From Arms Factory to City of Culture in Milan by David Chipperfield Architects

This project nears completion in the ex industrial area Ansaldo, Milan, was designed to create the so-called “City of Culture”, a large museums area, which includes the New Archaeological Museum, the Center of Non-European Cultures, the CASVA (Center for Studies in the Visual Arts), the Laboratory of traditional puppet of the brothers Colla.

City of Culture by David Chipperfield Architects. Photograph © Oskar Da Riz.

David Chipperfield won the international competition in 2000 to design the Città delle Culture (City of Culture) complex in the former Ansaldo factory, located south-west of the city in the creative district surrounding Via Tortona, with a solution that, according to the jury, was: “better addresses the relationship between new and old, without dissonance, seeking their own values in a context not easy.”

The idea of the architect provides for the restructuring of some existing buildings and the construction of a new building that will house the Centre of Cultures Extraeurope, a building with a central hall that welcomes and directs the public as an urban square covered. It contains, in addition exhibition spaces, a number of ancillary services such as bookshops, special shops , ethnic buffets, cafes and a shopping arcade.

The volume with a particular organic form with wavy template and built in etched glass with parabolic surfaces, act as a lantern for the city in the evening. The double-sided translucent glass of the hall contains a system of walkways that bring to exhibition spaces.

The complex comprises an assemblage of two, three and four-storey volumes, framing a network of courtyards and passages designed to help integrate the new structures with the surrounding industrial architecture.

CREDITS.-

Architect.- David Chipperfield Architects.
Project Team.- David Chipperfield Giuseppe Zampieri, Cristiano Billia, Oliver Ulmer.
Team. Consultant.- Alberto Izzo & Partners. Models.- A-Models, Metthew Marchbank, Vista Models. Lighting.- Ove Arup & Partners, designer Mario Nanni.
Management.- City of Milan, the Central Technical Department. Steel Structures and Facades.- Stahlbau Pichler. Project Manager.- Diego Pulici. Design Manager.- Massimo Colombari. Electrical System.- Gemmo and special systems; Mechanical Systems.- Cooperative Cefla. Installation.- Manens. Intertecnica, Ove Arup & Partners. Structure.- Sajni & Zambetti.
Construction.- Ansaldo 2011 consists of Cooperative Costruzioni Lavoranti and Muratori, Società Cooperativa Muratori.

Read less

Lantern or Main building. City of Culture by David Chipperfield Architects. Photograph © Oskar Da Riz.

Double skin. City of Culture by David Chipperfield Architects. Photograph © Oskar Da Riz.

Exhibition room. City of Culture by David Chipperfield Architects. Photograph © Oskar Da Riz.

Access from groun floor plan. City of Culture by David Chipperfield Architects. Photograph © Oskar Da Riz.

Façade. City of Culture by David Chipperfield Architects. Photograph © Oskar Da Riz.

Courtyard. City of Culture by David Chipperfield Architects. Photograph © Oskar Da Riz.

Landscape of roofs. City of Culture by David Chipperfield Architects. Photograph © Oskar Da Riz.

Model urban context. City of Culture by David Chipperfield Architects.

Model. City of Culture by David Chipperfield Architects.

Sketchs. City of Culture by David Chipperfield Architects.

First and second floor plan. City of Culture by David Chipperfield Architects.

Roof level plan. City of Culture by David Chipperfield Architects.

Sections. City of Culture by David Chipperfield Architects.

Section. City of Culture by David Chipperfield Architects.

Model section. City of Culture by David Chipperfield Architects.

Detail section model. City of Culture by David Chipperfield Architects.

View more images

Metalocus recommends

"KM.0,015" by Montis Sastre Arquitectura + DRDR Arquitectura. Photograph by Lluís Bort

Two Social Housing units. "KM.0,015" by Montis Sastre Arquitectura + DRDR Arquitectura

Cityplot Buiksloterham by Studioninedots. Photograph by Sebastian van Damme

Strategic and resilient. Cityplot Buiksloterham by Studioninedots

Twin Alpine Houses by Dekleva Gregoric Architects. Photography by Ana Skobe

Happy together. Twin Alpine Houses by Dekleva Gregoric Architects

More information

David Chipperfield

Sir David Alan Chipperfield was born in London in 1953 and was raised on a farm in Devon, in the southwest of England. He studied architecture at the Kingston School of Art and the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, graduating in 1980. He later worked with Douglas Stephen, Norman Foster, and Richard Rogers before founding his own firm, David Chipperfield Architects, in 1985.

The firm has grown to include offices in London, Berlin (1998), Shanghai (2005), Milan (2006), and Santiago de Compostela (2022). His first notable commission was a commercial interior for Issey Miyake in London, which led him to work in Japan. In the United Kingdom, his first significant building was the River and Rowing Museum in Henley-on-Thames, completed in 1997.

Chipperfield has developed over one hundred projects across Asia, Europe, and North America, including civic, cultural, academic, and residential buildings. In Germany, he led the reconstruction of the Neues Museum in Berlin (1993–2009) and the construction of the James-Simon-Galerie (1999–2018).

He has been a professor at various universities in Europe and the United States, including the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart and Yale University. In 2012, he curated the 13th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. In 2017, he established the RIA Foundation in Galicia, Spain, dedicated to research on sustainable development in the region.

He is a member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) and has been recognized as an honorary fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the Bund Deutscher Architekten (BDA). He has received numerous awards, including the RIBA Royal Gold Medal in 2011, the Praemium Imperiale from the Japan Art Association in 2013, and the Pritzker Prize in 2023. In 2009, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, in 2010 he was knighted for his services to architecture, and in 2021 he was appointed to the Order of the Companions of Honour in the United Kingdom.

Chipperfield's career is distinguished by his focus on the relationship between architecture and its context, as well as his commitment to sustainability and the preservation of architectural heritage.

Published on: December 1, 2014

Cite: "From Arms Factory to City of Culture in Milan by David Chipperfield Architects" METALOCUS. Accessed

<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/arms-factory-city-culture-milan-david-chipperfield-architects> ISSN 1139-6415