Trailer The Corner
Not eligible for AIA CES Credits
A corner building, located at the intersection of two important Milanese arteries, The Corner becomes the occasion for a project that rethinks the relationship with the city and compositional balance, dialoguing with time, with the necessities and needs of the client and users, proposing a flexible and innovative project.
Atelier(s) Alfonso Femia’s project, starting from the pre-existence, involves the redevelopment and expansion of a building that has always represented one of the entrances into Milan, on the corner of Via Melchiorre Gioia and Viale della Liberazione.
The long history of the area of Porta Nuova reveals traces of a lengthy transformation, of times and urban stratifications that accumulated little by little up to the new contemporary image of the neighborhood. An image made of new public spaces and glossy buildings: from the Vertical Forest to the Unicredit Tower, to the new Library of Trees Park.
A change that in The Corner building turns into a different, alternative proposal, starting from what is there to then tailor a new story to it. A narration that moves through the topics of flexibility, of the communicative dimension of architecture, of listening and of a dialogue with the city outside and the workspaces inside, careful to issues related to economic viability and efficiency.
What emerges is a continuous tension given by the three different facades: from the "white" and rhythmic one on Viale della Liberazione, which incorporates the regularity of the existing openings, to the bow-window one on Via Gioia, where the re-invention and multiplication of an architectural element produces a dynamic and mirror effect, up to the internal one where the glass windows and panels produce patterns, made of matter and color.
An expressive research and the continuous relationship with the context emerge through the words of Architect Alfonso Femia and the images of The Corner, as well as topics that are connected to exploiting the heritage, the importance of time as a design element, technological and compositional challenges, the relationship with the companies and brands that will occupy that space.
A project that comes to life through targeted actions: from a renewed relationship with the exterior and new facades, to the energetic and regulatory redevelopment, up to the rationalization of the interior layout with new entrances and added floors.
The corner between different times, a possible future and a present where contamination and the exploitation of the existing heritage coexist.
Educational objectives
- Planning tools and the elements of the city transformation, carriers of urban change, will be highlighted through the history of the area of Porta Nuova in Milan, between imaginaries and reality
- You will learn about the topics, challenges and difficulties of an architecture project in its relationship with design requirements, constraints and technological challenges
- During the lesson compositional and building issues will be dealt with, in the creation of a multifaceted narration, structured starting with three different fronts, three facades that represent the topic of the corner
- The course will highlight the compositional aspects, design actions, technical and plant engineering details that characterized the project of The Corner building, in the dialogue with the different actors in the project, the city and time