New residential intervention for 52 apartments in Milan, in the historic center of Greco for the implementation of Borgo Conti PII.
The new Borgo Conti residential complex, includes two built units with 51 freely built apartments with special rates. The intervention, completed in 2022, concludes the plan for a significant part of the city, which includes the restoration of the historic farmstead Cascina Conti, mainly intended for services, the new road network and the sports center for the Greco district. The factors that mainly influenced the project are both urban and environmental. Initiated in 2003, the plan, which was then implemented between 2009 and 2011, reflects a practice that envisaged lower densities than in more recent projects or, in other words, a less intensive idea of land use. At the same time, the presence of a significant historical urban fabric - the 15th century farmstead, the 18th century church, the remains of Palazzo Litta - defined a context of value that is still recognizable in its historical configuration on an agricultural scale. The 2011 public-private agreement gave rise to two important polarities for public use. The first one is the courtyard of the historic farmstead, comprised of numerous mixed-use buildings. The monumental building of the 15th century unit, which after the restoration is housing private residences, is located to the North. The West side houses a restaurant and a student house. In the middle of the courtyard another building, rebuilt on the basis of a pre-existing agricultural outbuilding, houses inclusive accommodations and the executive offices of the Service Manager. This area is public, with the sole exception of the 15th century building, and is sold to the operators under surface rights with the contractual obligation to provide social activities. The manager, the non-profit social cooperative ABCittà, is responsible for activating urban regeneration processes and managing the services. All the buildings are oriented around the courtyard, intended as a public square and freely accessible from the neighborhood. The sports complex, with a regulation soccer field, changing rooms and service areas, is the second focus. The parts of the Comprehensive Intervention Program, i.e. the two public centralities and the private residential buildings, are connected by a series of streets and parking lots which solve some mobility cruxes in the area and allow accessibility to the various sectors. The design of the residential buildings had to give shape to conditions, defined by the plan, which are unusual for the city of Milan: the construction of a fairly extensive intervention of two and three-level buildings with large green courtyards and in direct connection with the courtyard/square of the farmstead, which hosts several public and social activities.
The architecture aims to achieve a balance between consolidating the local identity and building a landscape characterized by practices of use related to a contemporary residential destination. The size of the project, determined in height by the rules of the plan, is expressed by a system of loggias which interrupt the continuity of the façades and generate a variety of forms which articulate the internal landscape. The image is defined by the alternation of façades covered in light colored bricks and plaster and by the black metal boxes of the balconies, terraces and windows/planters. Brown-colored flat French roof tiles cover the pitched roofs that complete the overall image. The simple materials chosen for the construction of the façades simultaneously express the values of the dialogue with the context and the desire to convey their contemporaneity. The spaces inside the complex, a C-shaped courtyard for the first unit and an L-shaped one for the second unit, host squares and gardens, partly common and partly private. The ratio between the size of the open spaces and the low height of the buildings generates a large and bright internal landscape that can become the center of the community life of the residents. Starting from this example, we wonder whether a low-density project can generally become a model for urban development and regeneration. The question concerns different environmental, landscape and economic levels. In England, where terraced houses have long represented the prevailing typology, extensive development has corresponded to a wide urban structure with large green spaces, which define, for example in Greater London, a urban fabric of regional extension. It is important to note that the model, rooted in the English tradition, has given way, in contemporary real estate practice, to intensive interventions, high condominiums that interpret the high real estate values of the capital city. The case of Milan is different. The city was built up of courtyard houses and, predominantly after World War II, of multi-storey condominium buildings. The urban structure has a limited development and the link with the territory, which gravitates to a large extent towards the city, is not organic. In short, we can say that rather than an extensive intervention model, the low houses with large green spaces have a punctual relevance. In the presence of characteristic landscapes of high value and with pre-existing rural units, as in the case of Borgo Conti, the landscape value takes on a prevailing character. And perhaps it also shows an alternative solution that favors the urban landscape over land exploitation.
Private commission
Project: September 2019/2022
Place: Milano
Building permit (Scia): April 2020
Construction: 09/2020 – 07/2022
sqm area: 5.293
In collaboration with Andrea Borri Architetti
Ph: DSL Studio
