MAYAROUFAIL.
Architecture · Urban Design · Milano
Maya Roufail.
The Artery and the Chakra Nodes

Urban Design

The Artery and the Chakra Nodes

Bovisa, Milan, Italy  ·  2024

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Urban Design

Activate Bovisa through a network of urban nodes that energize the district from within.

Urban ActivationInfrastructurePublic Space
LocationBovisa, Milan, Italy
Year2024
Project Sections
01
Section

Analysis & Impressions

Bovisa mapped — its industrial bones, academic energy, and severed connections read against Milan's broader urban fabric.
First impressions of a district in transition: rich in potential, fragmented in delivery. The building-to-street relationships tell the story before any diagram does.
Bovisa in context — the district mapped against Milan's broader urban fabric, tracing its industrial edges and transit corridors
Building-to-street relationships across Bovisa — reading the district's grain through its edges, façades, and threshold conditions
02
Section

Problems & History

The district's problems are legible in its history. Industrial retreat left voids. The campuses generate life but don't extend it into the surrounding fabric. mobility is broken — tram routes disconnect, cycling is absent, pedestrian desire lines go unserved.
This phase maps what is broken, and why — before proposing what could be.
The industrial evolution of Bovisa — mapping how the gasometer era shaped the district's spatial structure and left its imprint on the present
Current state of Bovisa — fragmented open spaces, underused brownfields, and severed connections between the district's academic and residential zones
Key weaknesses identified: severed routes, inactive ground floors, and disconnection between the Politecnico campuses and their surrounding fabric
Bovisa's mobility analysis — existing tram and rail infrastructure, cycling gaps, and pedestrian desire lines across the district
The convergence of mobility, social, and spatial problems in Bovisa — the case for a connective intervention at district scale
03
Section

Strategy & Solutions

The artery is the project's primary move — a continuous spine that threads through Bovisa, connecting its campuses, squares, and green pockets into a coherent network.
Along it, chakra nodes concentrate programme and energy at the district's most critical intersections. The strategy builds on what is already there: green infrastructure, tram routes, existing social patterns — reinforcing and redirecting their potential.
Hover over each map to reveal the legend.
The Artery strategy — the project's primary spine threading together pedestrian routes, green connections, housing proposals, and chakra activation nodes across Bovisa
Environmental and landscape systems — the green belt, water body axes, and dispersion networks that the Artery leverages and reinforces
Locating the chakra nodes and building the hierarchy — each node positioned by its potential for activation, empowerment, and urban integration
Activation space and axis systems — the main and secondary axes that structure movement, connect the squares, and anchor the brownfield interventions
Connections between the chakras — the interplay of public, semi-public, and private space across the promenade axis and transitional buffer zones
04
Section

Masterplan & Urban Sections

The proposed masterplan for Bovisa — a district-scale move that threads the Artery through existing fabric, activates brownfield sites, and extends green infrastructure.
Urban sections reveal the spatial sequence along the spine: how scale shifts, how the ground is activated, and how the Artery mediates between campus, residential, and open space.
Proposed Bovisa masterplan — buildings, chakra interventions, cycling roads, green spaces, and pedestrian routes across the full district
Urban sections through the Artery spine — the spatial sequence, scale, and layering of interventions along the main axis
05
Section

Chakra Node — Site 1

site 1 activates the first chakra along the Artery — a public square anchored by a programmed building containing café, study space, play area, and services.
The promenade axis cuts through the site, creating a legible route that draws movement from the station edge deep into the district's interior.
Chakra Node Site 1 — second-phase zoning and circulation: public square, landscaped areas, café, study zone, and entry platform
Site 1 — perspective view of the activated chakra node, showing the promenade axis and the layering of public programme
Site 1 Urban Vitality Space Plan — F&B, play area, study areas, and services across ground and first floors
06
Section

Chakra Node — Site 2

site 2 is the most complex node — an exhibition hall, multipurpose hall, and workshop spaces organised around a transitional promenade that bridges the Artery's main axis with the western residential fabric.
Chakra Node Site 2 — first-phase defining plot: exhibition hall, multipurpose hall, workshop spaces, and café along the transitional promenade
Site 2 — perspective view of the activated node along the promenade axis, with landscaped public space fronting the programme mix
Site 2 Urban Vitality Space Plan — F&B, exhibition area, multipurpose hall, workshop, and retail across the transitional promenade node
07
Section

Chakra Node — Site 3

site 3 anchors the green belt extension — a node within the landscape that weaves retail, offices, café, and multipurpose programme into a landscaped setting.
The chakra here dissolves the boundary between building and open space.
Chakra Node Site 3 — second-phase zoning and circulation: retail, offices, café, and multipurpose hall within the extension of the green belt
Site 3 — plan showing the node's spatial relationship to the green belt extension and the surrounding district fabric
08
Section

Final Aerial View

Bovisa completed — the artery spine, chakra nodes, green infrastructure, and new urban fabric seen from above.
A district that has found its backbone.
Proposed Bovisa — aerial view of the completed Artery spine, chakra nodes, and green infrastructure across the district