This project is the final thesis that I've done for the master degree in architecture at the Milan Polytechnic, it was done in a group of three people (me Emanuele Faccini;Mariafrancesca Maretti and Carla Satta), and it has required more or less an year of work.The project is about an half-abandoned building in the south of Milan, a big warehouse built in the ’10. The request was to create in it a cultural center intended to be a place to meet for the district, now populated by many different ethnicities and social groups. The path chosen for the project is to create a center for music and performing arts,that could have a flexible empty space in his heart, and that could be divided in smaller parts to be used for medium small or big events, allowing the maximum variety of possible uses, ready for the unexpected.
Some photos of the existing building: left, panoramas of the corner of the building on the open space inside the area , and of the facade on the west street; right, interior of the building.
The main fases of the project:
A scheme of the functions in the center.
Isometric view from south of the complete building.
Overall vision of the isolate. Detail 1:500
Roof plan. Detail 1:200
First floor. section height 7,1m. Detail 1:200
Middle floor. section height 3,5m. Detail 1:200
Ground floor. section height 1,2m. Detail 1:200
Parking floor, section height -2,7m. Detail 1:200
After the definition of the general plan. four parts are showed in detail 1.50: The newspaper zone with the computer station, the bar in the middle of the Hall with the suspended auditorium, The restaurant, the dance studio.
The newspaper library
A place in wich you can consult freely magazines or in wich you can access the internet.
As the other functions in the Hall this micro-architecture is projected to be a part of the entire hall or work alone with his own access, bathrooms and distribution.To bring in more light, the original facade was almost completely blind, we have opened in the main prospect three new windows in armony with the original decorative design, then we've used structural glass for the slab of the first floor cutting away some parts to creates niches around the new openings.
Ground floor plan, sectioned at 0,1m. The entire newspaper library is 0,96 m underground.
first floor, sectioned at 1,9m. The portion in which the newspaper library appears like a volume that brakes the continuity of the tribune that connects ground floor and entrance floor is signed in his contact with the hall by a library that can rotate and create a direct communication between library and hall, or staying closed, give to the newspaper library the possibility to be completely isolated.
Short section from east to west, we can see the two levels of the newspaper library and the entrance at the hall trough the bridge.
Long section from south to north, we can see the point in which the newspaper library can comunicate with the hall trough a moveable wall and near that portion of the first floor the other half in which the tribune arrives to the entrance level.
Long section from north to south, we can see the suspended path that passes abovethe newspaper library and next the auditorium, between the hall and internal wooden wall.
Some perspectives of the newspapers library portion.
Left to right and up to down: the entrance bridge from the other side of the canal, the library behind the main facade on the street, the computer point under the tribune, the first floor behind the facade with his floor in steel and structural glass, the ground floor of the newspaper library, the first floor near the moveable wall.
The suspended auditorium
A place in wich perform various kinds of shows with a different quantity of audience.This micro-architecture inside the building is composed by two parts, a ground floor in wich a bar that with all the Hall open could serve a vast number of people, and closed in a box by two moveable walls at the sides of him could become the center of a foyer connected with the park and with the auditorium upstairs, the second part of this system, by the external added volume, that becomes a big sign to underline the importance of this funcion. The auditorium, is designed to let the possibility of watching what happens inside without participating, it appears like an architectural section that can by dominated by eyes, but obviously it can be isolated trough tents, becoming a wood and fabric box, it can be divided in two portions by a central projection screen, for having a small cinema or simply for having a smaller tribune for the audience,
First floor,sectioned at 7,1m. The stalls are elevated respect to the suspended path, the stage is lower.
Ground floor, sectioned a1,2m. We can notice here the moveable walls hidden in the internal isolation of the building near the bar and that could separate once closed the central part of the hall to create the foyer.
Short section from west to east. We can see the auditorium from the stage, the small block inside the big outside addiction to the facade, that contains a ticket and wardrobe, tha back of the bar and counter's part that can be closed if not necessary for the hall, and, up on the left, the artist's foyer behind the stage.
Long section from south to north. We can see how the interior of the auditorium is defined by a different material that is common for the floor and the wall.
Long section from north to south. We can see how the suspended path next intercepts the auditorium at a medium quote distributing people in it trough two corridors.
Some perspectives of the newspapers suspended auditorium portion.
Left to right and up to down: the external volume that connects auditorium and foyer and distributes the two levels of the path, the point where the extreme wall of the auditorium touches the concrete beam of the original roof, the entrance to the foyer trough the exterior volume seen from the inside of the building, the interior of the auditorium, the bar in the middle of the hall that could serve also only for the foyer. the artists's foyer in which who's going to perform a show or has already performed it can wait or relax.
The restaurant.
A place in which is possible to eat, watching inside or outside the shell.
The restaurant portion of the building has in his center the kitchen, an indipendent block strongly defined in his shape and colour, from one side of it is possible to watch inside sitting at a counter trough a long opening. Round the kitchen the design of the space suggests different uses for his parts: at east a big folding door could be opened to create a direct communication between the external covered square, at south an external annexation to the facade takes the form of a big veranda and contains tables covered by acoustic domes to ear music, at west a lounge with large armchairs finds his place under a tribune that covers all the restaurant block and creates terraces to watch at the main hall while eating or drinking sitting at a table.
First floor, sectioned at 6,5m. We can see the whole system of terraces that watches the hall, and on the left also the main entrance-hall of the building for the production of the theatrical material, music and performances.
Ground floor, sectioned at 1,2m. We can see the interiors of the lounge area, the veranda, and the bar area that could communicate with the covered square.
Short section from east to west. We can see how the tribune allows to the hall to pass on the kitchen.
Long section from south to north. We can see the relationship between the floors of kitchen, lounge and tribune.
Long section from north to south. We can see the suspended path that coming out from the main building is exposed the exterior and then goes into the new building.
Some perspectives of the restaurant portion.
Left to right and up to down: The north-entrance to the park under the covered square between two blocks of the annections system, the acoustic domes in the restaurant veranda, the tribune above the lounge area with an exibition appening at ground level, the entrance hall of the new building, the lounge area under the tribune, the external terrace that watches the covered square.
The dance studio
A place to dance, play and watch the others doing that.
The last portion of the new building is occupied by the dance studio, a location in which is possible to have small shows, that can happen inside the studio, while the audience could be seated outside, watching trough the open folding door, that separates the internal part of the hall from the covered square, but most of all is possible to watch, trough the big curtain walls and the suspended path but also from the seatings in an internal tribune near the dancing space, normal dance lessons or rehearsals. The purpose of this transparency is to create an attraction in the farest eastern point of the area, that with is shape carries the risk to isolate that extreme part because it's tight and far from any entrance to the park. Near the dance studio we can see music classrooms, that share with the studio the same external addiction to distribute visitors from outside also only in this part of the building, giving the possiblity for this functions to work separately from the rest of the center.
First floor, sectioned at 6,5m, the park is not sectioned, excepted for the roof of the small pavillon at south.We can see both the internal tribune with tall stools against a railing, and an external one, suspended to the structure, the space under the covering of the square could be used as a space for the audience once that the big folding door that separates interiors and exteriors is opened.
Short section from east to west, We can see well the tribune with stools and the passage for the locker roomunder it, we can also watch at the relationship between the suspended path that remains exterior to the building and the dance hall.
Long section from south to north. We can see the dance all both through the glass of the suspended path or not, and how the external tribune works.
Long section from north to south, we can see trough glass the external wooden skin of the building, made of pannels that can rotate to avoid direct light to come in to the hall.
Some perspectives of the dance studio portion.
Left to right and up to down: The exterior of the dance studio from the extreme south east corner of the park, the suspended path near the dance hall between the moveable pannels and the glass wall, the north glass wall seen from inside, the dance hall seen from the internal tribune, a music classroom with a blackboard wall, the internal tribune of the dance hall seen from the dancing space.
