2019
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Stories and Matters
Talking About 2018, #I Love Milano
Milan, 22.11.2018
How can man describe a city as an exemplary model,
with strong human characteristics, whose
history participates and observes the change?
The evolution of the urban patern between architecure and poetics
In collaboration with Platorm
Guess: Juan Conde, Ecletico Design;
Giacomo De Amicis, Deamicisarchiteti; Mateo Fantoni, Mateo Fantoni Studio;
Alfonso Femia, Atelier Femia; Francesco Fresa, Piuarch;
Michele Rossi, Park Associati; Claudio Saverino, Vudafieri Saverino Partner;
Claudio Silvesrin, Claudio Silvesrin Architeti; Paolo Volpato, Mateo Thun & Partners
Introducion by: Simona Finessi
Moderator: Luca Molinari
SIMONA FINESSI,
Editor-In-Chief, Platform
Every issue of Platform has a rational scope
for us, we try to envisage scenarios and
illustrate them. The question under discus-
sion here is an extremely current one.
Milan is a hub where students meet, people
from all corners of the world come for
work, or Milanese who return after a period
of work or study abroad. Its distinctive
trait is that it is a welcoming and inclusive
city, it knows how to make the most of
external enrichments and how to express
itself in a modern international style.
We asked eight leading professionals in the
design and architecture sector who are
based in Milan for their input together with
their choice of a symbolic place.
LUCA MOLINARI,
Editorial Director, Platform
I kick off by speaking in a location
in Milan, the Rimadesio showroom, a place
characterized by a strong relationship
between exterior and interior, the city out-
side is bustling but at the same you are
in a welcoming home environment. Milan
is after all an introverted city, its spaces
are inward-looking. Milan doesn’t boast
a great number of squares. We should
remember that until the end of the 19th cen-
tury Milan didn’t actually have a square.
The first one was Piazza del Duomo in 1870.
Milan has a private side that is at the
same time public, it is a city that speaks with
a discreet generosity. Its courts, court-
yards and appartments are an understate-
ment of its bougeoisie that has given the
city its aura of modernity to which we are
today accustomed. It is no coincidence
that the city we all know today was built
between the 1800’s and the 1900’s, before
that time it looked more like a town. Today
we are therefore in the third century of this
hospitable modernity. In reflection of this
hospitality, in these delicate times, above
all for Europe, there is a word which accom-
panies the topic: Welcome. A word with
a strong and somewhat political meaning,
it indicates looking to the future, it sym-
bolizes the idea of trust and heralds a posi-
tive trend of welcoming, embracing new
talents for the development and enrichment
of a city like Milan. Milan is not afraid
of the future, the future is already in the
pipeline.
JUAN CONDE
LM: You are very young, you studied ar-
chitecture at the Polytechnic, you have lived
and worked abroad What led you to take
the decision to settle here and what aspect
of the city do you appreciate the most?
JC: When I was asked to give my contribu-
tion I immediately thought about when my
Columbian friends ask me “What is Milan
like?ˮ. Milan is not an easy city, it is small
and inward looking but it is extremely
strong, In order to really get to know Milan
you have to walk a great deal, explore all
the little streets off the beaten track. I come
from Bogotà, a city with 10 million inhabi-
tants and where going on foot is almost un-
heard of because everything is too big,
too far. I have always lived in big cities, after
my home town, I also lived in New York,
but I have to say I have found my personal
dimension in Milan. One of my first
work experiences was with the architectural
studio Citterio, I liked going to work on
foot, in the mornings I would observe this
active and dynamic city and in the evenings
I would admire its transformation.
LM: In short Milan is for you its Botanical
Garden in Brera, a place that is indeed
very closed and silent. Why have you chosen
this place?
JC: The Botanical Garden in Brera is a mag-
nificent, hidden oasis, a symbol of Milan’s
almost defensive character towards its trea-
sures. I think it decribes my idea perfectly,
it is a city that you must make your own
step by step.
GIACOMO DE AMICIS
LM: The image you have chosen is a detail
in Candoglia marble. Where did you take
the photo? Is it part of the monument by
Aldo Rossi or is it a feature from Duomo?
You also added a note that reads: “every
city has its own heart where its spirit has
been left over time”.
GDA: It is related to the Duomo. I have
Milanese roots, I grew up in Milan and
so I had some difficulties at the beginning
when I was asked to talk about the city.
It always seems much easier to capture sig-
nificant aspects of a city when you visit
it for the first time. So to answer the ques-
tion I went out and about by scooter,
retracing the places of my childhood.
My Milan is very broad, when I was young
I lived downtown in front of the Palazzo
Delle Stelline, we rented that apartment
and unfortunately the time came when we
had to move out. I lived in other neighbour-
hoods, including surburban ones, I changed
a number of studios in a number of areas
in the city… Having to look for the most sig-
nificant features I wanted to delve a bit
deeper into the history and I found a photo-
graph of the south side of Duomo, in a
part in which only the matrix is highlighted,
focusing on the surface texture of the
Candoglia marble. As I wrote my idea is that
cities leave their spirit somewhereˮ and
where better than the stones of its oldest and
most important monument, built with a
rare material which is only for the exclusive
use of the Fabbrica del Duomo? Milan has
the ability to evolve while been continuous,
never repudiating its deep soul.
LM: Candoglia marble has an interesting
history, it once belonged to the Archbishop
of Milan and it could only be used for the
Duomo of Milan, with the exception of the
Monument to the Partisans by Aldo Rossi.
I also remember that the cathedral was the
first real gallery in Milan because the tran-
sept was once open and could be continu-
ously crossed through, a cloth separated reli-
gious functions from a more public and
daily use. In the image of marble is there
a subtle enticement to slow down?
GDA: I like to think that slowing down
and taking the time to look for this invisible
communication among the stones is an
attractive draw, especially today with the
arrival of so many new young people.
MATTEO FANTONI
LM: You returned to Milan after a long
period with Foster, but you too are Milanese
through and through…
MF: I am Milanese and I was lucky
enough to have been born in via Manzoni,
I remember going with my grandfather
to take small pastries at Alemagna, I went
to school with my sister in Via della
Spiga, when they still sold chicken and but-
tons… Before the 1980’s Milan was
a very different city from the one we find
today, the fashion ateliers had not arrived
yet. Milan is unyielding, rigorous, a palce
for professional growth, dynamic but never
pretentious. When I think of a Milanese
from the bygone days I think of my grandfa-
ther, who got up early in the morning,
went to the office on foot, came back in the
evening and at half part six had dinner.
In the city in the eighties, we would meet
in bars, cell phones weren’t around in those
days, we would meet in those few streets,
not squares, because Milan is not a city
of squares but of courts,- patrimony of our
city and at the same time it was a city
of housing for workers, manufacturing and
finance. The industrious nature of the city
has always been present and perhaps the
reason why today it draws great interest
is because there is an immense cosmpolitan-
ism in its DNA. Projects like Biblioteca
degli Alberi or delle Torri are modern day
examples but if we think about Gardella,
Albini, Soncini, Beretta, Giò Ponti. Since
the 1950’s there has been a keen desire
for vertical structures.
LM: as a contrast to this world of functional
efficiency you have chosen to talk about
the suburbs of Milan, a great resource for
the city. The industrial working class has
been the strength of the city. 20 years
of building works given rise to a completely
different city. Milan is a city that you
can still cross on foot in a day and at the
same time its metropolitan territory is
much vaster.
MF: What is happening now in Milan
is extremely important, an urban and social
regeneration is taking place. There is an
important plan to connect the different areas
of the city. During my lifetime I have seen
Milan change its face a number of times,
from the city of my childhood, to that of the
1980’s, to the city I found on my return
from an experience abroad. It is a city that,
while perserving its rigour, its courtyards,
looks to the future and wants to keep on mov-
ing forward, just as it always has done.
FRANCESCO FRESA
LM: Francesco, you take us to the terrace
of your studio, Piuarch, in the neighbour-
hood of Brera, from here we can see many
symbols of the changes in the city.
FF: Milan, unlike Rome, demands an active
role. The city does not outrightly boast its
beauty like Rome does, it simply asks you
to look for it in the places which identify
it: courtyards. Courtyards have always been
public places, the typical Milanese tene-
ments with communal balconies were a way
of living, exchanging and sharing. As an
image I have brought our rooftop which has
been converted into a vegetable patch.
We wanted to use the roof as a resource, the
idea was to bring urban farming back
into the city, an important feature of many
other Italian cities. I often think of those
wheat fields that could be seen in war
time pictures.
LM: It is also an extremely contemporary
issue, nowadays we are trying not to deplete
land or valuable resources by using what
we already have, as in this case, the roof.
A change in position in order to under-
stand the scale of the city.
FF: It is the city’s scale that makes it so
active and inclusive. Thanks to its average
metropolitan size it has the ability to rebuild
an urban fabric that would otherwise be lost
in a bigger metropolitan area. Cities like
Milan, Copenhagen, Amsterdam or Brussels
are going through great developments
precisely because they are inclusive cities
where the contributions of talents from
different cultures have enhanced and
enriched. Today, Milan is a model and I
hope we will see knock-on effects in the
rest of Italy.
MICHELE ROSSI
LM: Studio Park, a studio that has been
fortunate in these years to work on a num-
ber of post-war buildings. Working on the
Italian post war building patrimony means
making historical buildings commodious
and energy efficient while keeping an aes-
thetic harmonious balance. What projects
are you most fond of?
MR: The project that is most representative
of the city, is the renovation of the Soncini
brothers building in front of the Museo della
Permanente, a project we were extremely
fond of, that allowed us to work in some way
with our Masters. We like to conceive
renovation projects as a sort of coproduc-
tion, we try to give a contemporary inter-
pretation to the will of the designer, we like
that the impression of the building continues
in those who observe it before and after
the works.
LM: What are the buildings in Milan
you are most fond of, those you would like
to reccomend?
MR: Post war buildings are the buildings
I love the most, most certainly the building
of Gio Ponti in Piazza Caiazzo – I lived
there and I saw it’s development… The post-
war period was a fruitful period in terms
of solutions.
LM: This heritage that needs to be structur-
ally rethought out is an immense resource
for many European cities, modern materials
were not destined for a long life and this
has extraordinary implications for creativity.
MR: Milan is a laboratory. The very same
industrial spaces and courtyards today are
transformed by new social scenarios that
inhabit them, particularly for work. This
creates, in my opinion,a fascinating seam-
lessness, typical of the moral culture
of this city.
CLAUDIO SAVERINO
LM: Chinatown, the oldest Chinese
community in Italy
CS: I didn’t want to photograph any partciu-
lar architectural feature, I simply wanted
to represent a real social situation. I remem-
ber a chat with a female friend from Rome
who accused the Milanese of having
a small town mentality, even though deep
down I believe that it is a curious and
enquiring city and certainly not a provincial
one. Milan has always expressed its will
to experiment and modernize, the risk is that
it can lose some of its original footprints
My grandmother, who was Portaluppi’s tai-
lor, would be forever telling me stories
of a city which no longer existed.When
we would look out of the window onto via
Garigliano together, the Isola neighbour-
hood was showing the first stirrings of
urban redevelopment with the skyscrapers
in Porta Garibaldi. She looked at me and
said “You architects are ruining the cityˮ
and I was slightly hurt by that remark.
She was born in 1907, she took her honey-
moon in Monza by horse and carriage, and
she would tell stories of when they used
to have picnics in the fields around the Isola
neighbourhood and would keep the wine
cool in the water of the river. I was able
to relive the city through her eyes and
through her stories, a city in which water
played an extraordinary role, being devel-
oped on a network of canals and a series
of artificial networks which unfortunately
have been almost forgotten.
LM: At the same time this city, where at
times you could smell freshly cut grass from
its fields, is the same city that then decided
to change, to host the first Expo, to have
the first power stations, to become the capi-
tal of innovation that went on to transform
the country.
CLAUDIO SILVESTRIN
LM: Milan also has an extremely strong
moral, ethical side to it, it has had some
great influential voices, take for example
Dario Fo, Cardinal Montini, Giovanni
Testori…
CS: A poem by the Milanese poetess Alda
Merini reads: “In the neurotic city streets,
men run after each other, eating wach
other”. Poets are courageous and know how
to be frank. Milan is a city which at times
is repelling and stressful, it should be en-
dured with great awareness/responsibilitys
and energy. The speed is overwhelming,
at times it doesn’t allow you enough time to
find your own rhythm.
PAOLO VOLPATO
LM: You have a wonderful story, that passes
through influential design studios from
Lissoni to Matteo Thun. You have brought
us an image of the Pirelli Tower.
PV: It is one of the city’s projects I love the
most. I remember this parallelism many
years ago, it was 1983, I was in New York,
I went up the Twin Towers, I thought
I would have seen very small images of peo-
ple from above, but I was blinded by fog.
From the Pirelli Tower I saw what Buzzati
called the “hard working antsˮ. Milan
is an industrious but not a frenetic city, it is
dynamic. The image from the Pirelli Tower
for me expresses all the desire to move
in a vertical direction, a vertical direction
that today more than ever before is a real
advantage.
LM: Two wonderful images come to mind.
– A tale, “Ascolto il tuo cuore o cittàˮ by
Savinio that explains the story of the first lift
in Milan, in a 10-floor building, going up
in the lift the noise of the city began to fade
away and you could begin to hear the sound
of the Gods who were feasting at the top”
– During the opening credits of the film “La
notteˮ by Antonioni, while the lift is going
down, you catch sight of a city that is still
countryside. It was the beginning of the
1960’s. the Pirelli Tower had just been
brought to completion and held the record
as the highest building in Europe.
Milan is not only the city where they work, it is also the city
that has seen some of them grow up and it is a city that
has embraced others. Talking about it is perhaps more
difcult for those who were born there, too fond of the city
to be realisically objecive. Milan is therefore portrayed
from a personal point of view by eight guess who draw an
architecural and cultural profile of the city.
