” and represent a phenomenon in wide expansion during periods of crisis, as a response to the family economical subsistence. Nowadays some administrations assign them a value of social aggregation, of territory control and last but not least linked to the physical wellbeing of senior citizens. How should this kind of territory appropriation be supported, organizing, structuring and managing the plan for new urban vegetable patches? How should this phenomenon be related to the valorization processes if suburban agriculture? Which are the productive and distributive, complementary or alternative models reharding the large scale distribution of food, able to integrate the necessity of a healthy, controlled and self-produced diet, closer to the principles of environmental sustainability? How can all the above be transformed into a contribution towards structuring rural landscapes around our cities?

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Reorganizing landscapes
International project seminar MODULE 03a
Lisbon, 20-30 July 2010

After more than a decade of uncertain urban politics which favoured a disarticulated building development, Lisbon intends to propose itself as the capital of the most extensive and dynamic metropolitan area of the Iberian Peninsula, based on an image closely linked to the history of its public spaces, parks and gardens, whilst at the same time also using the most advanced architectural models of contemporary landscaping. These urban politics are the grounds for over 80% of the building occupation on municipal land and a worrying demographic decrease. Transferring the international airport and the arrival of high-speed trains, construction of the third bridge on the Tagus estuary and relieving areas belonging to the State, amongst which more than 50% of 19 linear kilometres of harbour equipment which precluded the relationship between city and river during the industrial age: amongst the European capitals Lisbon seems to dispose of the most growth opportunities, also due to administrative headquarters which intend to provide incentives for urban planning as a means for involving private citizens in matters concerning landscape upgrading useful for the community.

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Milan. Water as a city's resource
Laboratory Plan for the water systems: coasts, river, agriculture MODULE 04
Milan, september-october 2010

It is difficult for us to imagine Milan during the pre-industrial age. Milan was founded on the boundary between the high and low plain, along the line of the spontaneous springs of the resurgences, a consolidated island between rivers, artificial canals and canals: the city owes its productive and commercial fortune to the widespread and constant presence of water coming from the nearby Alpine chain. The organization of the surrounding territory, resulting from centuries-old redevelopments and adaptations, is based on irrigated and draining minor constructions which still allow an exceptional agricultural production, whilst the extraordinary hydraulic constructions on the canal network has allowed the historic commercial success of the city, as well as its transformation into an undisputed industrial capital between the nineteenth and twentieth century. Nowadays, the salvaging and valorization of this richness has been rightly placed at the centre of the territorial politics. What are the available techniques and technical know-how though, and which are the multidisciplinary implications of the use of water as a priority element for the planning choices at all different levels?

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Jordi Bellmunt - Karin Helms
Water connections. Canals, irrigation and ditches
Design Workshop
Milan, 8-12 september 2010

In the past, water has represented not only a useful element for agricultural production, an essential asset for human life, but also a great opportunity for the exchange of goods and information, an important incentive for the economical and commercial development of the territory. The most important cities of the world are cities on water: strategically arisen on river confluences, straits or along the most suitable coastlines, their ports intercept the main routes of goods trading. Goods whose transport during the pre-industrial age was carried out especially thanks to the water ways, often artificial, which shaped the landscape. How should the remaining water ways of our city be salvaged: even though hidden they should not only cover a playful role but rather be inserted into the current local productive system (micro-irrigation, production of renewable energy, etc.)? Can the use of the navigable canals contribute to a diversified policy for the transport of goods and people?

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João Nunes - PROAP
The Lambro river and its parks
Design Seminary
Milan, 8-17 october 2010

The Lambro river rises from the extraordinary landscape in the very heart of the Alps, at a height of almost 1000 metres above sea level. After having crossed 130 kilometres of one of the most densely industrialized metropolitan areas in Itlay, it flows into the Po river. The Lambro basin bears the pressure of six million residents distributed in over 400 municipalities, one of which being the administrative area, Milan. In the city its embarrassing presence can be felt alongside the ring road, flowing past overbuilt embankments full of new residential blocks, past the parks arisen thanks to its very presence which is now perceived as cumbersome if not dangerous: in little more than fifty years the Lambro river has changed from being one of the most crystal clear rivers of the Alps to a symbol of environmental deterioration. The production of new depuration plants or re-organization of the urban waste water disposal system is not sufficient. These measures must be accompanied by re-designing the river banks, also taking into consideration self-depuration and phyto treatments, as well as re-connection of naturalistic elements to the agricultural systems. It is also necessary that the metropolitan area re-secures its system of parks which still await to be carried out, starting from the Parco Forlanini plan which is on hold.

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