Cells of Regeneration — Saba Seighali

A clearing worth protecting

Source PDF page 17

Between Milan and Varese, a landscape transect runs from the Olona River toward the Bossente and Lura streams. Despite post-industrial development and renewed investment, a transversal clearing remains legible across the territory.

Agricultural land forms its foundation, joined by the Bosco woodland, active and former quarries, and other semi-natural components. Rather than filling this open system, the proposal protects its continuity and gives its different landscapes a framework for gradual regeneration.

Reading the territorial clearing

Source PDF page 17

A typical landscape sequence, three-part diagnosis, and territorial inference plan identify barriers, the surviving green clearing, and the absence of transition between its parts.

Typical landscape sequence from the Olona River across settlements, agricultural fields, woodland, quarries, and streams — Typical landscape sequenceProject team

Three territorial diagrams identifying barriers, the green clearing, and missing transitions — Barriers, clearing, and absent transitionsProject team

Territorial inference plan tracing the transversal clearing and its connections between regional landscape systems — Territorial inference planProject team

The cellular frame

Source PDF page 17

A linear mass of trees branches across the clearing, giving vulnerable open land an immediately legible edge while leaving room for ecological and productive systems to evolve.

Concept diagram showing a planted cellular frame around protected open landscapes — Conceptual cellular frameProject team

Branching cellular frame extending through fields, woodland, quarry landscapes, settlements, and infrastructure — Frame embranchment within the territoryProject team

Four moves across fifty years

Source PDF page 17

The source describes the proposal as a sequence of additions, adjustments, removals, and long-term outcomes rather than a fixed final image.

Objective 1
Add a protective frame
- Quickly frame and protect existing green spaces with a linear mass of trees.
- Establish the conditions from which regeneration can begin.
Objective 2
Adjust productive and ecological systems
- Support diverse, locally rooted, experimental agriculture.
- Use quarry water and woodland as parts of a connected ecological system.
Objective 3
Remove the interruptions
- Relocate industrial clusters that interrupt landscape continuity.
- Shift agriculture toward smaller and more varied productive units.
Objective 4
Build an active regional landscape
- Create a fluid and productive landscape over fifty years.
- Make the clearing a landmark, destination, and local park.

Threshold, frame, and production

Source PDF page 18

Public thresholds, a planted frame, and productive systems operate as mutually supporting layers. Quarry, farming, forest, and fringe systems carry those layers into the master plan.

System diagrams for public thresholds, the planted cellular frame, and productive landscapes — Threshold, frame, and productive-system componentsProject team

Evolution at five, twenty, and fifty years

Source PDF page 18

The strategy is tested as a time-based system in which planting, public access, productive fields, quarry water, and ecological continuity mature together.

Three landscape plans showing the cellular system evolving at five, twenty, and fifty years — Green-system evolution · 5, 20, and 50 yearsProject team

The system in section

Source PDF page 19

An axonometric landscape section brings the territorial frame down to the scale of paths, planted grids, water, productive plots, settlement edges, and woodland.

Long axonometric landscape section through settlements, planted frames, fields, quarry water, trails, and woodland — Landscape-frame system axonometricProject team

Four fringe conditions

Source PDF page 19

Perspective-and-plan pairs translate the regional system into four distinct edge conditions.

Perspective and plan of an urban fringe where a public trail and tree grid form a transition to settlement — Urban fringeProject team

Perspective and plan of an agricultural fringe where the trail meets smaller productive plots and shared space — Agricultural fringeProject team

Perspective and plan of an industrial fringe using planting as a buffer and public landscape edge — Industrial fringeProject team

Perspective and plan of the Bosco fringe where a trail, planted frame, and woodland meet — Bosco fringeProject team

How the fringes work

Source PDF page 19

At the urban fringe, a trail and tree grid provide public space and a clear transition between settlement and open land. Along the agricultural fringe, the same frame supports access while subdividing production into smaller, more diverse plots.

At industrial edges, planting forms a spatial and ecological buffer. At the Bosco fringe, the frame meets existing woodland and strengthens a continuous trail system through the clearing.

Project credits

Source PDF pages 17 and 18 and 19

Project team: Saba Seighali, Emillie Bielen, Abhinand K Menon, and Betul Guner
Guidance: Prof. Antonio Longo and Prof. Andrea Oldani
Source: Supplied portfolio PDF, PDF pages 17–19 (printed pages 32, 34, and 36)

Add a protective frame

Adjust productive and ecological systems

Remove the interruptions

Build an active regional landscape