ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO

/people Portraits of Milanese professionalism

Piero Bottoni: The civil dimension of beauty

EDITING BY Giancarlo Consonni Graziella Tonon

Itineraries through ’s architecture Modern architecture as a description of the city “Itineraries through Milan’s architecture: Modern architecture as a description of the city” is a project of the Order of Architects Planners Landscape Architects and Conservators of the and its Foundation.

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“Piero Bottoni: the Civil Dimension of beauty” Giancarlo Consonni, Graziella Tonon

Edited by: Alessandro Sartori, Stefano Suriano, Barbara Palazzi

Images courtesy of: Archivio Piero Bottoni on the back cover: Piero Bottoni, Exibition Pavillon in QT8 district, design sketch, 1951

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Piero Bottoni: the Civil Dimension of beauty

In the central forty years of the twentieth century, the story of Piero Bottoni was intertwined with the history of Milan. To those who interested in studying the transformations that affected the Ambrosian city itself from 1930 to 1970, but also its underlying metropolitan function, it is impossible to avoid dealing with the projects and accomplishments of this architect. Bottoni (alone or with others) was responsible for some of the most significant projects and proposals conceived on an urban and metropolitan scale within the context of Milan: - the project for the New Milan Fairgrounds developed in 1937- 1938 with Pietro Lingeri, Gabriele Piles, Mario Pucci and Giuseppe Terragni: one of the first truly convincing examples of urban planning inspired by the Athens Charter, which laid the groundwork for cities to welcome a metropolitan dimension; - the projects designed to solve the problem of workers’ housing in the province of Milan developed in 1938-1939 with Mario Pucci: a comprehensive framework of action arose from a hands-on investigation that renewed the work that had begun at the beginning of twentieth century by the Società Umanitaria; - the Ar Plan for Milan and , prepared in 1944-1945 by Franco Albini, Lodovico Belgiojoso, Ezio Cerutti, Ignazio Gardella, Gabriele Heaps, Giancarlo Palanti, Enrico Peressutti, Mario Pucci, Aldo Putelli and Ernesto N. Rogers (where ‘Ar’ stands for Architetti riuniti — Architects reunited): one of the few twentieth-century urban planning projects in worthy of being included in an overview featuring the best in European urban design culture; - lastly, the project for the area (proposed in 1955 to 1956 as an alternative to the plan in effect at the time): a reinterpretation of the lesson of the historical city — with references

PIERO BOTTONI to Milan, particularly in Corso Buenos Aires — that Bottoni organised around a concept he referred to as the “road of life” (strada vitale), the centre of focus for his reflections on urbanism. It is true that these proposals remained only on paper, but, these four projects taken together — if one excludes the unfortunate idea of the axial boulevards put forward in the Ar Plan — give us a glimpse of a possible Milan, with a layout more in line with its role as a European city and more open to relations with the surrounding region than was eventually verified in practice (due also to the limits of those at the helm of the Lombardy capital’s leadership). This body of work also reveals the depth Bottoni’s skill as an urban planner, without which, achievements such as QT8 and Monte Stella would be inexplicable. These are two projects that left indelible marks on Milan’s landscape to the north-west and that are exemplary results on at least two fronts: they bear witness to what can be achieved by the fruitful union between urban design and landscape design; they constitute an attempt, partially successful, to counter the perpetuation of the outskirt character of urban expansion. Fernand Léger was right on the mark when, in a dedication of his booklet “Les constructors”, he defined Piero Bottoni: “Inventeur de montagnes et de magnifiques constructions populaires”. From 1951, the dedication was written after a visit to the construction site of QT8 (in one photo, Léger and Bottoni can be seen engaged in

PIERO BOTTONI WITH FERNAND LÉGER ON MONTE STELLA DURING CONSTRUCTION (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI)

PIERO BOTTONI discussion on top of Monte Stella). The great painter demonstrated an understanding of something that had eluded Le Corbusier (who, also while visiting QT8 two years earlier, had let slip a less-than- flattering comment), He saw that Bottoni was motivated by the desire to combine a civic commitment with dreams, to answer social needs through the ability to invent landscapes and places that were embued with beauty and the potential to convey meaning. It is within this perspective that Bottoni’s architectural accomplishments in Milan came into being and can be explained. The buildings he designed and built in QT8 were the fruit of a full range of experimentation across the board — typological, technological and constructional — and at the same time, they worked in concert to lay the groundwork for a new part of the city: a “garden city”. The approach does not change when it is others who design the layout for a new housing complex. As in the Harar district, where, with Mario Morini and Charles Villa in 1951-1953, he realised the Two Ina-house projects in Via San Giusto in perfect harmony with the master plan defined by Luigi Figini, Gino Pollini and Gio Ponti. And when the the overall design lacked the same high quality, like in the district, Bottoni and Pietro Lingeri responded nonetheless with Two Ina-house residences from 1956-1957 that endeavoured to bear witness to civic dignity as one of architecture’s main tasks. But even the organisms realised within the bounds of this compact city

PI IERO BOTTONI WITH EZIO CERUTTI, COUNCILLOR MARIO VENANZI AND MUNICIPAL OFFICERS DURING A SURVEY OF QT8 IN 1954 (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI)

PIERO BOTTONI did not deviate from this concept. The buildings — situated in Via Mercadante (1934-1935), in Corso Buenos Aires (1946-1951, with M. Pucci and G. Ulrich), in Corso Genova (1949-1950, with C. Turus) and Corso Sempione (1953 -1958) — are united by a constant pursuit to employ architecture’s ability to act as an instrument for configuring and shaping public space, in particular the urban street, taken as an architectural organism in and of itself, a complex, integrated entity to be preserved and used as a basis for innovation. Every building began with an interpretation of the context: they responded to an idea of the city, understood as a reality in the making of which architecture is in charge of concrete and make obvious the evolutionary lines. Thus, individually and as a whole the works of Piero Bottoni propose an image of a Milan still capable of opening and syncretism and available to metabolise together again in the sign of urbanity. Commitment to the theme of dwelling, and to listening to mutations in lifestyle is also testified by the many architectural interiors: from middle-class housing to offices, shops and public places. Not to mention the demonstrative solutions presented in the Triennale exhibitions, in which Bottoni participated uninterruptedly from 1930 to 1954, ranging from the interiors of the house for all workplaces.

GIANCARLO CONSONNI GRAZIELLA TONON

THE INA BUILDING IN CORSO SEMPIONE: VINTAGE PHOTO AND CROSS SECTION (IMAGES COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI)

PIERO BOTTONI SOME COLOURED PERSPECTIVES BY BOTTONI: ABOVE THE MULTIUSE BUILDING IN CORSO BUENOS AIRES, BELOW THE RESIDENTIAL BUILDING IN VIA MERCADANTE (IMAGES COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI)

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Residential building / 1934-1935 / Piero Bottoni

via Mercadante 7, Milano

A “Building for homes” (“Casa per also note the free composition of solids abitazioni”): this is how Bottoni defined the and voids, the colours and materials of stately building for flats in Via Mercadante the bay window, and the appearance of in his 1954 book, “Antologia di edifici the first neoplastic elements in a work of moderni” (Anthology of Modern buildings). Rational architecture. [...] The composition The building’s main function is indeed of the façades is free and foretells abstract residential, occupying five floors. Only schemes, in the solid dihedral form of the ground floor was designed for office the cantilevered bay window and in use while a laundry area in the basement alternating glazed solids with permeous was provided for tenants. A continuous lattice-work in the loggias”. band of stone cladding on the façade It is not, however, an abstract adherence clearly identifies these different functions. Similarly, compared to the main body OVERALL VIEW OF THE BUILDING IN A PHOTO VINTAGE of the building, a different solution was (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI) adopted for the top floor, as if wanting to communicate to the outside world the diversified nature of how the flats had been subdivided: 6- or 7-room units with two bathrooms on the top floor (a kind of small villa perched on roof) and typical 4-room apartments on the middle floors. The distinctive feature of this work, however, cannot simply be traced back to functionalism, as one might hastily conclude. The form doesn’t rotely adhere to the logical distribution of functions even though the elevation’s solids and voids, its protrusions and setbacks reflect Bottoni’s ever-present attention to ensuring each room’s comfort and livability. As he himself underscored: “Although fully complying with the underlying functions, one should

PIERO BOTTONI Residential building / 1934-1935 / P. Bottoni to a formal dogma. To the contrary, this differentiating the protruding and receding choice is profoundly steeped in a dialogue vertical and horizontal planes undoubtedly with the context and in the search for exalted the dynamism of the volume in an aesthetic midwife to bring forth the a neoplastic sense. But the prevailing a beauty of the whole. There is no doubt unifying — discrete — tone on the exterior that the asymmetry of the volumes, the prevented the volume from being perceived presence of the corner bay window, the as a “pluralité de plans et non pas de terraced treatment of the roof, analysed prismes” (P. Mondrian) and, contrary to the in themselves, express a desire to break wishes of Mondrian, allowed the overhang free from the language of so-called façade of the bay window and the movement of the architecture. solids and voids to be brought in harmony But in the context of Via Mercadante, with the street façade. the apparent subversive nature of the GRAZIELLA TONON neoplastic layout translates into its opposite: an organisational factor that VIEW OF THE STAIRWELL FROM THE COURTYARD reinforces the identity of the city block that (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI) was derived from nineteenth-century urban and allowed the new presence of a dialogue with the surrounding urban environment. The corner bay window was indeed conceived to be in symmetry with that of the neighbouring property; in turn the freely composed volumes of the top floor were also designed to provide the necessary coverage of the adjacent building’s blind pediments, that, due to their considerable height, would have been “too visible from the street”. Attention to context is also confirmed by the choice of colouring as foreseen by the project but unfortunately, was later not applied. The golden yellow of the stone from Vicenza, the Pompeian-red Terranova plaster in the loggias of the bay window, the delicate pink of botticino window sills, in

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Mixed-use building / 1946-1947 / 1947-1951 / Piero Bottoni, Mario Pucci, Guglielmo Ulrich

corso Buenos Aires 36, Milano

Corso Buenos Aires in Milan is a cardinal consisted of demonstrating the compatibility reference in Bottoni’ cultural and professional of the street-corridor (considered a dead-end trajectory. From the observation of this by Le Corbusier) with open buildings. In grand commercial artery, in the mid-fifties Bologna, a long, two-story main body with a he arrives to the idea of the “living street” portico would have run alongside the street, (strada vitale) which marks his exit from the simultaneously acting as a connection to the rationalist canons of urban design imposed tower-houses set back from the street and by rational subdivision. The building that he arranged in a rhythmic pattern. The initial built at number 36, called Palazzo Argentina, project for Corso Buenos Aires, designed with is an integral part of this exploration. Here Pucci, seemed intended as a proof-of-concept, he was able to refine a solution for the a proposal that stood in stark contrast to architectural design of the street originally the regulations established by the Building outlined in the project for Via Roma in Code(2): it illustrated how the entire Corso’s Bologna in 1936-1937 (1), where the challenge eastern street façade could have been. In

VIEW OF THE COMPLEX FROM CORSO BUENOS AIRES VIEW FROM VIA REDI, WITH THE CINEMA IN THE FOREGROUND (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI) (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI)

PIERO BOTTONI Mixed-use building / 1947-1951 / P. Bottoni, G. Ulrich the first version, shops and offices(3) were in vain, proposed alternatives in order to located on the ground floor ‘plynth’, which was preserve the extraordinarily strong perspective divided into four quadrants by a cross-shaped of the original configuration. Additionally, arcade. The arm parallel to the main boulevard recent times have brought further insults. Just was planned to be continuous, with a series to mention the most obvious, large billboards of arcades alongside the wide thoroughfare have been attached on the blank walls of the for its entire length. Unlike the solution in cinema (now closed) and the transformation Bologna, the tall main structure was oriented of the lower building’s roof into a terrace so that its shorter side was facing the Corso. overlooking Corso Buenos Aires. This increased the dynamic tensions both GIANCARLO CONSONNI horizontally and vertically, linking the main tower, designed for residential use (4), with (1) ”Project of the reorganisation of via Roma in Bologna, first the lower portion in a hard-fought commercial solution, competition, 1936-1937” designed with Nino Bertocchi, Gian balance (well highlighted by the prospect Luigi Giordani, Alberto Legnani, Mario Pucci and Giorgio Ramponi. (2) Building regulations for the city block - a 40m x 40m square of study Bottoni). The design process was bordered by Corso Buenos Aires, Via Redi, Via Masera and Via Broggi fraught with obstacles, especially due to the - called for a closed, ten-storey building with light wells more similar to shafts than courtyards. expectations of the owner (the Lombarda (3) The base had been designed to three storeys tall on Finanziaria Edilizia (Lombard Construction the side overlooking Corso Buenos Aires and Via Broggi, four storeys tall facing Via Redi and Via Masera. Financing), which opposed the idea of the (4) The plans provided solutions with 2, 3 and 4 flats. gallery and insisted on an extra floor (beyond (5) He worked in Modena as a City Planning Commissioner (1946- the maximum volume allowed by Code). In the 1963) and in in the Constituent Assembly and later as a senator for two terms starting in 1948. end, given Pucci’s scarce presence (5), Bottoni had to deal with the situation with Guglielmo THE GROUND FLOOR IN THE FIRST PROJECT, WITH THE CROSS- Ulrich, who the owner had imposed on the SHAPED ARCADE (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI) design staff as its designer of confidence. On the northern side, a movie theatre was included: an addition that was well-integrated into the project even though it meant that the arcade running parallel to the Corso had to be abandoned. But the most significant blow regarded the tower, with the addition of a 14th floor, set back from the main body, and especially with the adoption of a pitched roof. It represented a defeat for Bottoni who,

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Residential building / 1949-1950 / Piero Bottoni, Carlo Turus

corso Genova 4, Milano

In the block bordered by Corso Genova, for the project previously addressed in Via via San Vincenzo and via Sapeto — an area Mercadante, the matter at hand dealt with heavily bombed during the war — Eng. the restoration of a street façade. Once Carlo Turus was commissioned to rebuild again, Bottoni payed great attention to the a building of flats on a small lot facing architectonic aspects of the overall block Corso Genova. The engineer produced and to the surrounding streets. Making use a preliminary project but, evidently of prospective studies, he sought legislation dissatisfied, he turned to his friend Bottoni from the City that would have obligated with whom he had worked professionally the other owners on the block (particularly in various capacities during the war. As regarding the ‘point’, the site facing via

PLAN OF THE DISTRICT TODAY VINTAGE PHOTO OF THE FAÇADE (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI) (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI)

PIERO BOTTONI Residential building / 1949-1950 / P. Bottoni, C. Turus

Cesare Correnti) to adhere to a uniform swaths formed by the loggias, two columns height: seven floors, excluding basement of six balconies each stand out boldly. The levels. Having failed in this attempt, dramatic projection from the façade is Bottoni focused on the small portion of the accentuated by the colours of the balconies’ reconstruction that had been entrusted ceramic tile cladding — white and indigo. to Turus. The keystone lies in the frame. The result is a small architectural jewel: On the top floor, the horizontal series a lesson on how the new architecture, of loggias and overhanging eave (to protect without awe, and without betraying its the balconies on the sixth floor) do not own reasons, could deal with a fully-tested extend over the entire width of the façade: subject matter such the configuration of a they stops short, letting the last segment of portion of the street façade. In addition to the façade lined with windows run all the the rational layout of the plan, the building way up to the gutter. In this fashion, the was appreciated for its façade. Once again, organism doesn’t close back in on itself but it was Neoplasticism that led the way, rather opens up to a more complex dynamic demonstrating how to avoid the pitfalls composition of the street façade. of symmetry as well as finding a new and GIANCARLO CONSONNI more effective compositional balance. From the shadows of the two the vertical

COLOUR STUDY FOR THE BALCONIES (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI)

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Experimental district for the VIII Triennale, QT8 / 1945-1957 / Bottoni, Cerutti, Gandolfi, Morini, Pollini, Pucci, Putelli

via Diomede, via Sant’Elia, via De Gasperi, via Serra, Milano

The idea of promoting a district of the to the same experimental area studied by Triennale, where modern architecture and Bottoni with Giuseppe Pagano and Mario urbanism could find an appropriate forum Pucci in 1934/35 in preparation for the VI for experimentation, was conceived at the Triennale. The new district was to show that end of the Triennale’s fifth edition in 1933 “abandoning the traditional urbanistic/ by an exchange of views between Bottoni architectonic pattern of continuous walls and Giuseppe Pagano. Both agreed that along the streets and squares” and, instead, having to destroy the buildings erected organising buildings in relation to light and (temporarily) for the occasion in the Park green areas, it was still possible to vitalise of Milan(1) was a serious waste. But the a high-quality, unitary “environmental idea wouldn’t become reality until 1945, framework”, even within the context of when, upon Italy’s Liberation, Piero Bottoni a variety of building types and tradition. was appointed Special Commissioner of One condition, however, must be met : the the Autonomous Triennale Agency by the differences mustn’t prove to be jarring to Committee of National Liberation the point of breaking with the aesthetics of Upper Italy. the entire complex and that organisational In this capacity, Bottoni organised instruments able to avoid this end existed. the whole VIII Triennale around the There were three instruments put theme of “dwelling” and conceived in place to achieve that outcome: 1) a QT8 as a laboratory for putting the urban-architectural plan of the whole certainties and aspirations of modern area “to serve as a framework for various architecture and urbanism to the public initiatives”; 2) a specific building code; test. QT8 was not only intended to be a 3) an evaluation committee for individual permanent exhibition of new building projects, nominated by the Triennale, to types, innovative construction systems “ensure that no experimentation become and furniture, economic results and arbitrary or a search for oddities”. Both hygiene programmes, it was also, and the framework and the related model above all, an experimental example of presented in 1946, as well as the plans and a new urban spatiality. Herein lies the models presented on the occasion of the difference compared to the Weissenhof in first three post-war Triennial exhibitions, Stuttgart in 1927; the housing exhibition clearly confirmed that one of the issues in Parco Sempione in Milan in 1933; and at stake was to convincingly demonstrate

PIERO BOTTONI

QT8 / 1945-1957 / P. Bottoni, E. Cerutti, V. Gandolfi, M. Morini, G. Pollini, M. Pucci, A. Putelli the concept that by not separating urban the ‘fundamental teachings’ for the design planning and architecture, but rather by of housing. Result: through a continuous ordering the latter under the direction of series of adjustments, a neighbourhood the former, it would be possible configure that had begun as a demonstration of the a modern space comparable in terms of goodness of lotissement rationel, gradually aesthetic value with certain districts of became one of the most positive synthesis, eighteenth-nineteenth century Milan. This of the post-war period, between rationalism gamble become the hub of much of the and organicism. A significant contribution evaluation process of the criticism and was added by the extensive presence of self-criticism that allowed us to take away green areas — parks and gardens — that

PLAN OF THE DISTRICT TODAY (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI)

PIERO BOTTONI FONDAZIONE DELL’ORDINE DEGLI ARCHITETTI, PIANIFICATORI, PAESAGGISTI E CONSERVATORI DELLA PROVINCIA DI MILANO

VINTAGE PHOTO DURING THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE DRY THE DISTRICT UNDER CONSTRUCTION IN AN AERIAL PHOTO WALLS ON MONTE STELLA FROM 1950 (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI) (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI) were able to hold together the variety of unfinished. What QT8 suffers from most is construction experiments in the unified its failure to have established a true heart: image of a garden-neighbourhood. places of functional and spatial connection Bottoni himself, surveying the outcomes between the residential units, consisting in 1954, in front of “certain incomplete or of squares surrounded by porticoes, to negative building results,” sustained that which the opportunity for the community the important element, the “environmental of residents to find opportunities for social framework” of the neighbourhood, was the relationships was entrusted. Looking onto very large presence of the natural elements: these squares were supposed to be public vegetable gardens and communal gardens, offices, a movie theatre, a restaurant, shops tree-lined streets, the “approximately of various kinds, the “home group” and the 375,000 square-metre green park for use municipal market, but out of everything [...] by all citizens” and especially Monte only the market has been built. In the Stella, with its important urban significance. absence of that collection of buildings and In June of 1946 Bottoni had expected public spaces, the city-effect — which even that the implementation of QT8 would take Bottoni self-critically recognised to be a 10-15 years. If you compare its current state gap that needed filling in open subdivision with the latest plan of 1953, after almost districts — has been wholly lacking. Despite sixty years, the neighbourhood is largely the lack of this heart and the degradation

QT8 / 1945-1957 / P. Bottoni, E. Cerutti, V. Gandolfi, M. Morini, G. Pollini, M. Pucci, A. Putelli of many spaces, both public and private, dead-end so as to avoid any interference the social mixité, the presence of various with through-traffic; 4) a network of urban-level functions, the fair allocation of footpaths and lanes to connect homes and services provided for children and primary services. All this means that it in large education, the numerous playgrounds; part, the balance between motion and transport accessibility and especially the rest is ensured, between slow and rapid environmental framework make the QT8 movements. complex one of the most livable urban But the most quality-enhancing aspect outskirts. Aldo Rossi’s judgment appears of QT8 is the possibility of daily contact well-balanced: comparing districts of post- with nature. Plant life is so widespread WWII, “QT8 and Monte Stella [...] remain that in the summer, when Milan is in [...] the most important examples — and the throes of its usual torrid heat, the with no follow-up — of the situation neighbourhood is one of the rare places in Milan”. where you do not feel the need to escape. There is certainly a noticeable lack With QT8, Bottoni showed that “a more of shops close to home, decimated by comfortable environment for human life competition from large shopping outlets may be artificially created, even in cities and malls. And this creates hardship for like Milan, which are ‘climate-challenged’”. vulnerable people, the elderly in particular: It is not just a well-crafted microclimate. the distance between home and shops It is also a question of aesthetics, of for basic needs, that in the plan’s initial landscape architecture. The continuous intention was not to exceed 600 metres, green of nature allows us to track the has been enormously dilated. In any case, “aesthetics of the whole” that can also the widespread availability of spaces for assimilate a composition planning in a pedestrians still makes QT8 a human- “unity of everything of a work of art itself”. scaled complex. GRAZIELLA TONON It is worthwhile to recall that the complex is structured on a hierarchical road system and differentiated into four types of tracks: 1) major ring roads around the neighbourhood for urban and regional (1) On this and on the overall story of the Experimental District connections; 2) Two average-transit, axial please consult my “QT8: urban planning and architecture for a roads connecting the residential centres; new culture of living” in L. Ciaga, G. Tonon (ed.), “The houses in the Triennale. From the park to QT8”, Electa, Milan 2005, 3) local distribution roads to residences, p. 34-103.

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Prefabricated Housing for the Homeless in QT8 / 1950-1955 / Piero Bottoni

via Sant’Elia, via Francesco Goya, Milano

As the 1950s began, so too did the by a handrail wall .” Each apartment has second round of testing at QT8, exploring three rooms plus a bathroom and “a small methods for indistrialising residential hallway separating the bedrooms, in which construction. The two houses in Via a heater has been located that warms both Sant’Elia were conceived to experiment with the entry and living room”. a construction process known as the “Saccai The dining/living room and master system (patented by Arbor S.A.R.R.E.), bedroom are provided with built-in closets [which] allowed for dry, on-site assembly and wardrobe. The flats on the ground [based on precast, reinforced concrete] floor have a storage closet under the stairs. of the entire unfinished building, with the Those on the first floor, on the other hand, exception of the connecting floor slabs that “the storage area that has been substituted were poured in-situ with concrete and by a covered loggia that opens onto the heavy aggregates (1)”. entry” and a “larger wood – and coal – The two houses designed by Bottoni burning stove [...] in the fenced-in garden were identical in an attempt to set up a pertaining to the flat”. The extremely rhythm that would avoid the tendency for the wide variety of typological solutions THE PAIR OF BUILDINGS IN A VINTAGE FOTO scheduled for QT8 to generate disorder. (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI) “Every home — he wrote in the Project Report (2) — is made up of a building consisting of two simple structures set side-by-side and containing a total of 4 flats: two on the raised ground floor and two on the first storey. Floor-by-floor, the rooms of each flat are identical and have been arranged in a specular fashion. Access to each flat is independent; for the two on the ground floor, the entry has been placed on the west side; the first floor flats are entered from the east. The latter have separate access stairs consist of a single stair 2.10m wide, divided in the middle

PIERO BOTTONI Prefabricated Housing for the Homeless in QT8 / 1950-1955 / P. Bottoni rational space distribution of the interiors spatiality. These same “popular” elements sets up an unusual solution on the exterior, make up a façade in which — even in its demonstrating once again Bottoni’s skill modest essense as dictated by economic at combining modernity and tradition imperatives — it is possible to pick up the with a keen eye that was always attentive undertones of a sophisticated syntax: that of to the genius loci. The elements that went a neoclassical villa. into making up the volume seem to recall As for the colour scheme — always a the neo-realism of three other Ina house distinctive feature in Bottoni’s architecture buildings from the same period, in Via — the “Project Description” (3) deferred Montello in Sesto Calende, 1950-1953. But the selection of the colour for the external while in Sesto Calende the pitched roof, plaster to the “construction management at the fenestration and the external staircase the time of execution, [however] it specified brought about a solution that was clearly that the colour for the flooring should tend dictated by the desire to communicate with towards a light yellow in the bedrooms, the rural character of the context, with green or gray for the living areas; the QT8, an experimental garden district that same goes for closets and corridors. The was intended to animate a modernly urban floors in the service areas (kitchen and toilet, as well as for the open balconies)

A VINTAGE FOTO OF THE TWO BUILDINGS should be clad in black tiles”. (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI) GRAZIELLA TONON

(1) P. Bottoni, “The experimental district of the Milan Triennale QT8”, Editoriale Domus, Milan, 1954, p. 64, 67. See also L. Meneghetti, “Housing for the homeless in via Sant’Elia in QT8”, Milan, 1952-54, in G. Consonni, L. Meneghetti, G. Tonon (Eds.), “Piero Bottoni. Complete Works “, Fabbri, Milan 1990, p. 364. (2) P. Bottoni, “Report. Two-storey houses (ground floor plus a first storey to be built with the S.A.C.C.A.I. system - Arch. Piero Bottoni)”, in APB, “Written documents”, op. 291, b. 57, fasc. 1. (3) Experimental 2-storey houses, S.A.C.C.A.I. system (house “A”). Project description”, Ibid, pamphlet 5.

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Exhibition pavilion and playground in QT8 / 1951 / Piero Bottoni

via Pogatschnig 34, Milano

This small pavilion, built in 1951 for in plan and “essentially consists of a large the IX Triennale, is an integral part of the hall, encircled by a half-ring structure, playground that Bottoni had studied in 1948. containing stairs and service areas. A room The small pavilion was designed for “two of the same size is in the basement, directly distinct functions: 1) permanent exhibition accessible from the playing field. It contains of the projects, models, technical data etc.. the children’s games and equipment for related to the development of the Triennale inclement weather. There are also two small District; 2) a temporary place for children rooms for the guard on duty and a small from the playing field to gather, in the library”. The exhibition space is lit from event of rain” (1). The building is circular above. This was made possible thanks to the

THE PAVILLION IN A VINTAGE PHOTO. IN THE BACKGROUND THE BUILDING BY LINGERI (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE BOTTONI ARCHIVE)

PIERO BOTTONI Exhibition pavilion and playground in QT8 / 1951 / P. Bottoni invention of an ingeniously-cantilevered, form of this small pavilion”. The exclusive circular roof slab. At the centre of the slab, emphasis placed on functional elements by a which has “a slightly truncated conical master who had always taken a stance against section, [...] supported by a series of beams rote functionalism, was justified by the need arranged in a spoke pattern”, a large to affirm that rational“ ” architecture — on operable ‘eye’ has been placed, delimited par with “organic” architecture — was able by a reinforced concrete ring in which the to produce beauty far from the manneristic beams have been inserted. In this way, a “rectanglism” under indictment at the time. “skylight, mounted on a sliding mechanism, In reality, like other examples of Bottoni’s allows the exhibition hall to be left open. work, as well as his own historical training The intensity of the indirect light in the will corroborate, two other formative hall is controlled via a large, cone-shaped teachings are also at work here: learning from screen raised or lowered by means of a the past and listening to the context. winch: thus, by enlarging or restricting the Designed for lighting, the opening at the apex aperture of the skylight, indirect natural of the hall, among many possible influences, light was reflected onto the walls of the hall”, does not exclude reference to the oculus of the where, at that time, the projects for QT8 Pantheon. The choice of a low-profile building were on display. Cream and gray coloured with a central plan, on the other hand, refers ceramic tiles (no longer present, having been to the place: in particular because of the removed after a shoddy restoration) covered dialogue it establishes, as a counterpoint, the surface of the walls and brought them with the tall building by Lingeri and, in to life, emphasising their role as a backdrop general, for the relationship it builds with the to the playground, in a series of abstract neighborhood. In order to make the small compositions: graphic, linear patterns “[...] pavilion easily recognisable, in accordance intended for the children’s drawing exercises with tradition for hubs of community life in using coloured chalks, to be done on the the city, Bottoni markedly differentiates this ‘black board’” located “on the outer wall work of architecture from the urban fabric of of the pavilion, facing the playing field”. the surrounding houses, the same as for other Bottoni argued that “the functional elements, public buildings planned for QT8. sheltering the children on the playground, GRAZIELLA TONON masking off the service areas (toilets and stairs), a lighting system from above in the exhibition hall, are the determining factors (1) For this and other references cf. P. Bottoni, “Anthology of Modern in the particular plastic and decorative buildings in Milan”, Editoriale Domus, Milan, 1954, p. 208-211.

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Incis Apartment building in QT8 / 1953-1958 / Piero Bottoni

via Bertinoro 9, Milano

After being appointed Special thus the history of architecture missed the Commissioner of the Milan Triennale by opportunity of seeing the realisation of a the Committee of National Liberation of significant project (by no means diminished Upper Italy and while he was beginning by the evident debt it owed to Le Corbusier). work on the QT8 project that will keep him The imposing block of flats in Via busy for over two decades, Bottoni drew up Bertinoro that marks the boundary of QT8 plans for a Home-Garden in July of 1945 towards Stuparich square was, in some with Mario Pucci. There was no client; the respects, an offspring of that experience(1). two designers were solely motivated by Certainly, the differences are obvious: the their desire to test themselves, to elaborate idea of laying out the flats on two levels a project that would exemplify everything (duplex) was abandoned and, especially, they had accumulated on the subject of the architectural result did not achieve the collective housing during the war years. The same standard of quality. What the two results represented the dawn of a new era, organisms did have in common, however, which says more than anything else about was the choice of grafting certain elements the climate that led to the founding of this of a single-family home onto a multi-storey experimental district. residence. Like in the concept for the Unfortunately, no public or private Home-garden, ample, wide-open garden entity was found that would be willing to areas were set aside at the entrance to each develop the Home-Garden project further, flat on the various floors and they were

VIEW OF THE MODEL OF THE BUILDING (IMAGE COURTESY PLAN OF A MODULE FOR A TYPICAL FLOOR (IMAGE OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI) COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI)

PIERO BOTTONI Incis Apartment builing in QT8 / 1953-1958 / P. Bottoni ensured on the west side by large balconies, reappears here and there in his architectural connected to the stair/lift blocks, to which projects. Unfortunately, this aspect, not at they are anchored. These powerful elements all secondary, was removed by a poorly- are the organising motif of the façade and, done restoration that chose to paint over the at the same time, highlight the internal logic ceramic tiles with a hideous, solid colour. of the organism: its being made up of five As in other projects, Bottoni paid towers placed side-by-side. great attention to the public areas on the As in other examples of his work, ground floor, planning a nursery for 60 Bottoni added a change of pace on the children and other spaces such as a meeting eastern façade, utilising screen panels room and a consumers cooperative. The (corresponding to the kitchen) to unsure a cooperative never became operational; sense of lightness (in a deliberate contrast similarly, the nursery did not last for long. with the organism’s mighty physical GIANCARLO CONSONNI presence) along with a delicate hint of colour obtained with a ceramic tile cladding.

Here, Bottoni realises one of the (1) Bottoni and Pucci proposed the creation of the House chromatic variations in architecture: a motif garden to Incis, but to no avail: the duplex typology was considered incompatible with the standards the agency assigned for he dealt with for the first time in 1927 and civil servant housing.

VINTAGE PHOTO SHOWING THE ORIGINAL FINISH MATERIAL THE COLOUR SCHEME OF THE LATTICE WORK FOR THE SERVICE (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI) BALCONIES (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI)

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Monte Stella at QT8 / 1947-1970 / Piero Bottoni

QT8, Milano

“In 1945, upon Liberation,” Bottoni quarries, which happened to also be the recalls in his book, ‘Ascensione al Monte most important in the area” — destined to Stella’ (1), “Milan was completely in ruins, become a large body of water in the first draft a sea of rubble”. To solve the problem for QT8. The rubble was dumped into the of removing the rubble, it “was initially water-filled quarry without interruption day concentrated at certain points along the and night, burying once and for all the dream city’s network of waterways, ‘la Cerchia del of a “blue and romantic lake”. As the context Naviglio’, before being taken to the suburbs mutated and the lake’s concave formation to fill in, among other things, the exhausted was turned into what had already become a gravel pits that dotted the outskirts of ‘small mountain’ by 1947, Bottoni decided town like small lakes. [...] At that point, to make a virtue out of necessity: “Since the rubble, which was accumulating by dreams and poetry, despite appearances, the thousands of cubic metres along viale move the world”, he envisioned Alemagna, and in areas adjacent to the transforming this dump into a poetic place. Park, was sent to one of these abandoned To that end, he set about designing the

VINTAGE PHOTO OF MONTE STELLA UNDER CONSTRUCTION (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI)

PIERO BOTTONI Monte Stella at QT8 / 1953-1970 / P. Bottoni hill’s rational growth as it progressively rose and the views of the city”. The surface area higher, so as to realise another dream: one increased from 23,970 square metres to that came from “far off, since time began 196,300 square metres, while a series of [...] of a mountain in Milan”. Instead of steps 8 metres high and 33 wide — built with “cooling off in the water, taking a swim, contributions from the construction sites of lying on a beach to dream, strolling side by the vocational rehabilitation schools run by side, hugging on the bottom of a boat under the Ministry of Labour — allowed the height willow trees that reach down to touch the to reach a hundred meters tall, as indicated water along the shores,” this is what QT8 in the sections prepared by Bottoni (3). Thus offered to “the citizens of Milan [...] who the Monte wound up being “the backdrop live in one of the cities where nature has to the new road that enters the city from been extremely stingy with [...] occasions of the highways (the new Via Scarampo) and landscape-environmental interest (no sea, then runs along its base”: a true reinvention hills, mountains, rivers, lakes) [the] novelty of the historic monumental gates to the of aerial perspectives, sloping walkways, city. From the modern green formation of panoramic views of the city” (2). QT8, today Monte Stella emerges as the The construction of the mountain mass of a cathedral characterised by the went on for more than two decades from compact construction of an urban body. It’s its beginnings in 1947. Initially supplied no coincidence that Aldo Rossi himself was exclusively by rubble from the war, the first to note that Monte Stella is a“ great from 1949 onwards the foundation was work of architecture”. continuously added by a variety of sources, GRAZIELLA TONON from excavated soil to waste materials. Over this long period of time — during which it was christened Monte Stella in (1) P. Bottoni, “Il quartiere sperimentale della Triennale di Milano homage to Bottoni’s first wife, the sculptress QT8”, Editoriale Domus, Milano 1954, pp. 64; 67. Cfr. anche L. Meneghetti, “Case per senzatetto in via Sant’Elia al QT8”, Milano, Stella Korczynska, who died in 1956 — the 1952-54, in G. Consonni, L. Meneghetti, G. Tonon (a cura di), “Piero size increased dramatically. In the 1949 Bottoni. Opera completa”, Fabbri, Milano 1990, p. 364. (2) plan for QT8, with the great lake having P. Bottoni, “1. Status of Work on Monte Stella to QT8 in Milan as an introduction to the project of accommodation 2. prospects for disappeared, the mountain is still a low hill the future” in APB, written documents, op. 345, b. 65, fasc. 2. (3) and plays a mainly “local role, completing In the project of 1953 Bottoni had planned a series of maisonettes and a funicular on the slopes and a restaurant at high of the district”. By the 1953 version of the altitude. Fortunately did not do anything and it will be the same project, on the other hand, it had finally Bottoni to recognize self-critically in 1967 that Mount Stella was to “preserve unequivocally its appearance of a green park, for free, for turned into “an integral part of the greenery as far as possible contamination of a speculative nature”.

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INA Housing block in the Harar-Dessié district / 1951-1953 / Piero Bottoni, Mario Morini, Carlo Villa

via San Giusto 37, via Novara 92, Milano

The designers of the Harar district — skyscrapers”(1) define a large, protected Luigi Figini, Gino Pollini and Gio Ponti space intended for green areas and — rejected the framework of the satellite attendant services. The residential part of district, in vogue before and after the war, the district (4,800 units in all) is completed preferring to focus on building a part of the by array of single family homes (“islets”) city capable of integrating into the compact arranged in various combinations (2). The urban fabric. The layout of the entire result is an unresolved juxtaposition. sector was entrusted to a considerable The two large complexes designed by length (100-140 metres) of 5-storey row Bottoni, Morini and Villa, in terms of size houses (plus the ground floor), arranged and position, are the result of a comparison parallel to Via Harar and Via Dessie and between Ponti and Bottoni. Along the Via S. at a 45-degree angle to Via Novara, an axis Giusto (and perpendicular to Via Novara), leading to the city centre. These “horizontal the designers of the district had planned

BUILDING I NEXT TO VIA NOVARA, IN A PHOTO VINTAGE (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI)

PIERO BOTTONI INA Housing block in the Harar-Dessié / 1951-1953 / P. Bottoni, M. Morini, C. Villa

on one large building, about 200 metres in (1)The 9 “horizontal skyscrapers” were designed by Luigi Figini and length. Bottoni aims to orient it along the Gino Pollini, Paolo Antonio Chessa and Vito Latis; Gio Ponti and Antonio Fornaroli; Gio Ponti and Gigi Ghò; Gian Luigi Reggio e heliothermic axis; Ponti replied by pointing Mario Tevarotto; Alberto Rosselli; Mario Tedeschi; Piero Bottoni, out the inconsistency with the layout of the Mario Morini e Carlo Villa. (2) The designers of the “islets” were Figini e Pollini; Paolo Antonio roadways. Chessa and Vito Latis; Mario Tedeschi; Tito B. Varisco. The result is the most appropriate one: (3) Building “H” is 101,16 m. long and 11 metres deep; building “I” the big blade is broken into two parallel (next to via Novara) is 108,98 m. long and 11,40 metres deep. (4) buildings, staggered and spaced at 33 On the shorter side, a single stair serves 6 flats per floor, separated by a walkway; in the remaining part, 4 stairs metres, but arranged according to the initial each serve 2 flats per floor. (5) orientation. The two organisms differ in Each has 5 rooms plus a bathroom. (6) size (3) and especially in concept. Building The flats on the first floor are accessible from the ground floor through individual stairs, while the duplexes can be accessed by two ‘H’ is an assemblage of two structures stairs serving two balconies located on the second and fourth floors. (one 36,90m and the other 64,26m), each consisting of equal-size units (respectively 3,5 and 5 rooms) (4). Building ‘I’, on the other hand, presents a differentiation in height: between a first floor that consists of single-floor units arranged (5) and the upper floors consisting of duplexes, i.e. two (6) storeys . SITE PLAN OF THE HARAR DISTRICT The architectural outcome is quite (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI) different: the differentiation applied to building ‘H’ is not well resolved in terms of balance, while building ‘I’ is laudable for its compositional skill. Only one regret remains: Ina-casa did not accept the solution proposed by the designers that called for both buildings to have a flat roof for use as a terrace, where, separated by a long covered walkway, a solarium and other recreational spaces and service would be located.

GIANCARLO CONSONNI

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Ina Building / 1953-1958 / Piero Bottoni

corso Sempione 33, Milano

A work of rare power. Strong and more cohesive and convincing urban and balanced, complex and unitary: so clear architectural solution. and pristine as to seem designed in a single, More than one scholar has noted that, elegant stroke. Yet the many preparatory in the layout of the plan, the large blade designs that led up to the final solution constructed (2) coincides with one of the speak to a painful gestation period. The buildings planned for “Milano verde” (3). new street layout called for by the newly- If one looks at the design process, however, approved master plan and the shape of it can be ruled out that Bottoni used that the client’s lot (owned by INA Insurance), project as a reference. Moreover, the Ina forced the designer to a series of exercises Building marks a decisive deviation from in decomposition. The project comes out his own rationalist roots. Firstly, in the way of its stalled state when, with the signing the organism relates to Corso Sempione: the of an agreement (1), the City welcomes a ground floor has a magnificent colonnade running its entire length, festive, with VINTAGE PHOTO well-coordinated colours (4). Bottoni called (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI) this interior a “grand arcade for sorting out circulation” (5), partly due to the need of connecting Corso Sempione with the extension of Via Pucci, which was yet to be completed at the time. A second difference from rationalist planning can be noted in the way it relates to the city. The north-west façade, the one shown to those entering the city, is presented as a composition of four towers set side by side. The four stacks of long balconies piled on top of one another open onto Corso Sempione, emphasising its attractive tension. On the other side (where the flats’ living areas are located), the loggias produce a sense of movement in the opposite direction, as if to withdraw from the Boulevard. The result is

PIERO BOTTONI Ina Building / 1953-1958 / P. Bottoni a complex, rhythmic-musical orchestration: west façade, a motif he repeated in a more the elevation facing away from the city delicate manner on the south-east side as strongly (with a vague reference to defense well. Additional masterstrokes in what is his towers), marked by the rapid pace of a Bach post-war masterpiece. symphony on the side facing the historic GIANCARLO CONSONNI centre. A way to celebrate it. With a clear nod to Le Corbusier, (1) Bottoni made the roof viable for In return for a land exchange, Ina waivered rights to a portion of its property (1,827.70 sq m) and accepted a reduction in the recreational uses and chose to allocate the building’s overall volume (156 rooms fewer). tenth floor to a “hanging garden intended (2) An 18-storey building, it is 65 m. tall, 75 m. long and 14 m. wide, for children’s playgrounds, to specially- with double-facing flats, served in pairs by four stairwells. Every floor houses 31 rooms, distributed as follows: 3 units with 6 rooms, 3 glazed rooms for common living spaces three-room units and 1 with 4 rooms. In total, 527 rooms. (3) and so on” (6). The latter element was The master plan of the Sempione-Fiera area developed in 1938 by a group of rationalists (F. Albini, I. Gardella, G. Minoletti, G. suppressed “by the authorities, against the Pagano, G. Palanti, G. Predaval, G. Romano). (4) designer’s advice, when the job had already The street with arcades “is completely clad in ceramic tiles going (7) from light blue and white to salmon-pink sky.” P. Bottoni, “[Description been almost completed” thus removing of the Ina building in Corso Sempione 33, Milan], “typewritten, in the an extraordinarily distinctive element from Archivio Piero Bottoni, Written documents, Works, op. 342, p. 3. (5) the project. In any case, Bottoni was able “The windows of the commercial offices, craftsmen’s shops and the liaison offices look on to” the portico. Ibid. to emphasise that floor with loggias that (6) Bottoni [description ...], p. 2. form a horizontal slice across the north- (7) Ibid.

GROUND AND TYPICAL FLOOR PLANS (IMAGES COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI)

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Two INA Housing blocks in the Comasina district / 1956-1957 / Piero Bottoni, Pietro Lingeri

via Teano, Milano

The Comasina district was conceived encountered in terms of social cohesion (3), in 1953 by Irenio Diotallevi (1) (assisted by as an inevitable consequence of the choice, Max Pedrini and Camillo Rossetti) as a self- quite appreciable, of responding to different sufficient district divided into four sectors(2) forms of housing needs: “the “evicted”, (each with its own hub of services) coupled the homeless, the “ex-slum dwellers,” the to a central core marked by presence of “workers” and so on (4).“ But the underlying the church. Whereas the attempt to reduce problem was and still is the “lack of certain the incidence of motor roads in favour of urban characteristics” (5). fostering relationships entrusted to walking Bottoni designed two pairs of identical trails is commendable, the impetus to orient residential buildings for Ina-casa. The first the buildings along their heliothermic corresponding to buildings no. 81 and 82 axis had the upper hand over the need to (close to Via Madre Clelia Merloni) and the impart a clear and unified design complex other, designed with Lingeri, corresponding as a whole. Inattention to the relationship to buildings no. 64 and 64a (close to Via between solid and void, and in particular Teano). In the first pair of buildings, the to the architecture of the street, ended up search for an efficient distribution in plan(6) giving the whole a chaotic and confusing was to the detriment of their architectural aspect. Relevant then are the difficulties integrity.

TYPICAL FLOOR PLAN (IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI)

PIERO BOTTONI Two INA Housing blocks in the Comasina district / 1956-1957 / P. Bottoni, P. Lingeri

The results obtained with the two apart, as if to underline the search for a buildings in Via Teano designed in glimpse of light; to the north by a decline, in collaboration with Lingeri are very addition to capturing the light accentuates different. Here, the clarity of the layout the vertical tension. Penombre horizontal in plan is remarkably consistent with the finally going to emphasize the exceptional project’s configuration. Each 9-storey character of the fourth and eighth floors, organism (excluding underground levels) where there are areas for children to play. has two staircases that serve two or three GIANCARLO CONSONNI flats per floor each (7). Both façades are based on an astute combination of bold vertical and horizontal features that impart a sense of tension. An interplay of positive and negative (the loggias) volumes (8): a (1) Diotallevi, vice president of IACP in Milan since 1948 and canvas of shadows and projections that chairman since 1949, died prematurely in 1954, just as the district accentuate the light-coloured surfaces, four was being created. The design of individual Comasina buildings, in addition to the technical offices of Iacpm, the City of Milan and Incis blocks punctuated by windows that seem involved 33 professionals. (2) suspended and in perfect balance with the Each of 2,500 inhabitants. Built between 1954 and 1963, Comasina, with its 11,000 rooms, has the distinction of being the largest whole. Consistent is the treatment of the district created by an independent Housing Institute after the war. sides, differentiated in the central parts: (3) A survey conducted on behalf of the Municipality of Milan in the south side with the walls spreading 1964 came to the conclusion that “there does not seem to be, in social terms, any internal or common ‘value’ to the groups that live there, that encourages the people to identify with it, to consider it and VINTAGE FOTO(IMAGE COURTESY OF THE ARCHIVIO BOTTONI) to be considered as a ‘self-sufficient’ community”. Piero Gennaro and Associates, “Results of the survey on the expectations of the city’s outskirts. 3, report of the Comasina district” City of Milan, 1964, pag. 37. (4) John Foot, “Il boom dal basso: famiglia, trasformazione sociale, lavoro, tempo libero e sviluppo alla e alla Comasina (Milano)”, 1950-70, in S. Musso (ed.), “Tra fabbrica e società. Mondi operai nell’Italia del Novececento”, Feltrinelli, Milano 1999, pag. 623. Foot notes the outcome of an Ilses investigation in 1964: ”A quarter of the tenants of the Ina Housing blocks came from shanties, 44% from attics and basements. Only 15% had previously lived in ’normal’ housing”. Ibid, pag. 625. (5) Gennaro and Associates, cit., pag. 37. (6) Two staircases serve each 4 flats per floor. (7) For a total of 42 flats and 152 rooms (19 with 2 rooms, 20 with 3, 3 with 4). (8) On the east façade, two narrow vertical bands corresponding to the bathrooms, on the west facade, the balconies with transparent parapet.

PIERO BOTTONI PEOPLE Portraits of Milanese professionalism other itineraries in the series (www.fondazione.ordinearchitetti.mi.it)

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The BBPR studio and Milano by Paolo Brambilla, Stefano Guidarini and Luca Molinari

The secret of the Absolute: Francesco Somaini and Milano by Paolo Campiglio

Franco Albini and Milano by Stefano Poli and Carlo Venegoni

Vico Magistretti by Fulvio Irace and Federico Ferrari

Vittoriano Viganò by Roberto Rizzi and Marta Averna

Giulio Minoletti and Milano by Maria Cristina Loi