GARIBALDI – REPUBBLICA EXHIBITION CENTRE BUILDING

Although the design brief for this building might seem straightforward, being a logistically clear project for a standard type of building to function as a great commercial showcase, it actually involves a particularly insidious architectural challenge. This challenge is to avoid compromising the overall design of the new Fashion District with this large mass in such a strategic position. Located at the point of entrance to the great Circular Piazza, almost closing off the only free part with its west wing, it is ‘dangerously’ close on its south side to the Hotel which extends from the Rotonda with an elegant appendix. To the north it overlooks the Parco Biblioteca degli Alberi along 160 metres of the raised boulevard which marks the boundary and where it meets the corner of the planned Museum of Fashion. Its east end meets the junction between Via Melchiorre Gioia and Via Liberazione, and this building, given its particular position, shape and dimensions, must play a subtle role as mediator and catalyst. This role, apart from fulfilling the necessary function of expressing a strong unifying identity, must manage to adequately meet the various conditions arising from the urban context of which the building must form a part.

COMPETITION  2005

Architect
Mario Bellini

Design Team
Mario Bellini with Loretto Buti, Carlo Malnati.

Project Team
Loretto Buti (project architect) with  Giorgio Bianco, Andrea Borgatto, Paolo Delfino, Valeria Pagliaro, Francesco Renoldi, Francesca Ristuccia.
Renderig: Luca Bosetti, Dario Varetto, Alessandro Zufferli.

Consultants
Structure: Arup Italia, Milano.
Mechanical: Ariatta, Milano