Piazza Gino Valle by Valle Architetti Associati.

Description of the project by Valle Architetti Associati

The general features of the square were configured by Gino Valle in the master plan that accompanied the urban plan approved in 2003, and it was then developed in a complete architectural project by the firm Valle Architetti Associati which collaborated with Topotek 1 for the design of the paving.

The plan to reconvert the former Alfa Romeo industrial area includes a series of public spaces and pedestrian paths. A large urban park, the pedestrian walkway, two residential areas – courtyard and cluster – and the square of the commercial complex.

Public space and pedestrian movement are the settlement principles that connect different architectural structures, arranged around a large sloping square that opens up in front of the former building of the Milan Fair.

The square has a wide base, the surface of which rises at a gradient of 5% along the diagonal line oriented at 45 degrees with respect to the bearing of the former exhibition area from where it starts. This diagonal continues along the walkway which leads to the park and defines the main axes of the entire plan of the Portello. The base is structured into two underground levels and one above ground. It houses car parks, services, building entrances, commercial spaces and a restaurant. Therefore it is not a mere walking surface, but a structure equipped with functions, dotted with open air courtyards: a flexible matrix serving all the structures above.

The square compresses and expands. The design of the paving in the square was generated by overlaying the pattern of a regular grid on the walking surface covering it entirely. The grid was then deformed by making it narrower towards the opening that leads to the park, where the space is compressed like a bottleneck and expands in the square to mark its width and expansion. In this deformation the straight lines of the grid become large concentric curves that form a regular pattern without emphasizing the axis of the main direction.

“The city divided into parts proposed by the plan is confronted with a kinetic figuration that interacts through the life and movement of pedestrians.” Pietro Valle.

They have a diagonal profile created by the tympanum of the Mario Bellini building which is projected to form three buildings that define a contained space. With their ascending or descending skyline they form a constant variety of visual overlaps with the surrounding buildings. The external façade of the offices aims to emphasize the volume of the buildings but also creates an effect of lightness. The panels on the lower part of the buildings are opaque and gradually become clear as they rise thereby dematerializing the perception of the upper part of the envelope. They thus create three “urban mountains” that mark the profile of the Portello.

The two highest buildings (A and B respectively with nine and thirteen floors), with the tip pointing to the outside of the Fair, form the gateway to the square for those arriving from the walkway and Viale Serra. The lowest building (C with seven floors) reduces the impact of the gable of the Fair bringing it back towards the ground. Building B, located along Via Scarampo, is aligned in the plan with the structures of the opposite QT8 and serves to screen the impact of the tympanum for those arriving by car from outside of Milan and exceeds the underpass of Viale Serra. The other two buildings A and C along Via Gattamelata.

Text.- Valle Architetti Associati