The urban regeneration intervention of the city block between via Boccaccio and via Alfieri reinterprets the theme of contemporary living through the recombination of formal elements that have been historicised in the history of the discipline. A cloistered system, with a sequence of enclosures, gives rise to a new fabric, characterised by the alternation of solid elements (buildings and collective spaces) and cavities (cloisters). The ground floor, configured as a continuous system, houses mainly the pedestrian access spaces to the complex, covered connections – porticos, collective facilities, technical surfaces or areas used as a cellar.
The common ground is defined by porous spaces, capable of determining quality even with technical elements by means of small patios with their own formal identity defined by plants with a strongly symbolic value. The two main buildings, divided into five residential levels, are characterised by a principle of measured rule, defined in compact masses violated by large fissures. Two large masses, then, fold into the roof, creating a new relationship with the sky, which almost seems to enter the buildings through cavities, balconies, porticos, defining the transition space between the interiority of the volumes and the complexity of the open spaces. The relationship with the pre-existing structures is expressed through a strategy of formal recomposition of the different parts, sometimes proposing the recomposition of the continuous façade along the pedestrian access of Via Boccaccio, sometimes inserting technical spaces to support the existing production volume on Via Ariosto. The Sienna-coloured pigmentation of the cementitious cladding panels, which characterise the façade fronts, reinterprets, on the one hand, the twentieth-century architectural culture of Milanese buildings, and on the other hand, the industrial vocation of the strongly identifying continuous casting in the Sesto area.
Client: UNIABITA soc. coop
Volume: 9.000 m3
Surface: 2.800 m2
Project year: 2020
Completion: 2020-ongoing
Architectural project: FORM_A
Design team: Andrea Fradegrada, Sandra Maglio with Gino Baldi
Consultants: ZH srl, B&C Associati
Images: Onirism
Model pictures: Isabella Paleari