The intervention involves the redevelopment (LEED Gold Compliant) of a 6,500sqm office building located in the Bicocca district in Milan.
A building with 3 floors above the ground within a basement which was already existing, and the proposal involves a retrofitting for both interior and exterior area. The building is about 100 meters in length and hosts the former offices of the historical Breda Siderurgica S.p.a., a well-known Milan based steel factory.
It was decided to highlight the structural aspect of the concrete and steel, while leaving it exposed, even in the points where it is imprecise and imperfect, also the ones that are close to demolition, decision was conservating the souls of the building.
When a person enters the building from the middle of the sleeve, descend into the double-height entrance area where the reception is located in front of a 5-meter birch tree, where the two elevators in mirrored material and the waiting and meeting room are located. It might be the first building ever built to have a curtain wall with a transparent rubber exterior finish. The façade (currently being assembled) is made up of fixers and covers of the external decoration with transparent recycled silicone rubber.
As for the interior spaces, leaving the internal structure exposed on each floor reacts with the space, the light, and the context. Designed with spatiality and materiality, imposed using the original colours of the materials such as grey for concrete, wood, and black for steel.
The design decision was a coupling of fluid and plastic materials such as concrete, and light materials and frames such as metal carpentry and wood, to generate spatial tensions, alternating sensations of solidity and monumentality, with sensations of light and being lighter.
