Milan, Italy
Laurent Didier, Stefano Cerolini
Post By:Kitticoon Poopong
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| Image © Courtesy of Laurent Didier+Stefano Cerolini |
Architects
Laurent Didier and Stefano Cerolini shared with us their proposal
Cascina Merlata, for a competition in Milan, Italy.
The site could be considered as a limit area between the built existing city in the south of “Via
Gallarate” and the new park which characterizes the urban integrated planning of “Cascina Merlata”.
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| Image © Courtesy of Laurent Didier+Stefano Cerolini |
The presence of the historical building of “Cascina Merlata” suggested the study of the rural Milanese house, which has shown the court, opened or closed, as the common element around which the life of all the inhabitants was organized and developed.
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| Image © Courtesy of Laurent Didier+Stefano Cerolini |
Re-thinking this concept, the court is able to define a big potential of relations and, at the same time, to propose different levels of privacy according to its use.
So the project is born, planimetrically, around the space of the big inner court, designed to be not only a “square” for the apartments and the inhabitants, but even and mostly an urban filter area between the existing city and the park to the north of the area.
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| Image © Courtesy of Laurent Didier+Stefano Cerolini |
In fact, the closed shape of a plan organized around the court is overcome by lifting the two opposite short sides of the (monolithic) building containing the different housing typologies.
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| concept 01--drawing Courtesy of Laurent Didier+Stefano Cerolini |
Through this strong plastic movement, the project wants to propose itself, not just only in a formal sense, as a gateway to the park and to the new area of Cascina Merlata, including within its perimeter the pedestrian and cycling track
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| concept 02--drawing Courtesy of Laurent Didier+Stefano Cerolini |
The housing typologies, that are organized at various levels, are served through a gallery distribution, which wants to exploit the relational potential offered by the presence of the inner big court.
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| plan 01--drawing Courtesy of Laurent Didier+Stefano Cerolini |
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| plan 02--drawing Courtesy of Laurent Didier+Stefano Cerolini |
Dynamism and communication are the regulating criteria of the project: the possibility of movement is not only linked to the necessity of distribution from and to the apartments but has to be considered as an opportunity in terms of physical and ideal communication.
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| room plans--drawing Courtesy of Laurent Didier+Stefano Cerolini |
The people
Architects: Laurent Didier, Stefano Cerolini
Location: Via Gallarate, Milan, Italy
Project Team: Clemence Durupt, Marion Lacroix
Project Area: 19,500 sqm
Project Year: 2011
Images: © Courtesy of Laurent Didier+Stefano Cerolini
