13 FLOORS AND 50 METRES IN HEIGHT, WITH GLASS CLADDING AND GOLD-PLATED SUNSHADES FOR THE MANAGEMENT OFFICES OF FIERAMILANO, RHO
29 September 2008 – After the exhibition centre by Massimiliano Fuksas, the multi-storey car park by Mario Bellini, and the public green spaces by Andreas Kipar, a new high profile architectural work will now join what is considered the “architecture park” of Fieramilano, Rho
29 September 2008 – After the exhibition centre by Massimiliano Fuksas, the multi-storey car park by Mario Bellini, and the public green spaces by Andreas Kipar, a new high profile architectural work will now join what is considered the “architecture park” of Fieramilano, Rho. This consists of a single complex formed of two 13-floor buildings a little less than 50 metres tall and covered in smoky grey windows. This structure, which will host the companies of the Fiera Milano Group and will be completed in 18 months, is worth about 30 million euro and covers a gross surface area of 21,000 m2. It will be built by the Rome-based company Italiana Costruzioni. The project is designed by the 5+1 AA studio, which also designed the new Palazzo del Cinema in Venice, and by Jean Baptiste Pietri, famous for his design of the H99 residential tower on the Marseilles waterfront, together with AI Engineering and Iquadro for the specialist know-how relating to structural, plant engineering, viability and environmental matters.
Italiana Costruzioni was the temporary winner of the tender called on 21 December by Sviluppo Sistema Fiera, the engineering and contracting company for the development of the territory controlled by Fondazione Fiera Milano, which handled the transformation of the Milan exhibition system. This morning the General Board of the Foundation unanimously approved the opinion expressed by the Commission assigned to select the winner from the six projects remaining in the competition (12 groups had sent expressions of interest for a total of 22 companies and about 30 architects and engineering companies).
The commission considered the technical value of the offer (architecture, functionalism, technical and technological aspects and worksite organisation), the time of completion of the works and lastly the economic offer.
The facades will be a distinguishing feature of the new building – three sides will be made of smoky grey transparent windows, with an external sunshade structure made from bronze/gold coloured panels. The sunshades will spread out from south to north, alternating light and shade as well as reflections and semi-transparencies, aiming to give the structure the preciousness of changes in light, particularly seen in the horizontal light of dawn and sunset. The extremely striking eastern façade is completely covered in gold-plated sheets.
Within the engineering project, the spaces outside the buildings next to the underground station and Porta Est have also been redesigned to include squares and pedestrian pathways, green spaces and parking areas.
“I would like to congratulate the winner,” declared Luigi Roth, president of Fondazione Fiera Milano. “The selected proposal has developed the elements of the tender by using formal, typological and technological solutions that on the one hand guarantee autonomy of the new complex and on the other are totally in keeping with the architecture already existing in the area.”
Leonardo Carioni, president of Sviluppo Sistema Fiera since July, accentuated the construction solutions of the winning design. "The technological choices,” stated Carioni, “and the use of systems as well as materials aimed at promoting environmental sustainability and energy saving must contribute, alongside the functional and architectonic choices, towards the creation of a single “building organism” where technology and architecture are the result of a virtuous and far-reaching integration of a variety of disciplines".
The tender procedure involves a negotiating phase to refine the elements that make up the contract. At the end of this phase, the contract will be signed and by early 2009 the area will be handed over to open the worksite and start work.
Parameters of the operation
Objective
To rationalise the offices of the ten technical companies (associates) that form the Fiera Milano Group, currently based in different locations.
Description
Design, works management and “turnkey” construction (including security expenses) of the "Office buildings of the Fieramilano exhibition centre", two connecting buildings to be used as offices and for related functions.
Location
Area near the Porta Est entry to the exhibition centre, close to the Rho-Fiera red line underground railway station, destined to complete the compatible functions of the Fair (offices, hotels, recreational facilities etc…).
Times
18 months from delivery of area (expected conclusion date: by Summer 2010)
Contract value
30 million euro
Architectural requisites
1) High profile architectural quality in line with the other Fieramilano realisations (exhibition centre by Massimiliano Fuksas, hotel towers by Dominique Perrault, green area by Andreas Kipar, parking areas by Mario Bellini);
2) "non camouflage" consistency with the settlement system of the exhibition centre;
3) language that draws inspiration from contemporary architectural themes;
4) architectural representation of the values of internationalism, innovation and culture of exchange that distinguish the Fiera;
5) use of systems and materials aimed at promoting environmental sustainability and to reduce energy consumption: class A buildings, using eco-compatible technology such as photovoltaic cells, district heating network, heat pumps cooled by groundwater, high energy performance facades that reduce the dispersion of heat etc.
Functional requirements
1) Offices arranged in independent functional units for each of the partner companies of Fiera Milano;
2) extensively reconfigurable standard layout;
4) mixed floor plan configuration (there will be "cellular" offices with 1 to 4 workstations and open space areas);
5) staff to insert: about 700 workers;
Gross surface area
20,900 square metres