Two big buildings that used to be industrial and out of scale, were then reached by the city and the Centre. Introversion and extroversion, in the city. The redemption of ugliness, gray and despised buildings. The red and the black. The colour and the reflection, the light and the darkness. Few, almost graphical signs, surrounded by some ink. An undeground hidden and bright heart. Next, the total white and the decoration. For some tenderness after the violence of the redemption from the gray.
Via Piranesi is characterized by one long and compact front mainly “productive” and another equally fragmented, but “residential”. The old Milanese ice factory overlooks this road through a low, long, uninteresting building, which anyway plays a main role from the perspective point of view with respect to the other two important buildings beyond the line. Thanks to its 100 meters length, the building plays with perspective and it points out as a big, bright arrow the entrance to the area, becoming a “Plug Building”: an element of communication, connecting the activities taking place inside the area with the city. The lack of personality of the long and low building will be highlighted by two simple processes: on the one hand a coat of black paint will replace the grey colour, a blob which assails everything: walls, windows, profiles, in order to obliterate any form of architectonic ratiocination and to transform the structure into a black hole, swallowing everything; on the other a new shiny “skin-peel”, made of glass, will be overlapped in order to create a chromatic effect with respect to the monotone geometry of the surrounding area; it unedges the volume with a bidimensional and “night” effect.
Ice Palace, was built in 1923. In 1957 it housed the first italian festival of Rock'n'Roll. The project aims at transforming this wide area, characterized by a steel cover, into a multi-purpose structure, to house events and exhibitions. Renovation will concern the rooms adjacent to the building: foyer, bar and restaurant; the exhibition rooms are designed as tunnels overlooking the central room.
The Milanese ice factory, was built in 1899, close to the railway station of Porta Vittoria. It was used as a store for food and also housed an ice factory. The project redraws the top floor of the building, devising the renovation of the vaults, and planning a new area for visitors. The new distribution system is organized around a “throat” cavity containing the lifts; it redraws the front of Porta Vittoria inserting a system of stairs leading to the top floor of the building.
