by 5+1AA
Alfonso Femia, Gianluca Peluffo, Simonetta Cenci & Jean-Baptiste Pietri Architectes / Rho, Italy
From dawn to dusk.
In open land natural light turns into a material capable of transforming how a landscape is perceived, whether it be natural or man-made. In the peculiar setting of a Trade Fair, an horizon where light flow in and is reflected in the whites, greys and patches of colour, it can become a material shimmering from north to south, from east to west, emphasising the deep colour of dawn and dusk. The new building is characterised by the colour gold, whose preciousness refers to the theme of sunlight and its reflections, the capacity to create an atmosphere of transparency, opacity, reflections and semi-transparencies with its surroundings, within the territorial perspectives crossing the area at different speeds and at all times of day.
From dawn to dusk.
On open land natural light becomes a means of transforming perceptions of either a natural or manmade landscape. Within the peculiar setting of the Trade Fair, a horizon within which light is incorporated and reflected amidst whites, greys and specks of colour, it can become a shimmering material flowing from north to south and from east to west, underlining the intense colour of dawn and dusk. The new building is defined by a golden colour, with sunlight and its reflections enhancing its beauty and creating a sense of transparency, opacity, reflections and semi-transparencies within its setting and the various territorial perspectives crisscrossing the area at different speeds and at all times of day. Shades of gold mixed with the whites of the interiors making the elevations appear endless in the morning and evening or, in other words, at those times of day when light strikes the main walls and its physical bounds can no longer be perceived as it blends in with natural light. A black base and a green top frame a perceptual and emotional mechanism which oneirically evokes the use of gold in Italian painting from Beato Angelico to Kounellis on the present-day scene. One of the project’s aim was to interact with the public buildings and old Milan Trade Fair constructions. In partnership with Jean-Baptiste Pietri, the architects designed a horizontal tower (132.65 m x 48.10 m in height x 16 m in depth on a base raised 1.20 m above the ground) nearby the other buildings, which fully complies with all the functional and financial demands stipulated by the client. Considering the constraints of the setting, the decision to opt for a horizontal building seemed to be the most logical way of creating bonds between the city and exhibition site. The project also incorporated the design of the outside spaces of neighbouring buildings, which include squares and pedestrian paths, landscaped spaces and car parks.
Amidst the city and its surrounding territory, a new building for Milan Trade Fair.
The manner in which the city of Milan, as it encounters the cities of Rho and Pero and subsequently seeks out and defines a new form of interaction with the landscape, has been and will continue to be a “threshold” where the city turns into land and the land starts to become a city, metropolis and space suspended between nature and artifice. The axis and desire to look west, towards Turin and France, was once boldly outlined by Napoleon, when Sempione was the shortest road link between the fairs in Champagner in northern France and business centres in Northern Italy, particularly Milan. Today these links have finally been strengthened and will permanently look towards Europe from west to east - at least that is the plan - and infrastructural strategies have been backed up and supported by important building projects such as the new Trade Fair, the forthcoming Expo 2015, and transformations to bordering areas, which, like pieces in a jigsaw puzzle, will raise Milan to a new international status, provided they are studied and developed intelligently based on scenarios drawing on a new overall vision (for Milan and its surrounding territory) and specific solutions. This introduction is not supposed to be a mere preamble to an important architectural project, designed to fit into the present and future "scale" of the area in question. Our attitude to the architecture is that of proposing a project which provides a specific solution to a specific "setting", shunning the idea that a sign, icon and/or stylistic idiom can define themselves alone in a self-referential manner as the answer to every problem. The setting is what we find looking at things as they are, understanding why they are so and the values of their "real" being; the project aims to respond to this input and propose something new, transforming "reality" in a responsible and non-cynical manner. Unfortunately, nowadays architecture runs along the dangerous lines of self-reference and cynicism. We are now fortunate enough to be taking on a project which has managed to provide a balanced, pragmatic and visionary solution, capable of creating and inventing a place (never previously there) and "constructing it" through a vision based on accumulation, stratification and interaction. The Trade Fair, just like other important public buildings set along the axis of Sempione, has managed to create a place with its own distinctive identity, so we would like to confront and dialogue with the setting without overwhelming or being overwhelmed by it.
Architectural representation
Two in one. One and three.
We feel that the new building needs to interact with the Trade Fair complex, whose most distinctive features include its size and horizontal layout. These aspects, connected with the frontal nature of the south entrance and urban perspectives along the promenade, the underground railway station exit and main infrastructures to the east, have resulted in the decision to create a horizontal tower (132.65 m x 48.10 m in height x 16 m in depth on a +120 cm base), capable of interrelating in differently the southeast compared to the northwest (i.e. along the building’s longitudinal axis). The area where the building is planned to be constructed clearly sets up relations with its setting, both in terms of the geographical layout of its grounding area and also the geometric layout of the building lot. We have, therefore, set ourselves the goal of designing a building which simultaneously belongs to the Trade Fair and, at the same time, fully complies with the functional and economic guidelines set down in the tender. These considerations have resulted in the design of a predominantly horizontal building capable of interrelating differently to the southeast (the roofs over the Trade Fair) compared to the northwest, where the Trade Fair faces Milan, but which, at the same time, is also a vertical Building in relation to the predominantly horizontal structure of the Trade Fair. The horizontal tower and vertical Building (a combination of two buildings) are the two “souls” making this a representative and symbolic building, which neither overwhelms or is overwhelmed.
Stylistic choices connected with representational factors the frontal nature of the area (south entrance) between the underground railway station exit and entrance to the trade fair avenue, designing a building like a sequence of "horizontal towers" dictated by a classic stylistic criterion: base, elevation, top, where these elements are self-defined through the invention of "special" places featuring different inter-levels capable of setting out the needs of the "two" buildings and, at the same time, of describing them and setting itself out like one single building. The base raised above road level accommodates, separating the various flows (pedestrians from cars), and proposes different perspectives looking towards the horizon according to the various functions found at the foot of the building (full-height foyer, double-height canteen, varying height offices).
- the building’s horizontal layering which sets out, in sequence, the Building housing the associate companies of Fiera Milano spa, a full-height distributional foyer separating and "joining together" the two Buildings, the Building housing other companies; the compositional strategy allows a high degree of flexibility, notable representational force both inside and outside within the logic of being two and one(the two Buildings) and one and three (the three overlapping horizontal "towers").
