The document summarizes Cascina Cuccagna, an experimental urban farm in Milan, Italy. It functions as a cultural probe showing Milan's possibilities beyond its reputation for greyness. Volunteer gardeners care for plots and citizens act as ambassadors to spread knowledge of the project. A small number of dedicated volunteers build trust and community through their familiar faces. Contact persons coordinate volunteers and communicate the farm's mission by challenging expectations through public access. Citizens have an opportunity to garden and question the city's governance, making a statement Italy needs. The farm is organized by Esterni and benefits from digital platforms to share its work more broadly. It was rescued from demolition in 2008 on a former family farm site.

1. Cascina Cuccagna
Milan, Italy
www.cuccagna.org
Description
La Cascina Cuccagna is an experimental center for urban horticulture in Milan. It functions as a
cultural probe that shows a city, known all over the world for its greyness, what possibilities
and opportunities the city has.
Citizen Role
Volunteer gardeners care for the orti within the boundaries of the Cascina. The citizens act
as the network that communicate this new and rather daring idea to the city of Milan. Perhaps
most importantly, the citizen talks to others about the success of the project and gets others
motivated to create their own cascine.
Degrees of Involvement
Cascina Cuccagna requires a handful of people to be completely dedicated to the farmhouse.
This dedication, or rather a familiar face, builds trust and a sense of camaraderie that can be
seen, felt, and communicated throughout the city.

2. Contact Person Responsibilities:
Volunteers must be coordinated and made to feel useful. Coordinators must be able to identify
tasks that need to be completed, and assign those tasks to able and willing volunteers.
Contact persons must be able to clearly and easily communicate the mission of the cascina
to the public. This means they must be able to understand the social structures and
understandings of physical public space that currently exist in Milan. By inviting the public into a
previously walled-off space, the public is taken out of their comfort zone and their expectations
are challenged.
Public Role
Citizens of Milan have an opportunity that has not existed since WWII, when Piazza del Duomo
was converted to a victory garden. The chance to garden, the chance to grow produce is not so
much about practicality or produce, but rather questioning the capitalistic and feudalistic ways
the city (and country) are being governed. Citizen participation in this organized guerilla garden
are making a statement Italy desperately needs to be made.
Service Diagram
Enabling Systems
Cascina Cuccagna is currently organized by the public space and action group - Esterni.

3. Formed to catalyze the appreciation for public space and land, the group works as the
coordinator between donors, governments, and other financially interested parties.
Role of Digital Environment
The Cascina, though it could function entirely well without a digital platform, benefits from the
maintenance of a blog, a Flickr account, and a detailed and updated events page that keeps
those interested coming back to the cascina. Also, because of the city’s established role in
leading the world in new and experimental design, a digital platform for the Cascina allows this
rare and unique place to be shared with many who may either try to replicate it or find ways to
make it better.
Background / History
The Cascina Cuccagna was rescued from demolition by Esterni in 2008. The site had been
a family farm, the land of which was slowly chopped off and sold. During WWII, the site was
bombed and the property abandoned. Since then, the site has been used for more purposes
than most care to remember.
Public & Collaborative Services: Case Study
Neighborhood Care: Christopher Patten