Sonia Calzoni's Hub for Comunità Nuova: Architecture as Collective Art

Architect Sonia Calzoni's book 'L'idea di una Nuova Comunità' (Electa, 2019) documents the design and construction of the Hub for Comunità Nuova, a nonprofit founded in 1973 by Don Gino Rigoldi to support youth leaving Milan's Beccaria juvenile prison. Located on Milan's western periphery near the Beccaria prison and the new Parri district, the complex comprises four small buildings around a central void, linked by a pedestrian ring that also serves as a fence. The fence, made of metal rods with horizontal plates, is diaphanous—filtering rather than separating. Two photographic campaigns capture the project: Michele Nastasi's images of the empty building and Giovanni Chiaramonte's documentation two years after occupation. Calzoni emphasizes the collaborative process with the community and the municipality, funded through urbanisation charges from the Parri district. The Hub aims to integrate the association's protective activities with openness to the neighbourhood. Calzoni's studio currently has five residential construction sites in Milan, a student housing project near Bocconi University, and an office complex at EUR in Rome.