Milan joined Human Cities since 2011 with Public Design Festival; the official partner within the project is the university Politecnico di Milano, Department of Design.
Milan is the main industrial, commercial, and financial centre of Italy. The city is a major world fashion and design capital and it is also well known for several international events and fairs, including Milan Fashion Week and the Milan Design Week, the largest of its kind in the world and it will host the Universal Exposition “EXPO 2015 – Feeding the Planet”. This six-month event, including 60 pavilions sponsored by more than 130 nations and organizations, begins May 1 and ends October 31.
According to the New York Times, Milan is one of the places to visit in 2015, and not only because of World Expo: “…alongside these urban development projects, a more organic wave of rejuvenation has swept through the city. Old structures of various stripes — among them a sawmill, a foundry, a bank and a farmhouse — have recently been repurposed as bars, shops, restaurants and cultural centers worthy of this most international of Italian cities. Put simply, there’s new energy coursing through cosmopolitan Milan, and it’s likely to last long after the Expo.”
In recent years the city of Milan experienced a series of bottom-up initiatives that originated an actual wave of social innovation, based on the combination of people’s creativity, local cultures, assets and resources. Co-working spaces, social streets, urban gardens and many other activities are currently animating the city, hopefully becoming long-lasting and transformative experiences.
