Bruzzano Urban Market: A YACademy Alumni Pavilion for the Milan Suburbs

Published on June 27, 2022

Suburbs are one of the favorite fields of action for people who deal with social architecture in “first world” contexts. In 2020, a group of students from the Architecture for Humanity course at YAcademy– the renowned international school of architecture located in Bologna, Italy – had the opportunity to work with Michele De Lucchi in order to bring arts, beauty and quality into the drab suburbs of Milan.

The project is a collaboration with Unipol Group, a real estate company which manages some suburban areas in need of an intense requalification process. In order to re-activate these areas, Unipol launched the “in-oltre” project, a wide operation of cultural animation for Milan’s suburbs.

Some of YACademy’s students, together with Michele De Lucchi, were involved in this project to rethink the areas of via Senigallia.

The group carried out a deep research focused on via Senigallia, identifying from a market point of view, the possibility of using Unipol’s business park to guarantee a service and a social forum for the local population.

The project was developed by Giulia Lodetti, David Villegas and Paride Zambelli: B.U.M. – Bruzzano Urban Market is a structure with hexagonal modules that give life to a market that is scalable in terms of dimensions, movable, removable and reassembled, 3 meters high and with a covered area of 45 square meters. Moreover, the market has a low environmental impact, as the modules have been made with the wood of the fallen trees from the Vaia storm natural disaster that hit the Dolomites in 2018.

"Work on the project for the enhancement of an inhabited place with the young designers from YACademy, supported by Unipol, has been a creative motivation for all involved and a fruitful opportunity for the exchange of ideas and values” Michele De Lucchi explains. “We shared the desire aimed at social wellness, and the design of a market represented for us an opportunity to create a situation of collective happiness, in a simple and authentic context."

"The market creates a connection between the rural world and the urban world, a way to bring the colors and the fragrances of the countryside to the city, the healthy food ripened in the sun over the seasons."

"It is an enjoyable, happy and attractive place: a real occasion of interaction. The market is a moment of celebration which makes us feel good. We wanted to approach it with the same care that we dedicate to special things, which deserve to be valued”. Architect De Lucchi continues on to say, “The structure in natural woods, on which the products are placed, are interpreted as artistic installations, defined with particular attention to the details and proportions. They are structures that enhance the context and keep it alive: outside the market days, they become small architecture for the community. But they can also be disassembled and moved elsewhere, available for all the occasions of reuse. Always in the name of sustainability”.