Return to the original. Testi 223, Relational graft by ARW Botticini+Facchinelli

The architecture studio ARW Botticini+Facchinelli has designed a space for management activities based on a former school workshop for Pirelli employees located at Viale Fulvio Testi 223, in a neighborhood north of the Italian city of Milan.

The complex in which the project is built was built in the 1950s, it was later adapted as an events and training space in the 1990s, which eliminated its original interior character. The new project represents an opportunity to recover and improve the originally built complex.

Testi 223, Relational graft by ARW Botticini+Facchinelli. Photograph by Federico Covre.

The rehabilitation of the complex proposed by ARW Botticini+Facchinelli consists of two parts: a building that was previously used for classrooms and offices, and a factory with a large space made up of a sequence of warehouses.

The appearance of the complex is renewed due to the degradation of the existing panels, forcing the installation of a new thermal insulator. This results in a new façade, a new image formed by metal panels painted in a matte brick red color that respects the partition and the essential characteristics of the existing building.

Testi 223, Relational graft by ARW Botticini+Facchinelli. Photograph by Federico Covre.

Project description by ARW Botticini+Facchinelli

The project area is located at Viale Fulvio Testi 223 in Milan and represents an opportunity to recover and enhance a structure built in the 1950s, restoring its value after undergoing various transformations.

The complex, once used as a school-workshop for Pirelli employees, has been abandoned until now, and consists of two parts: a building originally intended for classrooms and later converted into offices, and a typical factory composed of a sequence of bays with approximately 8 meters spacing and varying lengths between 15 and 30 meters, with an average height of 7 meters. The distinctive feature is its brick structure with a shed roof with a metal framework.

In the 1990s, the building was adapted as an events and training space, and this intervention almost completely erased its original interior character. The new proposal revisits the potential of the original structural module, which is reclaimed, updated, and reconfigured in a new overall layout, aligning the building with the brick structure and demolishing a portion of the connecting building, thus emphasizing the courtyard facing Viale Fulvio Testi.

Testi 223, Relational graft by ARW Botticini+Facchinelli. Photograph by Federico Covre.

The appearance of the building is renewed both for necessary thermal insulation and due to the degradation of the existing panels. A new facade is applied, which respects the partition and the features of the existing building. Minimal planimetric changes enhance the existing structure while preserving the park with high-quality trees.

This results in a new harmony and proportion among the components of the construction, where the building’s body, characterized by a neat system of metallic panels, maintaining the same proportion as the existing concrete panels but painted in a matte brick-red color stands in contrast with the more horizontal body of the brick building, which is entirely preserved except for modifications to the windows and roof for energy efficiency reasons.

Site plan. Testi 223, Relational graft by ARW Botticini+Facchinelli.

Ground floor. Testi 223, Relational graft by ARW Botticini+Facchinelli.

First floor. Testi 223, Relational graft by ARW Botticini+Facchinelli.

Second floor. Testi 223, Relational graft by ARW Botticini+Facchinelli.

East elevation. Testi 223, Relational graft by ARW Botticini+Facchinelli.

Longitudinal section. Testi 223, Relational graft by ARW Botticini+Facchinelli.

Facade detail. Testi 223, Relational graft by ARW Botticini+Facchinelli.

Rendering. Testi 223, Relational graft by ARW Botticini+Facchinelli.

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More information

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Architects

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ARW. Lead architects.- Camillo Botticini, Matteo Facchinelli.

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Project team

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Paola Bettinsoli, Maddalena Gatti, Alessandra Rugger, Liliya Kachanyuk, Laura Avarello.

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Collaborators

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Project manager.- ARW Associates.
Structure consultants.- Studio Cavadini Engineering.
ITF and electrical plant design consultants.- Planex s.r.l. BS2 Progetti.
Security coordinator.- Soluzioni srl, Arch. Manuela Pupilella.
Strip out contractor.- Isovit srl.
Restructuring contractor.- CEV SpA.

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Client

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Kryalos S.G.R. SPA.

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Area

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Total area.- 9,409 sqm.
Built area.- 4,213 sqm.

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Dates

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2023.

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Location

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Viale Fulvio Testi, 223, Milan, Italy.

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Photography

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Federico Covre.

Camillo Botticini

Camillo Botticini was born in Brescia on March 11th, 1965. He graduates in architecture at Milan Polytechnic University – Facoltà di Architettura, Politecnico di Milano – in 1990, under the tutoring of professor Sergio Crotti with whom he collaborates as an assistant for ten years.

He is currently visiting professor of architectural design in Pamplona (Universidad de Navarra) and in Milan Polytechnic, where in 2003 he obtained his PhD. in Architectural and Urban Design. His dissertation is published by Clup Milano, entitled RELAZIONI, Progetto ed Identità dell’Architettura Contemporanea (RELATIONS, Project and Contemporary Architecture Identity).

He began to teach in 2004 and developed the research about relations seen as the attitude of the project to transform the contexts starting from their structural comprehension. With his group of assistants, he has developed a precise design strategy about urban and architectural problems at the different scales of the design process. In the last years they focused, working with a NGO, in a research on the slum problems organizing conventions and specific publications.

With his studio, he won international competitions and designed many different types of architecture in Italy, Europe and Asia, to highlight an ability to joint theoretical research and a significant operational capability. He received several awards in architecture, (Italian Gold Medal 2012 special prize, First prize of the Italian institute of architecture (In Arch) in 2007, selected in the Mies van der Rohe prize 2007,and shortlisted in international architectural prize like Wan Award, A prize, Copper Prize Batimat, Hauser, Rivolta. Furthermore, he was also selected in the Venice biennial of architecture in 2000, 2010 and 2014.

His works have been published in various magazines, such as Casabella, Domus, A10, Mark, A.D. Metalocus, Detail, Hauser and the e Phaidon Atlas of XXI Century architecture. A complete survey of his work and research can be found on the website: www.botticini-arch.com

Matteo Facchinelli

Matteo Facchinelli is an architect and designer, born in Brescia in 1977. He is Member of the Brescia district architects and landscape designers order since July 2005, professor at L.A.B.A., Academy of Fine Arts in Brescia since 2011 and assistant professor at Politecnico di Milano since 2012.

In 1999 he has been awarded with a scholarship to attend the Erasmus program in Bruxelles. Thus, he attended his third year of university at the Victor Horta Institute, with Dominique Perrault as visiting professor. He obtained the degree in Architectural Design at the Faculty of Architecture of Politecnico di Milano in 2003, with a final dissertation titled: “A new Hub at Ghedi Montichiari: Airportual Infrastructure”, supervisor: Prof. Arq. Remo Dorigati.

From 2003 to 2006, Matteo has been living in Paris, where he had the great opportunity to work at world-famous ateliers, such as Massimilano Fuksas’ and Francis Soler’s. Thanks to these experiences he has gained through the years the capability to manage complex projects, and to date he is able to coordinate and lead teams of architects to bring to completion any architectural project at different scales.