049 - 28|04|08

‘SOLO INGROSSO’
An extended territory of Chinese culture

MAP OFFICE [ Gutierrez + Portefaix]
TORINO GEODESIGN 08
Workshop during the Salone del Mobile, Via Sarpi, Milan.

The politics of a place is made through different groups’ territorial claim. Chinatown belongs to this category of places being appropriated by the Chinese Diaspora and slowly transformed into an enclave with its own organizational system. No matter where you are in the world – San Francisco, New York, Paris, Amsterdam or Sydney, the same range of products, services and networks is repeated. At street level, a rhizome of small shops, grocery stores, restaurants, massage parlours, video-game arcades, fake handbag factories, temples, create an extensive addition to the existing fabric. In Milan, the Chinese community occupies an hidden territory around via Sarpi, with a similar range of specific commercial activities. A prosperous area, where the frantic movement of trolleys and boxes, demonstrates the commercial success of the neighbourhood. To begin the workshop for Torino Geodesign 08, we spent a couple of days mapping the Chinese occupation in and around via Sarpi.

As ethic enclaves, Chinatown are always facing the possibility of displacement and discrimination from the municipality and local residents. Around via Sarpi, the concentration of a recognizable Chinese ethnic group does not exclude traditional local activities and residents. Therefore, this is the street where Italian bakeries and Chinese shops are existing side by side. What does it mean? Are we observing the fading out of Milan Chinatown or is it emerging following the ‘organic’ process of developing itself? At the moment, it seems that the curser could move in a way or another. On the one hand, we could observe the existence of large number of orange banners and street prospectus claiming the transformation of the area into a pedestrian zone (no more access for delivery, therefore no more business).  On the other, the area houses many real estate shops selling commercial and residential spaces, using both Italian and Chinese as commercial languages (organic growth by using the property market).

Instead of camouflaging the Chinese occupation, we would like to propose its hyper-visibility. “Solo Ingrosso” (‘Wholesale Only’) is a strategic motto to promote and stimulate further the environment with more signs of human activities for via Sarpi. Also besides planning and branding, we would like to construct a new sense of civic purpose and community. How do others imagine China? What kind of Chinese icons we can bring in the street to seduce and reinvent the place? In adding density, not only commercial but cultural, this place would offer a set of rich experiences both for the locals (Italian and Chinese) and the visitors (tourists).