Giuseppe de Finetti’s urban projects for Milan. Archeological traces for future needs.

The unrealized works for the city of Milan by the architect Giuseppe de Finetti, de- veloped between the 1920s and the 1950s, represent an example of how renewed relation- ships with both underground and surface infrastructures can be used to design public space. In several of his projects such as the transformation proposal for the Arena Civica, La Strada Lombarda, and the projects for Piazza Fontana and Piazza Beccaria, civic and urban archi- tectures play a main role in linking the historical city, the public space and potential transfor- mations still relevant to the contemporary era. Much of de Finetti’s unrealized works for Milan articulate an alternative vision, open to transformation, of certain consolidated and histori- cal parts of the city. At the same time, they show, through architectural and urban design, a field of action in which a connection is established between the contemporary city, its pres- ent needs, and artefacts from the past. The traces and street patterns of the city are, in de Finetti’s projects, an integral part of a urban design meant to reinterpret historical legacies in order to respond to the needs of the future city. This approach allows Giuseppe de Finetti to identify existing areas of potential transformation through a unified design vision that holds together the architecture of the city, public space, and modern infrastructure and mobility.