The specific challenge of the Merezzate+ project, co-financed within the EIT Climate-KIC’s Smart Sustainable Districts programme, has been to integrate innovative solutions in a new urban-development model based on user-centered design and aimed at social inclusion, clean energy, sustainable mobility and circular economy.

The approach was tested in REDOMilano smart district, a new affordable housing district in the south-east of the city of Milan, with 800 apartments, 615 of which dedicated to social housing. The activities were driven by a strong engagement of the REDOMilano district new residents, of the main local public actors and of demand side stakeholders (e.g. housing associations, utilities providers), in order to co-design the actions to better reflect the user needs and therefore to increase their efficacy, to support the start-up and creation of a green residents’ community and to foster grassroots initiatives.
The results of Merezzate+ have be used to draw guidelines on the potential transferability and replicability of the developed model to other contexts, both in other areas of Milano city and  in other Italian and European ones.

Poliedra was responsible for:

• local stakeholder engagement and citizens’ involvement in becoming a green community, particularly with regard to Merezzate+ environmental pillars
• co-design, planning, implementation and monitoring of services and pilot activities as regards e-mobility, cycle, pedestrian and shared mobility and Pedibus services for Primary Schools, and circular economy (e.g. green purchasing groups and community gardens, good practices related to the “sustainable moving-in” and waste management and recycling)
• communication and dissemination, and transferability tasks.

Besides Poliedra, the project partnership involved: Politecnico di Milano – Energy department (project leader), A2A Smart City and A2A Calore e Servizi. Third Parties of Merezzate+ were: the Municipality of Milan, AMAT – Agency for Mobility and Environment, REDOSGR, Fondazione Housing Sociale, Legambiente, GSE, ANCI, Mobike, Ofo and the Italian Ministry for Ecological Transition.