Cormano, Milan, Italy
Area_Progetti
Post By:Kitticoon Poopong
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
The conversion project of an ancient industrial building into a museum must be conceived beyond the functional renovation and upgrading, as it involves the building change of use and consequently its urban, social and cultural role.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
We have preserved the disused factory’s architectural severity as container, once rationally conceived to enclose a manufacturing space, while now its new appearance, still a factory but generating ideas and not any more manufactured goods, produces the opening and the belonging to the outer space, to the urban and social fabric of the city.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
The old structure has been re-interpretated during the
design process as a huge
chest of drawers, from whom new volumes have been drawn out as if they were ideal receptacles for toys.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
The strong contrast between the existing, carefully restored, and the new extension, intended as contemporary expression, is evident. A new whole, set between conservation and renovation, function and imagination, able to get the role proper for a museum and thus to became a landmark in the surroundings.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
From the existing building, a cotton-mill of the 1900th, a new suspended volume is stretching out to cover the new public space.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
The functions (toys museum, children library and theatre) are arranged inside the existing envelope, reinforced by a giant order of concrete walls conceived to strengthen the old factory and support the new volume. The conic skylights are getting out, as magicians’ hat, from the museum box. At the ground floor level the hall, where the coffee bar is placed, brings into the main distributive system and to the theatre entrance.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
All along the hall, facing the square, a double height slice reminds the original size of the industrial space, whose height has allowed to create a mezzanine where the children library is located.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
At the last floor there are the museum exhibition, the workshops and other spaces for the museum and theatre activities. The main vertical connection is realized with a double steel stair with crossed flights.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
A modular toilet facilities block, painted red, is located at every floor and divides the central stair hall from the contiguous activities.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
The central staircase leads to the top of the building, where it’s possible to get out on the roof through a simple long flight lightened by a side full-length window.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
All the plants and the services areas, painted red, are located on the roof, surrounded by metal panels and foliage reducing the visual and acoustic impact of the equipments.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
The entrance is in a sheltered area, covered by the museum box. This big outer hall crossed by the urban road is the way the building relates to the city. The new zebra-striped volume clearly declare indeed the new activities taking place in the cotton mill.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
In the sheltered area there are the two steel escape stairs of the library and of the museum that, running parallel to main facade, come out from the building and cross diagonally the outer space.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
In the external areas the idea of giving the space a new social and cultural role has been carried on and it is expressed as the prosecution of the activities that take place inside but at the same time as a public space usable by the whole community.
The urban graphic symbols are used to point out directions and areas and to emphasize the playful and recreational aspect related to children, the real users of the building.
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| Photo © Courtesy of Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito |
In a simple, intuitive and clear way, the game theme is proposed through the representation of signs belonging to the collective imaginary: snakes and ladders, tic-tac-toe, chess and hopscotch.
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| floor plan 01--Courtesy of Area_Progetti |
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floor plan 02--Courtesy of Area_Progetti |
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floor plan 03--Courtesy of Area_Progetti |
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elevation--Courtesy of Area_Progetti |
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model diagram--Courtesy of Area_Progetti |
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color palette--Courtesy of Area_Progett |
The people
Architects: Area_Progetti
Design team: 5+1AA, area_progetti srl, Buonomoveglia srl, Studio Palterer
Location: Cormano, Milan, Italy
Structural engineering: Area_Progetti srl, Buonomoveglia srl
Mechanical & Electrical engineering: 2C Ingeneria srl, Torino
Contractor: Cooperativa di Costruzioni Lavoranti Muratori
Project area: 2,450 sqm
Project year: 2005 – 2010
Photographs: Laura Ceccarelli, Valentina Esposito
via:archdaily
