Architecture studio Barreca & La Varra has designed a social housing project for Milan called L'Innesto, which will be carbon-neutral and encourage community self-management through shared spaces.
L'Innesto Milan is one of the winners of the Reinventing Cities global urban development competition, and Barreca & La Varra is aiming to make it the first zero-carbon example of Italy's "housing sociale".
The scheme is destined for Scalo Greco Breda, the six-hectare site of a former freight terminal, and will include 400 apartments, 300 student housing units and four hectares of public green space.
Barreca & La Varra and its partner Redo Sgr Spa Società, an ethical real-estate developer, aim to achieve carbon-neutrality after 30 years thanks to an innovative district heating network, nearly zero-energy buildings, and prefabricated construction technologies that also allow the building to be disassembled and recycled. After 30 years of operation and management, these and other sustainability measures would balance out the carbon dioxide emitted during L'Innesto's construction.
Four key strategies to carbon neutrality
There are four key measures that the team is relying on to get the project to net zero. The first is a fourth-generation district heating network, which operates at a lower temperature and will be powered by renewable sources including urban wastewater.
The second is a hybrid timber construction system that combines uses less carbon-intensive ma...