Entry for Piazza Castello’s Competition by Torricelli, Castiglioni, Georgi, Comi and Sortino
09/06/2017.
By Angelo Torricelli [Milan] Italy
metalocus, SARA NÁJAR
metalocus, SARA NÁJAR
The competition was based on a urban and architectural remodeling of Piazza Castello located in the heart of Milan, Italy.
The proposal for Piazza Castello’s Competition by Torricelli, Castiglioni, Georgi, Comi and Sortino.
The proposal for Piazza Castello’s Competition by Torricelli, Castiglioni, Georgi, Comi and Sortino.
The proposal for Piazza Castello’s Competition by Torricelli, Castiglioni, Georgi, Comi and Sortino.
The proposal for Piazza Castello’s Competition by Torricelli, Castiglioni, Georgi, Comi and Sortino.
The proposal for Piazza Castello’s Competition by Torricelli, Castiglioni, Georgi, Comi and Sortino.
The proposal for Piazza Castello’s Competition by Torricelli, Castiglioni, Georgi, Comi and Sortino.
The main goal of the Concorso Internazionale di Progettazione Piazza Castello – Foro Buonaparte was to improve access and use of space in the square both in reference to the perception of the environment and the landscape and conducting activities and urban functions. The participation in the competition was open for architects, engineers and urban planners. The winners were announced on January 17, 2017
Description by Massimo Mazzone
To Spoil a Choice, or the “Not-so-Strange” Case of Piazza Castello’s Competition
More than few people foresee that, following the United Kingdom discharge from the UE, Milan will substitute London by assuming the latter’s identity as “City of Europe”. In this sense, since January 2017, the big financial consortiums and the Italian Government are setting the conditions finalized to tune the necessary laws to secure this internationally prestigious position.
It is undisputable that Milan represents the economic capital of Italy. Its modernity is expressed by a true civility of dwelling. However, starting from the dawn of the new millennium, the city has been shored up by colossal cathedrals of glass and steel, true temples of the economic power, erected by this or that multinational, banking or insurance group.
Thus, the image through which the monetary capital has peremptorily chosen to express its status is gradually overlapping the shape of the whole city, modifying it in a compulsory way and with no chance of remedy.
The alarming fact is that these impositions are not only welcomed with widespread indifference as current practice, rather that, in most cases, they are lauded as progress’ bearer: true vessels, charged with the task of ferrying the dull present toward a brighter future. Many, among Milan’s citizens and the goers, seem unaware of the character loss the city is living, and to the provincialism expressed by the conformation to the globalized world’s dominant images. Hence, they mistake as clever innovation the arrival of a futuristic computer store or of a pretentious coffee shop’s franchising, bringing a huge crystal cube in the center of Piazzetta Liberty or a palm grove in Piazza del Duomo.
The paradox is that, instead, whether is up to the Public Administrations – direct representation of the citizens of Milan – to decide of the city’s future image, they answer with a hypocrite “sense of measure”, which translates into the ostracism of architecture as carrier of meaning.
The last – but most likely not final – proof of this “not-so-strange” case is the International Design Competition Piazza Castello – Foro Buonaparte’s outcome, published last February the 4th.
In fact, the jury decided to award with the first prize a design which, through few cosmetic operations, “embellish” the square and gives up from the start to the chance of giving an interpretation to space, which is architecture’s authentic task.
Hence the forms, drained from any kind of content and value, have the strange power to not convey any point of view, cunningly avoiding the danger of exposing themselves to the public opinion’s guillotine and the subsequent risk of consent (thus votes) loss.
In short, by clumsily evoking the image of Paris’ esplanades, the winning design proposes to cover the whole Piazza Castello’s area with white stabilized gravel, and provide the space with a certain number of graceful kiosks which seem directly extrapolated from some painting of Pissarro.
We find ourselves, at this point, to face another paradox. In fact, by trying not to expose itself from a political and economic point of view, the Public Administration selected a design which is totally foreign to the character of Milan, ultimately choosing an alien.
It is striking, for instance, the material’s choice: in fact, from one side, Milan is a city which always preferred to pave the spaces in front of monuments and institutional buildings with stone, from the other, the white stabilized gravel is a very delicate material, which easily deteriorates and needs a continuous maintenance, which gets dirty during winter and blinds in summertime.
It is left to wonder how the design, which evidently is the best of the selected ten, has been placed only at the third place(Torricelli). It is, indeed, a project which is capable of enacting the relation between tradition and innovation with a remarkable interpretative capacity and with forms that are appropriate to one of the most eminent places of the city.
More information
Project lead
Angelo Torricelli, Carlo Castiglioni, Julia Georgi, Giovanni Comi and Gianluca Sortino
Team
Edoardo Bernasconi, Elisa Prusicki, Annachiara Stanga
Collaborators
Lighting.-Enrico Caprotti
Economic management.- Marco Robecchi
Massimo Mazzone
Dates
September 2016 - January 2017
Client
Comune di Milano
Angelo Torricelli
Angelo Torricelli. He graduated in Architecture in 1969 from Milan Polytechnic. He is professor of Architectural Composition and head of the School of Civic Architecture at Milan Polytechnic. He is currently coordinator of an Architectural Design Studio for the post-graduate degree in Architecture and runs the course in Theories in Contemporary Architecture. Since 2011 he has been head of the Architecture Board at Milan Polytechnic.
He has also taught at the Faculty of Architecture in Palermo and in the summer workshops in Architectural Planning at the Iuav University in Venice. He has been visiting professor at international Seminars on architecture and city planning in Bergamo, Parma, Salsomaggiore Terme, Vigevano; at the international Seminar on museography at the Villa Adriana and in the specialist course “Culture of the project in an archaeological context” at the Rome Three University; in international architecture workshops in Naples, Athens, Alexandria and Beirut.
He has contributed to numerous periodicals including «Casabella», «Hinterland», «Edilizia Popolare», «Aión», «Il Disegno di Architettura», «Ananke». From 1982 to 1983 he was in charge of the magazine «AL. Architetti Lombardi». Since 2008 he has been chief editor of the magazine «Architettura Civile». In addition he is a member of the editorial committees of serial publications by Aión of Florence, Araba Fenice of Cuneo, Libraccio of Milan.
He has headed up studies and projects on a number of archaeological sites in Milan, Cremona, Mantua, Phlegraean Fields, Venice, Syracuse, Sicily, Athens, Alexandria, Beirut, Hadrian's Villa, Istanbul and Huyang. He has been responsible of national research on the architecture of urban and metropolitan functions: La città d’autore. Milano e alcune città padane (1987); Aggiornamento tipologico e costruttivo dell’edilizia residenziale in Lombardia (2004-2007).
Since 1972 he has been actively involved in Milan on architectural projects; in 2004 he set up Torricelli Associati with Mariateresa Rampi and, from 2010, Carlotta Torricelli. He has produced projects for competitions and public and private commissions. His urban projects include: the Garibaldi-Repubblica area in Milan (1991); the reconversion of the barracks and the military installations in Baggio (1993); the Eco Centre in Ispra (1994); the hotel, residential and cultural hub for the Fair of Milan at Pantanedo in Rho (1995); the redevelopment of piazza Bagolino and piazza della Repubblica in Alcamo (1996); the project for a new Christian ecumenical centre in Bari Punta Perotti, 2006.
In 2004 he received a special mention by the jury at the “Darsena” international design competition; in 2005 he won the special competition (which was by invitation only) for the new parochial complex at Tre Ronchetti in Milan and the 2009 competition of ideas for the “Recupero e valorizzazione storico-urbanistico-ambientale della Piazza del Duomo di Cerignola”; the project was mentioned in the international design competition of Social Housing “Il borgo sostenibile – Milano Figino” (2009); his plans were selected for the international competition of ideas for the conversion to housing of the “Serafino Gnutti” former barracks in Brescia (2013).
He has won plaudits and prizes for his projects, including the 11th ADI Gold Calipers (1979); the selection of the IN/Arch in the context of the “Rassegna critica delle opere di architettura in Lombardia” (1983); special mention in the “Marble Architectural Awards Italy” (1988); the selection for the international Exhibition of architecture at the Venice Biennale (2006); the special Prize for Architecture in Capitanata (edition 2010).
Among the completed works of special note are the schools of Lumezzane (1973–79) and Cesano Boscone (1978-79); Parco Lodi in Settimo Milanese (1983–87); the subsidised housing developments in Legnano (1992-95) and Cerignola Cerignola (1997-2000); the Campari factories at Bussolengo (1985–87), Cinisello Balsamo, (1986–87) and Osimo (1988–91); the council chamber and public square of Villa Marazzi at Cesano Boscone (1996–99); the recovery and completion of the school complex of Villa Ducale(1997-2001), the new buildings for social housing and services for the Contratto di Quartiere "San Samuele" (1998-2006) and the Urban Center of Cerignola (2004–11); the school complex "A. Manzoni" in Monteleone di Puglia (2006-09) and the villas in Vanzago (1999-2002) and on the Ponente Riviera (2006-11).
His plans have been shown in numerous exhibitions and conferences in Italy and abroad: at the National Museum of Science and Technology, Milan (1995 and 1999); at the TU Delft Faculty of Architecture (1996, 2005 and 2009); at the Milan Triennale (1973, 1979, 1995 and 2003); at the Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto (2003); at the Festival of Architecture at Parma (2004 and 2010); at the Venice Biennale (2006); at the University of Granada (2009); at the Iuav University in Venice (2009); at the Urban Center in Milan (2010 and 2013); in Cittadella (Padua) and Bari (2011); in Tokyo (2011); at the Italian Institute of Culture in Athens (2012).
Completed works and plans have been published in Italian and foreign books and specialist periodicals. Gianni Accasto, Marcella Aprile, Marco Biraghi, Federico Bucci, Enrico Bordogna, Guido Canella, Francisco Cellini, Francisco Collotti, Ernesto D' Alfonso, Emilios Faroldi, Giovanni Klaus Koenig, Francisco Menegatti, Luca Molinari, Raffaella, Mario Pisani, Cesar Piva, Manfred Tafuri, and Virgilio Vercelloni, are some of those who have written about him.
He has also taught at the Faculty of Architecture in Palermo and in the summer workshops in Architectural Planning at the Iuav University in Venice. He has been visiting professor at international Seminars on architecture and city planning in Bergamo, Parma, Salsomaggiore Terme, Vigevano; at the international Seminar on museography at the Villa Adriana and in the specialist course “Culture of the project in an archaeological context” at the Rome Three University; in international architecture workshops in Naples, Athens, Alexandria and Beirut.
He has contributed to numerous periodicals including «Casabella», «Hinterland», «Edilizia Popolare», «Aión», «Il Disegno di Architettura», «Ananke». From 1982 to 1983 he was in charge of the magazine «AL. Architetti Lombardi». Since 2008 he has been chief editor of the magazine «Architettura Civile». In addition he is a member of the editorial committees of serial publications by Aión of Florence, Araba Fenice of Cuneo, Libraccio of Milan.
He has headed up studies and projects on a number of archaeological sites in Milan, Cremona, Mantua, Phlegraean Fields, Venice, Syracuse, Sicily, Athens, Alexandria, Beirut, Hadrian's Villa, Istanbul and Huyang. He has been responsible of national research on the architecture of urban and metropolitan functions: La città d’autore. Milano e alcune città padane (1987); Aggiornamento tipologico e costruttivo dell’edilizia residenziale in Lombardia (2004-2007).
Since 1972 he has been actively involved in Milan on architectural projects; in 2004 he set up Torricelli Associati with Mariateresa Rampi and, from 2010, Carlotta Torricelli. He has produced projects for competitions and public and private commissions. His urban projects include: the Garibaldi-Repubblica area in Milan (1991); the reconversion of the barracks and the military installations in Baggio (1993); the Eco Centre in Ispra (1994); the hotel, residential and cultural hub for the Fair of Milan at Pantanedo in Rho (1995); the redevelopment of piazza Bagolino and piazza della Repubblica in Alcamo (1996); the project for a new Christian ecumenical centre in Bari Punta Perotti, 2006.
In 2004 he received a special mention by the jury at the “Darsena” international design competition; in 2005 he won the special competition (which was by invitation only) for the new parochial complex at Tre Ronchetti in Milan and the 2009 competition of ideas for the “Recupero e valorizzazione storico-urbanistico-ambientale della Piazza del Duomo di Cerignola”; the project was mentioned in the international design competition of Social Housing “Il borgo sostenibile – Milano Figino” (2009); his plans were selected for the international competition of ideas for the conversion to housing of the “Serafino Gnutti” former barracks in Brescia (2013).
He has won plaudits and prizes for his projects, including the 11th ADI Gold Calipers (1979); the selection of the IN/Arch in the context of the “Rassegna critica delle opere di architettura in Lombardia” (1983); special mention in the “Marble Architectural Awards Italy” (1988); the selection for the international Exhibition of architecture at the Venice Biennale (2006); the special Prize for Architecture in Capitanata (edition 2010).
Among the completed works of special note are the schools of Lumezzane (1973–79) and Cesano Boscone (1978-79); Parco Lodi in Settimo Milanese (1983–87); the subsidised housing developments in Legnano (1992-95) and Cerignola Cerignola (1997-2000); the Campari factories at Bussolengo (1985–87), Cinisello Balsamo, (1986–87) and Osimo (1988–91); the council chamber and public square of Villa Marazzi at Cesano Boscone (1996–99); the recovery and completion of the school complex of Villa Ducale(1997-2001), the new buildings for social housing and services for the Contratto di Quartiere "San Samuele" (1998-2006) and the Urban Center of Cerignola (2004–11); the school complex "A. Manzoni" in Monteleone di Puglia (2006-09) and the villas in Vanzago (1999-2002) and on the Ponente Riviera (2006-11).
His plans have been shown in numerous exhibitions and conferences in Italy and abroad: at the National Museum of Science and Technology, Milan (1995 and 1999); at the TU Delft Faculty of Architecture (1996, 2005 and 2009); at the Milan Triennale (1973, 1979, 1995 and 2003); at the Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto (2003); at the Festival of Architecture at Parma (2004 and 2010); at the Venice Biennale (2006); at the University of Granada (2009); at the Iuav University in Venice (2009); at the Urban Center in Milan (2010 and 2013); in Cittadella (Padua) and Bari (2011); in Tokyo (2011); at the Italian Institute of Culture in Athens (2012).
Completed works and plans have been published in Italian and foreign books and specialist periodicals. Gianni Accasto, Marcella Aprile, Marco Biraghi, Federico Bucci, Enrico Bordogna, Guido Canella, Francisco Cellini, Francisco Collotti, Ernesto D' Alfonso, Emilios Faroldi, Giovanni Klaus Koenig, Francisco Menegatti, Luca Molinari, Raffaella, Mario Pisani, Cesar Piva, Manfred Tafuri, and Virgilio Vercelloni, are some of those who have written about him.
MASSIMO MAZZONE
Massimo Mazzone, (Marino, Rome, 1967) sculptor, numerous exhibitions in Europe and beyond, a member of the group of artists complot s.y.s.tem, and a professor of sculpture at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan. He has organized several groups to work between art and architecture. Among his recent performances, projects, proposal and publications:
• Ex Polis
• 11. Biennale Venezia
• Edifici concettuali
◦ Post Lauream
◦ Città
• La Penisola degli Agnelli
• 10. Biennale Venezia
• Lezioni di pittura
• Ex Mattatoio
• Piazza Shopping Centre
• Worker Bee Cemetery
• Triennale Milano
• Casa dell'Architettura
• Fass Gallery
• L'altra Roma
• Torretta Valadier
