Pratocentenaro is an old neighborhood in Milan that has radically changed since the Second World War: few existing buildings dating back from the early 1900s contrast with the area developed and generated by the economic boom that erased the image of the small rural village.

Pratocentenaro is missing a square, a meeting and aggregation place for residents; in fact, the center of the district is represented by Largo San Dionigi, a crossroads used in a chaotic way for unregulated parking.

Frame was created as part of the Piazza Aperte program, promoted by the Municipality of Milan and developed by AMAT - Agenzia Mobilità Ambiente Territorio. The project was possible thanks to the collaboration with Bloomberg Associates and the Global Design Cities Initiative and was co-financed by the European Union through EIT Urban Mobility (a body of EIT - European institute of innovation and Technology) within the project "CLEAR ”.

The public surface was designed to create numerous perspectives modeled around the building which forms the perimeter of the square. The project draws inspiration from the twentieth-century vocabulary of fabrics, floor inlays and geometric decorations, familiar to the citizens of Milan.

The design consists of a series of concentric squares around the areas of greatest interest: the urban lounges, the ping pong area and the accesses to the pedestrian crossings. Starting from these fixed points, with the dual desire to identify these areas and cover the entire surface of the square, an intricate design is generated made up of thick and continuously moving lines.

Generally the transformation of the city and the creation of public space pass through a stage of closure and subtraction. During this intervention, the gap between citizens and project is bridged by applying the practice of the open construction site: the construction was conducted through a workshop organized in collaboration with the Terraviva association which involved 15 students and young architects. The volunteers constantly occupied the public space during the week of construction, becoming not only active agents of the space’s physical change, but also a point of reference for the citizens by listening, involving and bringing people closer to the project.