FELTRINELLI - milan

The project is included in the Urban Plan of Porta Volta Fondazione Feltrinelli.
Although it is a rather small area, it is the missing piece in the mosaic of projects that are in place in the entire area of the city to which it is related. The project is based on the idea of continuity and of the configuration of local relationships through the rich system of squares and paths. The roads surrounding the lot follow the ancient layout of the Bastion of the Spanish Walls, giving the area its peculiar “V” shape. The block morphology is divided in two sectors east and west of Via Volta. All around there is a thick curtain of buildings whose average height is about 20 m, mainly for residential use. To the extreme north of the lot we can find the toll-houses. To the east side, along Viale Pasubio, it is planed to realize the Feltrinelli Building, an office building with commercial areas on the ground floor, and Fondazione Feltrinelli, a cultural institution aimed, among other activities, at the preservation of an important collection of historical documents open to the public. The project consists in two separates bodies along the border of the area; on the opposite side the buildings offer a large public green area, intended as extension and prolongation of the existing boulevards. The new buildings emphasize the nature of portal of Porta Volta, proposing again the rich Milanese tradition of twin buildings.
From a formal viewpoint, the complex consists of three buildings that, adhering to a simple geometric-proportional scheme, are placed along the fragmented thread of the curtain, and the rebuilding of it. The perimeter walls have all glass façades and the building skeleton is of concrete, completed with an external-curtain shading system. The fronts of the building are transparent façades, while those between the Fondazione Building and the Feltrinelli
Building are cut intentionally and treated like blind façades.