Bicocca University renovates sports centre in Milan
High-tech equipment for university and recreational sports
Bicocca University is a young state university, founded in 1998, with campuses in Milan and Monza. In the 1990s, the University of Milan was bursting at the seams with around 90,000 students, so it was decided to split it up. The Bicocca district in northern Milan was chosen as the location for a new campus. This was once home to large industrial companies such as Pirelli. The new university campus was part of a large-scale refurbishment project launched around 1986 and coordinated by architect Vittorio Gregotti. He planned the campus as an urban complex with research laboratories and halls of residence. 21 university buildings are now located in the Bicocca district, while the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery is situated in Monza.
The newly renovated Bicocca Stadium is only a stone’s throw from the university. Over an area of 58,000 m2, it accommodates a football/rugby pitch, an athletics track, a grandstand with 400 seats, 12 changing rooms, a medical station and offices. There are also small pitches for football and tennis courts. The facility looks back on 100 years of sports history, having opened in 1919 under the name “Campo Pirelli”. The most recent renaming took place in the course of the 2019 renovation.
The new Bicocca Sports Centre was designed for students, but is explicitly open to all Milan residents. The renovation work was carried out as part of a university project to promote sport in higher education. In addition to the sports field and athletics track, the grandstand and changing rooms have also been completely renovated. A centre for sports medicine was also created. The technical innovative ability of the university should be reflected in the equipment of its sports facilities.
The athletics track is the first in Italy to be equipped with our SmarTrack technology for professional performance diagnostics. For this purpose, magnetic timing gates called SmarTracks Timing Gates are integrated invisibly into the track. In combination with a small sensor worn by the athlete on the body, precise time measurement can be made and comprehensive training diagnostics can be carried out. Runtime, speed, stride length and frequency, as well as jump height are recorded. The data can be displayed and evaluated with software on a laptop. Recreational athletes also benefit, as they can also use performance diagnostics with the “Smart Run by Humotion” app on their smartphones.
The red Rekortan M professional sports surface also supports the best training results: It is characterised by excellent acceleration and tread elasticity, thus enabling new best times. Sports physicians are also impressed with its first-class damping qualities. As the playing surface for the football and rugby pitch, Bicocca chose our LigaTurf RS+ CoolPlus synthetic turf system in bright “green bicolour” – the world’s number 1 professional football pitch with the most FIFA Quality Pro certifications. The highest playing quality is guaranteed by the EPDM ECO infill granules, which are particularly environmentally friendly.
With the renovation on the occasion of its centenary, the stadium once inaugurated by Alberto Pirelli will once again become an important point of contact for the training of students, but above all for the Milanese population.
