Residential buildings

The project provides the completion of an empty area, partly occupied by a disused industrial building in the north-eastern outskirts of Milan.
The space is framed between the two streets Columella and Parmenide. The latter is a dead-end road. For this reason the project respects the indications of the Municipality which provides for the construction of a widening necessary for a roundabout ("turn back").
Along Via Columella, on the other hand, the urban general plan, already traced, is completed, creating the terminal part of the linear paved square coming from south.
The two buildings are settled on the public space’s border and define it at the same time.
On the west side, on Via Columella, a low-rise building with one floor out of ground respects the volumes of the neighbouring industrial buildings attached on the northen border, accepting their alignement and creating a small semi-courtyard entrance. The building is articulated in a north-south direction with 5 residential units connected by a covered corridor.
The corridor continues inwards, passing through the building and thus creating a connection to the central courtyard, which is also delimited by the second building with 6 floors out ground. In this case, the prevailing typology in the context is respected, as required by the municipality’s guidelines. On the ground floor there are technical spaces and a common room directly facing the internal garden.
Starting from the first floor different sized apartments are organized . On the fourth floor each unit has a direct connection to the upper floor reserved for technical spaces.
A basement, common to the two buildings, houses the garage and cellar spaces.

While the low building has private gardens, the high building has loggias, which are particularly developed on the west front and excavated on the south and east fronts. The different treatment of the loggias also provides a changing character for the 4 elevations of the building, providing some proportions’ variations.

The volumetric diversity of the two buildings is finally underlined by the different finishing materials. The low building is finished in white plaster, while the high building marks its autonomy and diversity with a dark Klinker’s cladding. Colours and details of the railings and sliding shutters take on the character of 20th-century Milanese residential building that is clearly assumed by the project.