GARIBALDI REPUBBLICA DISTRICT IN MILAN
LOCATION Milan, Italy
YEAR 1992
THEME City
STATUS Project
DESIGNERS Antonio Monestiroli
TEAM Valter Balducci, Antonio Farina, Shazad Ghanbari, Pompeiana Iarossi, Giovanni Marras, Elena Mussinelli, Raffaella Neri, Margherita Sala, Paola Viganò
The Garibaldi-Repubblica area, destined by vocation to be a place of administrative and cultural directionality, is a border area with the historic center, located between different parts of the city built at different times: the historic center, the area of Piazza della Repubblica and its continuation in the fabric of the turn-of-the-century plans to the southeast, the first industrial suburbs to the northwest. The railroad has long kept these different urban realities separate, and today they confront each other on the edges of a large void. The design idea is to preserve the large open space, earmarking it as an urban park. On this will stand the buildings of three directional poles: the administrative one, consisting of the Regional Council headquarters; the cultural one, a large municipal library; and the financial one, public and private offices.
The mutual relationship, through the park, of these three major systems will give meaning to the place and its relationship to the city as a whole.
The most important building, both for its sense of the institution for which it is intended and for its role in its composition, is the seat of the regional council. Placed opposite Garibaldi Station, it forms the backdrop of a long perspective from the southeast and the boundary of the park in the same direction. Opposite it, on one side of the park, above an artificial hill carved out of the existing railroad embankment, is the large municipal library, the second hub of the system. To the northeast then is located the financial pole that defines in the park the head of the major avenues leading to Brianza. The three poles refer to the main relationships the area establishes with its surroundings. The aim of the project is to make these relationships evident, reinforcing them, in a context restored to the natural ground condition. The building types adopted are buildings on a plinth that distinguishes the building ground from the natural ground. The plinths in this project propose the idea of an “urban island” surrounded by greenery and a city-building rule that replaces the block, understood as an elementary part, with a more complex unit distinct from the natural ground. Each island will have its own identity, made evident by the architecture. A new unit of measurement for the city built in nature, a new scope for architecture.
IN
Massimo Ferrari (edit by) Antonio Monestiroli Opere, progetti e studi di architettura Electa Milan 2001