Orsole

What: competition submission of a new mixed office, residential and tertiary building. (award-winning finalist project)
Who: Camera di Commercio di Milano
Where: Via Delle Orsole, Milan - Italy
When: 2018
AREA: 4500 sq. m
AREA49: Giacomo Penco, Davide Camera, Marco Grazioli, Lorenzo Astulfoni

The project involves the replacement of the existing building, which is now inadequate to perform the required functions and which could not be economically viable for the property.

The settlement principle adopted in the project proposal recognises some critical elements that are intended to be taken into account:

• the resolution of the internal blind fronts, in relation to neighbouring buildings

• the relationship with the valuable handmade structure of the sixteenth-century church of Richini

• the identification of the most correct spatial positioning possible in relation to the factory buildings that constitute the immediate surroundings on all sides. 

The approach of the project is identified in a "subtraction" strategy with progressive manipulation of the volume by going up. 
With respect to the tender requirements, the project foresees a large commercial area on the ground floor that covers almost the entire footprint of the ground floor. The upper floors are designed for offices, which are organized on a free and flexible floor plan. The higher floors, in addition to the office space, allocate the residences, with terraces and gardens at different heights.

The harmonious design of the facades covered with metal lamellas, unifies the treatment of the front with the aim of reducing the scale of the intervention with respect to the present heterogeneous context.
The southern front covered in stone seems closely related to the new pedestrian square.