Flooding in Milan is seen in two different perspectives. The South sees it as a resource for their vast amount of agricultural land whilst the North sees it as a plague that brings destruction to the urban environment and livelihood of its inhabitants.

In the north, part of the problem is the issue of urban sprawl. This almost uncontrollable force has taken up most of the porous soil landscape and has only left fragments of it which can still be seen standing strong as productive agricultural land.

After studying the relevant maps and data, it became clear that the project area is the open porous land but limited to within a radius of 2km of the main rivers entering the cities as these are the most problematic in terms of flooding.

Another important issue is the question of ‘how?’ China has taken to the issue of flooding by introducing the idea of “Sponge Cities” into 16 pilot cities around China. However, whilst still in the process of this shift to more ecologically friendly urban environments, the Sponge City is still a concept and one of the major obstacles standing in its way of being realised quicker is the question of funding.

Unfortunately, improved storm water drainage does not give return to investors and so the process of getting this type of project off the ground is a major factor that needs to be explored.

An option for funding would be approaching the private sectors that would have incentive for making all these changes to the water system. This idea of working with the private sector stems from the concept of a Public-Private Partnership which governments use in order to fund certain projects that are over their budget. With this in mind, we propose that the government approach the industrial sector who require large amounts of water for their manufacturing processes and allow them to invest in the upgrade of the water systems, which will include larger canals and water storage units placed in various areas. This will appeal to the industries as it will allow them to make huge savings from water usage costs in the long-term.

Once this main water infrastructure has been set into the landscape, NGO’s and planners are asked to place follies around the area to create awareness amongst the surrounding communities of the space’s potential and then workshops are organised in order to share ideas start moving forward with phase 2 of the project.

A toolbox has then been created and hosts a variety of hybrid tools and actions that work to mitigate the flooding issue as well as to benefit certain actors at the same time. These can then be placed within the different contexts and depending on the size of the space or the actors surround it.

The basic water infrastructure that was first installed by the private sector is then built upon by the NGO’s with the public communities. These possibilities are explored in the Canals, the Storm Water Urban Drainage System and the series of Water Retainment Units. The result is a very complex space with a variety of activities but also a piece of infrastructure that serves both the public and private realms and sits as a mediator between the two.