A city between o s : C in Z ucc h i t Pho F ederic o B runetti

House (2000 – 2003) Architect: Liverani Molteni 1 Address: Barlassina visions and reality A rc h ivi o F u k sas Fair centre (2005) Architect: Massimiliano Fuksas ’s gradual transformation owes more to replacement 11 Address: Rho APARTMENTS (2002) of the existing than to brand new construction. Giampiero Architect: Cino Zucchi Architetti Address: via Renato Serra, Milan o Ro sselli

7 o s : F rancesc Jo dice t a o l Sanguini takes us on a tour of ’s largest metropolitan area. P Pho Apartments (2009) Italy — Text: Giampiero Sanguigni Food Park (2009) Architect: Stefano Boeri Architect: Paolo Pasquini Address: Seregno 2 Address: via Imbonati, Maciachini, Milan n an article entitled ‘Milano 2014’ ated inside the former Embassy Cinema, the sirable: ‘Of Milan’s 164,000 apartments, more down over the facades and follow the irregular 15

published in Interni, Luca Molinari conversion of the Frigoriferi Milanesi, the new than 80,000 are uninhabited as are almost skyline of the block, emphasizing the alterna- o Ro sselli a o l I spoke about possible changes to the headquarters of the Il Sole 24 ore newspaper 900,000 cubic metres of office space (the tion of triplex and duplex apartments and rein- P Lombard capital in the five-year period be- by Renzo Piano, Cino Zucchi’s conversion of equivalent of 30 vacant Pirelli skyscrapers). forcing the individuality of each apartment. Warehouse conversion tween now and the inauguration of the 2015 the former Alfa Romeo cafeteria, all demon- Walls, floors, ceilings and furnishings that for Further south, as we approach the ­periphery (2005) Expo. A sort of diary from the future, in which strate that replacement of the existing is more years have been waiting for someone to enter of North Milan and Cinisello Balsamo, we find 12 Architect: Stefano Boeri those structures currently under construction prevalent than brand new construction. them, inhabit them and to reinvest them with the first shopping mall ever built in Italy (1974), Address: via Sarca, Bicocca, Milan are completed and those already complete the pulsations of everyday life.’ This is the re- currently the object of a phased refurbish- are assimilated into the life of the city. Ac- Vacant space sult of years of investment in tertiary devel- ment , once again by Studio Boeri. The of- o Ro sselli

(3) a o l cording to Molinari, large-scale interventions, Another common characteristic of the opment, pursuing standards that have now fice recently completed the addition of a multi- P such as the redevelopment of the old trade selected projects is that they are primarily changed. Furthermore, the square metre price storey car park clad in micro-perforated steel Shopping mall (2008) G iuseppe M aritati Architect: Stefano Boeri Residential scheme (2008) fair grounds and the Maciachini, Bicocca and located to the north of the regional capital, a of apartments, together with rental costs, with a geometric motif of circular cutouts. Address: Cinisello Balsamo 3 Architect: 5+1 Santa Giulia neighbourhoods will profoundly shift explained by Cino Zucchi when he de- have pushed many potential inhabitants with In the eastern part of the city, close to the 16 Address: via Padova, Milan change the image of many former industrial scribes the historical dynamics of Milan’s ex- low incomes into a commuter lifestyle, or Porta Vittoria railway station, we find 5+1’s precincts, transforming them into residential pansion towards the lakes, underlining how forced them to accept shared situations. redevelopment (4) of the former Frigoriferi and service sector areas. its post-war industrial areas, now the object Some of the architectural offices presented Milanesi (1899) and the Palazzo del Ghiaccio As we await the moment when these vi- of transformation, were strategically located in this article are young (LPzR, Liverani/Molte- (1923). The urban image of the via Piranesi, sions become reality, this article documents in the ‘dry’ plains to the north, towards Como ni), demonstrating that clients, whether pub- once divided between one residential and what is happening in Milan by describing the and Varese, rather than in the fertile and culti- lic or private, do not always hire starchitects. one industrial street frontage, has been re- C in o Z ucc h i numerous micro-interventions that have be- vable lands to the south. In the list of selected works, a special place interpreted in an analogous reality in which Apartments (2002) gun to transform the city. Many of the new-build projects (Zucchi, must be set aside for designers such as Italo exhibition areas have replaced the industrial Architect: Cino Zucchi Architetti The projects presented in this guide il- 5+1, LPzR, Fuksas, Arkpabi) are residential Rota and Fabio Novembre who, by working in spaces. The architects transformed the almost Redevelopment of 8 Address: via Renato Serra, Milan Frigoriferi Milanesi (2003) lustrate a reality that is far removed from the and located inside the consolidated city. In an a hybrid and personal field, find space within 100-metre-long industrial frontage by facing 4 Architect: 5+1 world of market-driven and low quality inter- article published in La Stampa in March 2009, a discipline like which, today as it with a glass screen whose motif, seen from Address: via Piranesi, Milan ventions with which other Italian cities are entitled ‘Deserti urbani’ (Urban Deserts), Ste- never before, appears in need of new ideas a distance, forms an arrow pointing to the en- confronting the issue of new construction or fano Boeri spoke about the current demand and personalities. trance to the site. The interior is defined by the the redevelopment of obsolete urban areas. for housing, explaining why a further expan- alternation of suspended and underground

Projects such as 5+1’s apartments, cre- sion of the city is both inopportune and unde- Strategic lightness multi-functional spaces, each with a different o P iazza M atte In Barlassina, to the north of Milan, not far treatment according to their use. Apartments (2007) 5 3 3 3 from Terragni’s Villa Bianca, we find thehouse Not far from the via Piranesi, in a 1930s Architect: Arkpabi Address: via Doberdò, Milan 1, 2 12 3 13,14 (1) designed by Liverani/Molteni. The build- residential area, we find another project by 13

ing is an interpretation of the archetypal 5+1, in this case the residential conversion C in o Z ucc h i o F errer double-pitched roof. The brick cladding, laid (5) of the former Embassy Cinema, located Apartments (2002)

with the narrowest of joints, gives the build- at the intersection of via Nicastro and via Faà Architect: Cino Zucchi Architetti A lbert ing a monolithic and minimalist appearance, di Bruno. The -based office had to deal Address: via Renato Serra, Milan 16 9 Meltin’ Pot showroom (2007)

15 o la C avi E rnesta a solution that is contrasted by the strategic with an existing situation of three heteroge- Architect: Fabio Novembre lightness of the two large bay windows that neous volumes and a building code that dic- Residential conversion of 17 Address: via Perugino, Milan the Embassy Cinema (2008) 11 are carved out of the corner without compro- tated retention of the existing profiles and mising the volumetric reading of the overall volumes. The residential conversion entailed 5 Architect: 5+1 6 – 9 Address: Intersection via Nicastro / structure. The plan is the product of the inter- the construction of intermediate levels which via Faà di Bruno, Milan 18 section of two volumes, adapted and folded doubled the available floor area and required 10 to respect the presence of existing trees. The a radical renovation (in addition to new floor 19 architects’ idea was to create internal and pri- slabs, the architects added underground park- 4 vate spaces, generated by the position of the ing and personal storage spaces). 5+1’s de- 17 building, an approach that allows for a feeling sign exploits the heterogeneity of the existing of being inside the building even when using buildings by using it to generate unexpected 22 5 the outdoor spaces. residential spaces, while also blurring it by

20 Leaving Barlassina and moving east, we means of a ‘curtain’ that masks the differences o Z accaria 21 arrive in the town of Seregno, where Studio between the existing volumes and so creates a Boeri recently completed a block of apart- more coherent and homogeneous skyline.

ments (2) for 38 families. When designing The redevelopment of the former Alfa G abriele P ranz this low-cost project, which follows the ‘L’ Romeo factory in Portello, based on a master­ Apartments (2006) shape of the site, the architects experimented plan by Gino Valle, merits a fuller explanation. It Architect: LPzR G ianni B ereng o ardin C in o Z ucc h i with different permutations of the patio typol- comprises contributions from several different 14 Address: via Eraclito G iac o m iannini Il sole 24 ore Office building (2003) Boutique (2005) ogy, playing with the variation of dimensions architects, each of whom was entrusted with headquarters (2004) Architect: Cino Zucchi Architetti Architect: Italo Rota and the alternation between solids and voids. a particular area, defined by a dominant func- Architect: Renzo Piano Address: via Renato Serra, Milan 10 Address: via della Spiga, Milan The corrugated zinc panels of the roof fold tional component. Cino Zucchi Architetti 6 Address: via Monte Rosa, Milan 18

64 A10 #31 Eurovision Eurovision A10 #31 65 rri L e o To F ederic o B runetti alsecc h i o V C arl Residential towers (2002) Architect: Massimiliano Fuksas 21 Address: via Giovanni Spadolini, Milan A rc h ivi o F ederic B runetti Bocconi University (2009)

G abriele B asilic o Architect: Grafton Architects Address: viale Bligny, Milan Office building (2000) 20 Zegna headquarters (2008) Architect: Antonio Citterio Architect: Antonio Citterio 19 Address: via Cerva, Milan 22 Address: via Savona, Milan ( A city between visions and reality ) was awarded sector 2b – 3c, a residential and Further north-west, on the way out of the tive configurations. The main facade is divided name suggests, people from different cultures tertiary area adjacent to via Renato Serra. city towards Rho, we find the Nuovo Polo Fiera into three vertical bands, each clad in a differ- can meet. An aluminium skin is sinuously Their plan includes several different building Milano (New Milan Fairgrounds), designed by ent material (stucco, wood and zinc), which grafted onto the original post and beam con- typologies, including an office building (6), Massimiliano Fuksas. The basic concept was resonate with the adjacent buildings. Par- crete structure, evoking the vaults of a tunnel created out of the former Alfa Romeo cafeteria a 1300-metre-long arcade (11) that serves ticular attention was paid to the relationship or the nave of a church. in a design that maintains the original layout the exhibition pavilions and covers, with its un- between private interior spaces and the street, Via della Spiga is home to the Just Cavalli and the facade along via Traiano. dulating and irregular roof, the various services, while a permeable atrium allows passers-by to boutique (18), designed by Italo Rota. This To the south, along the viale Serra, Zucchi dining areas, reception spaces and entrances look into the interior courtyard in an example 1000 m² space distributed over three levels envisaged a row of three volumes (7), con- to the pavilions. The roof is a steel structure of transparency unusual in the city of Milan. is characterized by the use of materials and nected in a manner that screens the courts be- defined by a grid of rhomboid/trapezoid forms furnishings (glass, mirrors, leather, Swarovski hind from vehicular traffic. In the northern part that support sheets of laminated glass. Urban afforestation crystals, exotic fish and flowers) that are both of the site, a taller and more slender typology Another former industrial site that has The new Food Park (15) by Paolo Pas- surprising and eccentric. Each space has its was adopted in order to permit views through been the object of redevelopment is the Bic- quini is located in the Maciachini neighbour- own specific character created by the use of to the park and the nearby Monte Stella (an occa neighbourhood. In 2005 Studio Boeri hood, inside a recently renovated industrial lighting and a mixture of styles. artificial hill created after the Second World converted a 1960s industrial warehouse complex, now nearing completion. The Food In via Cerva, not far from the Piazza War from the debris left by wartime bombard- (12) into a structure for tertiary sector use. Park crosses the central part of the site, con- Duomo, we find the office building (19) ment). The five towers (8,9) are subdivided The architects reorganized the interior ­spaces, necting via Carlo Imbonati with via Benigno designed by Antonio Citterio for his own pro- into two smaller groups according to their po- creating a mezzanine level and underground Crespi. It contains two pavilions, both housing fessional practice. The sober and minimalist sition and the building programme (social or parking. For the outside, the architects de- restaurants, that are connected by a continu- design of this five-storey infill project took its non-social housing). The architect says this is signed a glass second skin that wraps the ous canopy and a basement level containing cue from the pre-existing office building. Each a contextual response to the tradition of tall four facades and hides the original plan. Rec- the mechanical systems and services. The office is treated as an open space and occupies buildings in post-war Milan, rather than to the tangular steel frames distributed uniformly project is not confined to the architectural an entire floor, while the meeting rooms and contemporary and atypical versions that have across the facade overlap the glass sheets, intervention but extends to the surroundings workshops are located in a basement level. popped up on the urban peripheries. For this which were hung using a system of anchors in which Pasquini conceived as an exercise in To the south, on the corner of viale Bligny reason the towers along via Traiano are clad order to create a triple order that subdivides urban afforestation. The architect worked and via Guglielmo Corrado Röntgen is the with the same material as the linear build- the facades into three horizontal bands. The with the correspondence between the nat­ building designed by Grafton Architects ings along viale Serra (to create the image of an architects managed to create an ambiguous ural visual elements of the surroundings (the for the Bocconi University (20). Notwith- urban block), while the towers overlooking the packaging that testifies to the contemporane- colour of the trees and their trunks), seeking a standing its dimensions and mass, the pro- park have different cladding and are demateri­ ity of the intervention, while simultaneously degree of harmony with the formal elements ject was designed to be permeable in any alized in favour of interaction with the land- revealing a glimpse of the original facades. of the built environment. For this reason, the direction, capable of offering an alternation of scape. The Portello project proposes a hybrid Also in the northern part of the city, close columns are slender and organized according public spaces for social interaction and more urban vocabulary, halfway between the model to Sesto San Giovanni and adjacent to viale to a layout influenced by the position of the intimate spaces ideal for study. of the urban blocks of the 19th-century city Monza, are two residential projects by Ark- trees, while the colour of the leaves is recalled Continuing south, not far from Bocconi Uni- and the dimensional discontinuities of a more pabi (13) and LpzR (14), located in an in the treatment of the materials (for example, versity and Ravizza Park, we come across two contemporary and specific language. urban quarter that is gradually shedding its the back-painted glass of the pavilions). residential towers (21) completed by Fuk- Also in the north-west, in the Fiera neigh- industrial past to make way for new housing. On a green site in via Padova, 5+1 recently sas in 2002. The identical buildings are part of bourhood, we find Renzo Piano’s new head- The project by Arkpabi in via Doberdò faithful- completed a residential scheme (16) for the an urban redevelopment plan for a 6700 m² quarters for the Il Sole 24 ore newspaper ly retraces the regular and elongated contours Guardia di Finanza. The apartments, in two area. Diverse dwelling types guarantee the (10), a project that included the renovation of the plot. With an evident freedom of expres- courtyard buildings, house families united by flexibility of the towers, satisfying the needs of of an existing 1960s factory. The client re- sion and typology, the building seeks to op- their employment in the same branch of the a wide range of users ranging from singles liv- quired spaces for individual and group work pose the logic of the ‘condominium’ adopted Italian military. It is a community that lives ing in studio flats to large families. Variations as well as public spaces – a library, meeting by new and generic residential developments. around a semi-public courtyard, surrounded in the size of the units and the use of materials and training rooms and an auditorium. Piano The project features apartments of varying by balconies that provide access to the apart- produce differentiated facades that are most created a layered programme, with public sizes, from studio flats to large units. ments. The units, constructed on a minimum unusual in the residential tower typology. spaces in the base and work spaces on the A short distance away, across viale Monza, budget, have been defined by the architects In via Savona, in a neighbourhood almost four levels above. During the design phase is the 25-unit apartment building in via Era- themselves as a building type that fuses the entirely dedicated to the world of fashion, we the architects decided to modify parts of the clito by LPzR, an intervention made possible single-family urban villa with an apartment, find the new Ermenegildo Zegna headquar- existing structure, demolishing a side wing by the demolition of an industrial building and inside a system of distribution that favours ters (22) designed by Antonio Citterio. The to the south and excavating an area at the modifications to the new structure to match intimacy and privacy. new building reprises the profile of the exist- centre of the factory to create a 10,000 m² the dimensions of the adjacent buildings. The In via Perugino, hidden from the street, ing industrial sheds, redesigning the interior internal park. To reduce the overwhelmingly project was conceived as a volume generated we find the Meltin’ Pot showroom (17) de- spaces around a new main courtyard. A four- horizontal impact of the 160 metre-long fa- by the aggregation of a minimum modular signed by Fabio Novembre. The two-storey storey gallery connects the showrooms to the cades, a number of vertical service towers dwelling unit (45 m²) which, with various ad- space seeks to visually recreate the idea of a offices, while to the north are two exhibition were grafted onto the building. ditions and subtractions, generates the defini- subway station, a space where, as the client’s spaces used to present the collections.

66 A10 #31 Eurovision