Cenni di Cambiamento is one of the biggest residential projects realized in Europe that uses a system of wooden supporting structures. This intervention is primarily targeted at young people, both young families and single young people who have just left their family home.
The complex consists of 122 energy class A homes which are offered both for rent and on a rent-to-buy basis. The project includes a series of shared services, recreational and cultural spaces and activities aimed at young people, with the objective of creating the optimum conditions to enable a network of good neighbourly relations to develop.
Cenni di Cambiamento proposes to activate an array of services that are able to involve and include both the surrounding neighbourhood and the city itself. This culture of openness to the neighbourhood is also made possible by the renovation of the old farmhouse Cascina Torrette di Trenno, which forms part of the Cenni di Cambiamento project . Inside the farmhouse, which opened in Spring 2016, are the headquarters of the ‘mareculturaleurbano’ project which focuses on innovation, urban regeneration and social inclusion through the provision of space for art, training, work and free-time activities.

Cenni di Cambiamento developed from the design submitted by Rossi Prodi Associati, a firm from Florence who won the international design contest which was run in 2009 by Investire SGR SpA and promoted by Fondazione Housing Sociale.
The architect’s vision for the area of Cenni centred around “the value of the public space being the base on which to build relationships: a green space, the symbol of sustainability that is intended not only as an aim to pursue but also as a cultural value to be shared and a key element of aggregation and development. The specific intention is the strengthening of a place that is somewhere between the built-up and the open spaces”.
Continuity between the private dimension of the dwellings and the public dimension of the open spaces is expressed well by the architectural themes of the terraces and loggia, which are elements of three-dimensional characterization of volume but are above all the expression of a relationship between inside and outside, between an individual citizen’s life and that of the community as a whole.
The construction system consists of wooden supporting panels which are installed in criss-cross layers to guarantee high levels of performance in terms of structural safety and living comfort, and to achieve an energy class A building.

The Community Start-up Process was preceded by several meetings that were organized before the construction site was opened, during the resident selection phase. The subsequent meeting opportunities between the residents concentrated on the activation of special interest groups based on concrete themes such as moving house and the purchase of furniture, thus motivating the residents to be proactive and encouraging them to volunteer to run these first collaborative initiatives (taking care of the green areas, managing the communal spaces, putting together an Ethical Buying Group etc.) Once the residents had moved into the complex, they embarked on the Community Start-up Process with the aim of identifying the shared values and interests which would subsequently become concrete initiatives to be launched in the available communal spaces. In 2014 the Officina Gabetti 15 Residents’ Association was constituted, with the objective of promoting the activities and collaborative services suggested by the residents themselves. The Association was constituted by the Cenni di Cambiamento residents on 28 September 2014, based on their desire to improve integration, and the well-being and happiness of both the Association members and the Cenni di Cambiamento community as a whole. In particular, the Association aims to promote the participation of all residents in activities, events, initiatives, and social gatherings where they can share ideas, resources and experience. In October 2015, the Association took free loan of the communal spaces within the Cenni project. Today the project is entering into its mature phase, assisted by the presence of the Cooperativa Dar=Casa, the Social Manager of the intervention, and by numerous players from the non-profit sector who have found a home within the complex. The residents have a web platform available – SpaceH – to help them in the management of the communal spaces and in the organization of activities.

FONDO IMMOBILIARE DI LOMBARDIA
FUND MANAGEMENT AND HOUSING DEVELOPMENT
REDO Sgr
TECHNICAL AND SOCIAL ADVISOR
Fondazione Housing Sociale
PUBLIC/PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP
Comune di Milano

ARCHITECTS
Rossi Prodi Associati srl

SOCIAL MANAGER
Cooperativa d’abitazione DAR=casa

CONSTRUCTION COMPANY
Carron s.p.a Service Legno s.r.l

ASSOCIATION
Associazione Officina Gabetti 15

OTHER ENTITIES INVOLVED IN THE PROJECT
Ad Adelante Dolmen
AiBi_Amici dei Bambini
ARIMO
Ass. Genitori Don Gnocchi
Azione Solidale
Mare Culturale Urbano
Fondazione Dar
Fratelli di San Francesco
Handicap.. Su la testa!
Unione Lotta alla distrofia muscolare
Saman
Spazio Aperto
Spazio Aperto Servizi
Il Grafo
Oplàt_ la latteria sociale