Inside Mind: A Day in Milan’s Innovative Neighborhood

There are the young scientists from the Human Technopole of Palazzo Italia, in via Rita Levi Montalcini, and there are the «umarells» who observe the construction sites that are still open. There are patients and visitors from the Galeazzi hospital, managers and technicians from around thirty companies (from AstraZeneca to Esselunga), the laundry van, the students of the ITS and the restoration school, the private security and carabinieri patrols, bartenders, cooks, cleaners, maintenance workers. And then rainbow aperitifs, basketball tournaments and ping pong challenges. The first (small) accident involving scooters has already occurred – the internal means of transport that dominates the inviting straight of Viale Decumano – and one evening the first homeless person was also intercepted. In short, even if you still have to pass through a guarded gate to enter, Mind has become to all intents and purposes a piece of Milan.

The new scientific-technologically oriented neighborhood is inhabited daily by 1,500-2,000 people, excluding the same number who work at the Galeazzi and the related patients, relatives and visitors to the hospital. And even if the future in which the population will be around 60 thousand souls still appears distant, certain services are already indispensable: from mobility to safety, from places of refreshment and meeting to infrastructures. While we are still working to build the future, “it’s about managing the present”, comments Stefano Minini, who governs the large Lendlease project in the area that hosted Expo 2015 and who now holds a role that resembles that of the people’s mayor «Minder». The creation of the citadel and also its functioning today are the responsibility of the urban development giant – and that is to say him. And this is what Giacomo Donini, “asset manager” of Lendlease, deals with, comparable to a councilor who coordinates the municipal companies of the Mind microcosm.

Contracts with three companies responsible, respectively, for ensuring maintenance, safety and mobility in the perimeter have been operational since February. A team of maintenance workers, constantly present, takes care of the road surface and the myriad of small and large structures, including doors with “intelligent” handles, i.e. controlled exclusively through an app installed on mobile phones. «Once I went to the bathroom and I didn’t take my phone with me – confides Donini – and on another occasion I was left holding the handle». This too is an experiment for the future: different problems recorded in a digital database “to carry out preventive maintenance”.

On the surveillance front, however, the hybrid status of Mind is still at play, part Milan neighborhood, with police patrolling, and part fenced campus with private surveillance service. Pedestrian entry is free, except in the evening hours: at the moment there is already some nocturnal presence in the scientific research area and at least 1,500 residents are expected in the future. The car gates, however, are manned and there is a license plate reading system “to monitor and regulate internal traffic”. Mobility is also a field of experimentation: the “Mind mobility” app has already existed for some time which allows access to 75 electric scooters and shuttle buses that communicate with the five digital stops. Everything monitored and programmable.

The restaurant scene is also livening up: in addition to the historical references (the bar of Palazzo Italia and the self-service of Cascina Triulza, present continuously since the Expo), the offer has been enriched with a “Food station” hosted by a prefabricated and, a few weeks ago, by the highly anticipated EsseLab, the Esseleunga space with two bars and a self-service, where the attraction is a robot that prepares salads. There is also a terrace where, on sunny days, some small groups stopped for an aperitif after work. «We are at a new turning point – says Stefano Minini – in 2015 we were here showing drawings on a computer and now we are in a lively reality, where people find a reason to entertain themselves after hours». In fact, at Palazzo Italia, the international and young community of around 300 researchers organizes parties and aperitifs.

But for after work there is also a gym, the groups of runners who take advantage of the absence of traffic and the benches which in a few days will again be surrounded by flowers, on which the couples born between them linger, regardless of the weather. the very young people of ITS. The important thing, before leaving through a “smart” door, is to make sure you haven’t forgotten your cell phone.

2024-03-10 12:29:01
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