Street Activation
Via Beroldo
Milan, Italy.
Milan’s Agency for Mobility and Environment (AMAT)
Global Designing Cities Initiative (GDCI)
In November 2022, the City of Milan launched an open call, Piazze Aperte per Ogni Scuola, to promote new interventions near kindergartens, primary, and secondary schools.
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In May, Bloomberg Associates and GDCI also joined parent associations, city officials, educators, and The Clean Cities Campaign in an event to promote Via Beroldo—a pedestrianized street in a neighborhood with three schools and over 3,500 students.
With the support of the local school organizations and staff from the municipality, GDCI’s team worked and played with over 250 school kids and teenagers to raise awareness about the importance of street design and transformations like the pedestrianization in Via Beroldo, as well as taking time to listen to their ideas.
GDCI also took part in the inauguration of the new vehicle-free space with GDCI’s reverse periscope—a tool that allows adults to experience streets from the viewpoint of a child, seeing the world at half the height of an adult. At the event, there were also opinion boards to help collect residents’ input and street puzzle prints to engage community members, especially children.