Designing Food Landscape in the 15-Min Post-covid City. Imagining a New Scenario for Low-Density Spaces in Metropolitan Areas

After the covid crisis, the territorial governance will be a testing ground for innovative approaches that involve spatial configurations and the sustainability of current living practices. In this contribution, we reflect on the potential role of food landscapes as catalysts for the regeneration of marginal urban systems. Therefore, we would explore if – and how -projects in rural contexts can become a tool for applying the 15-min city model in low-density spaces. To address these objectives, we considered three case studies of the Milanese periurban context: a project coordinated by the Municipality of Milan and conducted by a large partnership financed by European funds (OpenAgri) and two experimental simulations produced together with young colleagues for the Area of Parco Agricolo Sud. The method adopted for this investigation is the perspective of “research-by- design,” a type of academic investigation of the architecture field, through which design is explored as a method of inquiry. In all these experiences, the production, the transformation, and the consumption of local food became the engine of a larger spatial transformation, which involves social, economic, and cultural aspects. Starting from the lessons learned from these projects, the paper concludes by outlining scenarios for the role of the territorial project in a post-covid future.