Piuarch, the architectural practice founded by Francesco Fresa, Germán Fuenmayor, Gino Garbellini and Monica Tricario, has won the international design contest for a new research facility on the former site of Expo Milan 2015. The competition was held by Fondazione Human Technopole and Arexpo with the winners announced digitally.
The new Human Technopole Campus covers approximately 55,000 square meters and includes buildings on the former site of Expo Milan 2015. The new building itself will accommodate scientific work over 10 floors and 35,000 square meters of floor space. Of this, 16,500 square meters is dedicated to laboratories for scientific research and 3,000 square meters to terraces and green roofs.
The functional, adaptable volumes of the proposal are arranged around a central space referred to as ‘common ground,’ forming the heart of the development not only in space but also functionally as a centre of distribution leading to laboratories and offices in the two main volumes. The common ground area is to be partly open and partly glazed up to the roof, resulting in a space flooded with natural light. The open spaces will be dynamically connected with various walkways and ramps crossing different levels.
The first nine floors house primarily administrative offices and research laboratories as well as workstations for researchers. The top floor will provide common areas such as a dining room, meeting rooms, classrooms and spaces for events, as well as terraces providing access to the green roof that are central to the scheme. In addition to offering greenery, tranquility and south-facing views over Milan, the green roof also will accommodate photovoltaics and infrastructure for sustainable rainwater management.
The timing of the announcement is certainly not lost on the architects who say in a statement, ‘At a time like this, we are proud to contribute to the creation of a new building for scientific research and human well-being. Today these topics require our highest level of attention and commitment. People are at the heart of our project, recipients and protagonists of a place aimed at facilitating dialogue and the sharing of knowledge, a space which we consider fundamental for the rebirth of Milan. The new Human Technopole building was designed primarily as a meeting place, thanks to an architecture capable of interconnecting public and research functions. From this continuous spatial sequence, a fluid and highly iconic, functional and adaptable, sustainable and avant-garde landscape arises.'
