Aria is a new neighbourhood in Milan, alive, teeming with activities capable of exploring new ways of learning, having fun, growing, living and working.

It is also the most important social housing project in Europe, dedicated to the settlement of the younger generations, of families, a real housing service for the neighbourhood and the city that will create over 1200 new flats, the vast majority rented at subsidised rents.

Thanks to the new international Campus IED – Istituto Europeo di Design, which with its 30,000 square metres for 4,500 students and a student residence for 600 places will be located within the two striking northern pavilions of the former slaughterhouse, Aria is also a district that will immediately attract young people and students who will also find here a rich fabric of work, training and service opportunities, including a lively cultural scene.

The new university of the European Institute of Design, in fact, together with the POD, the new Science&Art district dedicated to the dissemination of STE “A “M (science, technology, engineering, ART and mathematics) skills and the skills of the future, will animate the life of the citizens with a palimpsest of initiatives and temporary uses dedicated to culture, creativity and solidarity, bringing together cultural proposals of an international nature with the valorisation of the lively and original experiences carried out by the many realities of the area. Students and residents will be the city makers who will make Aria a new urban destination: places of work, production and use of services: sustainable living based on inclusive and innovative experiences of cohabitation and collaborative temporary uses.

The recovery of historic buildings goes far beyond the requests of the Superintendency and creates a place based on heritage and the circular economy of the built environment. Aria is an act of urban transformation that metabolises the history and morphology of the site, breaking down and recomposing the old tunnels and hangars, warehouses and production lines; a project that confronts an urban fact so stratified and unique that it is almost impossible to conceive of a building, an open space, an infrastructure, as an object detached from the others.

New functions, services, offices, artisan workshops, fab-labs, coworking, training spaces dedicated to professional start-ups and retail will find their place in 30,000 square metres together with many Air Factories, a peculiar element of the project, which will serve to purify the interior spaces, filtering atmospheric contaminants thanks to plants and soil. These spaces will be meeting places for local associations, dedicated spaces for building an open, safe and supportive relational fabric for both new inhabitants and those living in the Molise-Calvairate, Ortomercato and Porta Vittoria neighbourhoods.

Aria will be Milan’s first Carbon Negative Area thanks to a full electric and highly efficient supply of thermal and cooling energy to the entire district using innovative ectogrid™ technology and the photovoltaic system of the Renewable Energy Communities, which, by producing more renewable electricity than the district consumes, will subtract CO2eq from the emissions balance of the rest of the city. Aria will certify LEED Gold the buildings, LEED for Cities & Communities the masterplan, and evaluate the integrated intelligent solutions with ReSMART Index.

** Awaiting the official start of work, a “meanwhile uses” project is also active, which has already allowed citizens to enter the area and enjoy musical entertainment and DJ sets during Piano City Milano 2022 and the Salone del Mobile 2022. **