Desire presents: A place where something can start - MIND Milano Innovation District

15 minutes from the heart of Milan, Italy, the MIND Milano Innovation District - MIND Village is situated. Back in 2015, this vast area hosted the EXPO2015 - World Expo. Now, spanning over 1 million square meters, it is transforming remarkably into an innovation and science hub with the keywords inclusion, well-being, and environmental sustainability.
Today MIND is a construction site - the largest innovation district in Italy and one of the largest in Europe. The vision is to create a new Milanese "city within the city" that nurtures innovation and a sustainable quality of life.
If you walk down the main road - the 1.5 km long linear park called Decumano (World Avenue) perhaps your eyes will catch four yellow benched. Although they seem small, they are symbols of the efforts to create inclusive urban spaces.
“This is a bench. But it's not only a bench in our mind. A bench is a meeting point - a place where you can have a conversation. A bench is a place where something can start,” says Francesco La Loggia, Industry Relations Manager at the Desire partner PlusValue.
Today, around 1500 people visit MIND every day for work or pleasure. This number is expected to rise to 60,000 in 2031, when MIND Milano Innovation District will be fully operational, serving as a physical space for innovation, science and well-being for humans and the environment.
The area will then have offices, light industries, co-working spaces, shared laboratories, residential towers, and vibrant entertainment venues. In addition, the big main road will be transformed into Europe's longest urban park and a thriving community of people living and working in the area. The vision is that the area is so attractive, that people want to linger even after the workday ends.
“We had a lot of conversations with internal and external stakeholders to understand the distinct needs. The feedback was that we needed to break down the main street Decumano into several pieces because it is crucial to have something like a square. And the idea was that objects like these benches,” says Francesco La Loggia.
Lendlease - a multinational construction and real estate company - is responsible for the design and private development of the district.
“When developing a site like this with one square kilometre, it's very important not to forget about the people. The human scale is very important for us. And with objects like these benches, we want to create a sense of community, a sense of inclusivity in everyday life here on this site,” says Giulia Bonisoli Denza, Public Realm Development Manager in Lendlease.
“For Lendlease it was very interesting to be involved in the Desire project. The values of the New European Bauhaus as inclusivity, sustainability, beauty and belonging are perfectly in line with the MIND project.”
The yellow Desire benches are designed by an artist in continuity with a tactical urbanism initiative previously started in MIND, the so-called ‘Beauty for All’. This framework aims to help decision-makers embed beauty and inclusiveness when innovating the main street Decumano to a public space that envisions ‘A live and vibrant MIND’ with room for conviviality, plurality, equity, and emotionality.
“My desire for the four benches, we installed here in MIND, is that MIND’ers will use them to sit in the sun, start a conversation and be something like a signpost in order to feel some kind of belonging to this place,” says Francesco La Loggia.
Have a look at the film made by filmmaker Benjamin Hesselholdt.