The complex of buildings on Via Cantù and Via Orefici is a piece of the great nineteenth-century design of Piazza Cordusio, an intermediate place between the Duomo and the Sforzesco castle.
The redevelopment project involved limited interventions, aimed at improving the livability and functionality of the two buildings, without distorting their identity. The buildings have been the subject of intervention several times over the years, and our design attitude was to adopt the principles of transparency and rigor for this further rewriting. The largest of the two buildings, on the corner between Via Cantù and Via Orefici, is a courtyard and is connected to the second building, overlooking Via Orefici, via a covered passageway on the second floor. On the ground, the pedestrian Passaggio Centrale public street, inside the complex, separates them, and the main entrances overlook it.
The project maintains the centrality of the court, as an occasion for a contemporary “double-face” graft, creating a double-height environment with a steel cover and volumetrically complex glass: the new cover is transparent and lets light pass on the commercial ground floor, but it is mirrored towards the upper floors to reflect the historical facades that face it. The ground floor golden cladding in gilded metal panels creates an unexpected casket, which can only be glimpsed of the exterior.
The redevelopment and enhancement of the fifth floor led to the opening of a new glazed balcony overlooking the courtyard, cut into the roof pitch and open to the sky. The covered passage between the two buildings on the second floor is also a light graft with a painted metal structure and partial curtain walls in multilayered glass, which transforms transit spaces into small “squares” accessible to tenants of the offices. The recovery of unused spaces made it possible to obtain a new useful surface, and to equip the complex with a new and large terrace at the top of the smaller building with a volume in painted metal and glass, to be used as executive meeting room and informal work space with a view on the Duomo. The redevelopment of the vertical connections has led, on the one hand, to enhance the richness of the noble stairs in respect of the existing materials, and on the other to manage the new technical volumes on the roof with coatings, where the extension of the existing elevator leads to a new “high square”, a terrace for events.
The perception of the building from the street is lightened: the commercial shop windows are all reopened to full height with very thin fixtures, also proposed on the upper floor with large mirrors. The new outdoor LED lighting project aims to enhance the historical features of the existing valuable building, but marking the innovation of the redevelopment intervention, and thus adding a further piece and “a new light” to the renewed commercial district of Piazza Cordusio.
Team:
Architect: Barreca & La Varra
Architectural design (schematic, final, construction), works supervision, artistic direction: BLV
Team BLV: Marco Chiodaroli (project leader), Giulia Sorrentino, Bruno Carniello, Luigi Tambuscio, Catherine Calolot
Project management: J&A consultants s.r.l
Urban and architectural coordination: arch. Luca Mangoni
Project structures and DL: B.Cube s.r.l.
Electrical and mechanical design: Tekser s.r.l.
Acoustic and safety project: United Consulting s.r.l.
VV project. F.: Hughes Associates Europe s.r.l.
Photography: Giacomo Albo
Material Used:
1. Windows and tinsmiths: Thema
2. External flooring: Cotto d'Este
3. Internal flooring: Marazzi
4. Elevators: Kone
5. Metallic coating courtyard:Terenzi Planium
6. Interior office furniture: CN Arredamento Design
