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Cascina Cuccagna

Roberta Donatini

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The spaces of Cascina Cuccagna after restoration: an attempt to restitution to the citizens.


Cascina Cuccagna is a Milanese landmark since the end of the 17th century, and nowadays it's one of the nearly sixty council-owned farmsteads, as well as the most central. Being initially property of Padri Fatebenefratelli, Cascina Torchio was bought by the Galli family in 1881 and in the first decades of 20th century it acquired the name of Cuccagna, from a nearby farmstead, destroyed to build one of the transportation rings that circles the city center. Over the years it had housed artisanal activities, public housing, and a tavern. In 1989 it became part of public property and after ten years it was declared impracticable and was evacuated. That's when Cooperativa Cuccagna began: winning a public-notice financed by Fondazione Cariplo in 2005, the Cooperativa gained a twenty-year concession on the farmstead and its gardens. After four years of preservation and restoration works, in April 2012, Cuccagna finally opened. Although some activities started right away, like the restaurant run by Esterni, the gardens, and the Ciclofficina (bike self-repairing lab), other places were almost unused, like large rooms on the first floor, furnished only occasionally for exhibitions or conferences, or the hostel, completely furnished since Fuorisalone 2012, but still not operative.

Space is essential in these pictures that want to document how Cuccagna was after its public opening, just like a box ready to be filled.

I finished my project more than one year ago, and today the farmstead offers more activities. Those who live in Milan can decide for themselves whether this reconversion has been successful and if the farmstead has truly been returned to the city and its people.

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