White Milano Sud Est
It looks like a huge parallelepipedon, stifled by the ring road from one side and by the S. Giulia building site - Sir Norman Foster's ideal city - from an other. They call it White, because of the color of the panels that coat its whole outer surface; the building, a popular house property of the Milan City Hall is in fact coated with 3.5 tons of asbestos, a material widely used in the building industry for its insulation propeerties until 1992 when it's been banished, because of its determined harmfulnes. 152 families, nearly 800 people, do live with an unspoken slaughter since 1984: the deaths and the onset of specific diseases between the people of the White directly referable to asbestos' exposure amount to 43. For years the resident of the block have been waiting for a many times announced asbestos clearing. They have created a committee of tenants, have denounced the City Hall and only in the spring of 2008 have received the attention of politicians and media. pictures © emanuele cremaschi / prospekt interviews © emanuele cremaschi / prospekt + radio popolare soundtrack © oscar white