Revitalisation of Area and Building a New Residential Part in Crescenzago, Milan(IT)

Project idea

The project was a proposal of revitalisation of part of a Crescenzago made by Saint Gobain. That is a part of Milan, IT. The project was made as a studio project at Faculty of Architecture in Czech Technical University.

The idea was to create a fresh new part of this district. The proposal was divided in 3 plots. Plot 'A' was supposed to be a new housing block, Plot 'B' was a reconstruction of existing panel residential house. And plot 'C' was a urbanism which was connecting those two plots 'A' and 'B'. All schemes are displayed on poster which is linked to the project.

Project description

The proposed object is located in the northeast of Milan in Crescenzago. The aim of the competition is to design
housing units with public amenities and parking, to improve / design better thermal and acoustic properties of existing
residential buildings and to design the public space that connects them. The benefits of the area are the proximity
of the subway station, topography and the recreational area of Parco Lambro. The disadvantages of the area are
the noise of the metro, the barrier that this metro creates with the road, noise, danger, lack of location, poorly read
street network, parking and existing houses do not meet today's standards. The site has great potential for development.

Technical information

There is an underground car park with two underground floors with charging stations and bicycle storage. In
the first floor around the perimeter of the complex there are leasable areas that can be freely divided and divided
as needed. The premises also have sanitary facilities and warehouses. There is a kindergarten in the southeast. On
the inside is housing. Housing units have access both from the street and from the inner block, where a semi-private
space is created. Each apartment in the first floor has a front garden separated by a hedge. There are also prams
and public spaces, such as a meeting room, a projection hall and so on. From the second floor, the mass breaks
down and creates an irregular network of buildings that, however, respect the load bearing system. The support
system in the garages is a column-type span of 8.1 m. The system is combined from the first floor. Individual housing
units are divided according to materials and can be freely divided and composed according to the needs
of the investor and customers. Thus, an irregular expression of masses occurs, but they are united by a material
solution. On the facades we used corten - rusty metal sheet. In the northwest part there are administrative
buildings, which have a separate entrance to the building by means of lifts. Movement between these materials
is provided by the gallery. These materials have a double facade of perforated surface for better acoustic
properties. The vertical communication cores are separate from the masses and are easy to read. The light
reaches them through the light cladding over the entire height of the road, which is covered with perforated
corten plate. The main element of the territory is the central axis, which connects the surroundings with the
proposed complex. Individual masses are interconnected by galleries, which are accessible from vertical communication
cores. These galleries serve for access to individual masses and at the same time promote social
interaction between the inhabitants of the complex. Each apartment has a balcony made of exposed concrete.
The apartments are different. From 1 - room flat with kitchen corner to 5 - room flat with kitchen corner. There
is extensive greenery and solar panels on the roofs of the buildings. The spaces between the masses and
roofs are used to collect rainwater, which is used for flushing and showering. Access to the underground
garage is from the north-east side.

Co-authors

Maroš Galáž