The Ex Falck project planning laboratory is an interdisciplinary workshop initiated in 2012 based on an idea of Renzo Piano and Giovanni Azzone. The first three editions, a result of the collaboration between the Politecnico of Milan and Renzo Piano Building Workshop and Bizzi&Partners Development, have seen a total of 29 students involved, coming from the Schools of Architecture and Society, Arch
itecture, Civil Engineering and Architecture and Design. Teachers and tutors , chosen by ex-students of the abovesaid schools involved, together with external professional figures , have contributed to create the knowledge and necessary abilities to deal with the theme of a vast and complex urban transformation of the Ex Falck Area of Sesto San Giovanni. The students’ work and the topics explored have brought the laboratory to assume the identity of an OSA- Open Space Architecture , a think tank in a position to place itself between a professional and an academic experience. It has a privileged outlook on the project of the transformation of the area, owing to the possibility to interrelate with the various players involved in the process of transformation – the institutions, investors, project planners. OSA has an objective: to have an independent role in a position to come up with innovative solutions which can have an influence on the territory in the short term. It can contribute on a parallel side to the complexity of the project of transformation with an alternative point of view.
