CASE OF STUDY - Politecnico di Milano
Milan, Spring 2023
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Schwarzplan
In order to understand Vittoriano Vigano’s building of the politechnico di Milano, we have to understand the historical context in which this building was created. In the 1980’s there was a demand in the expansion of the faculty of architecture at the Politechnico di Milano, hence the need for a new building for this faculty. Since Italian architecture saw a surge in modernist architecture after the second world war in the usage of materials and more contemporary design, this new building for the Politechnico is no exception for this movement.
Underground Floor
Groundfloor
The structure is in direct reference to Mies van der Rohes: “Neue Nationalgalerie”. Although the building of the Politechnico is based on punctual steel load-bearing pillars, in which the classrooms become the modules of the building, it is based on a asymetrical structure. The entire steel structure formed by a sequence of vertical elements hanging from large cruciform pillars by means of a tie-pull frame placed on the top part of the pillars themselves is exhibited on the facade with an unprecedented and essential language. Based on this static scheme some parts of the factory body are hung on the structure via horizontal elements that graft into the vertical segments, with an entirely original volumetric solution that allows great freedom in spatial organization.
Elevation / Section
Section
Part of the style is highlighted by the few and simple colours of the buildings. Vittoriano Vigano used his interest of the painting culture to colour his edifice, that’s why the main colour are black in a windowedfacade highlighted with red details. “ […] A strong statement of form and, together, a negotiation of it through the emptying of the walls and accentuation almost aggressive structural elements and the anti-naturalistic use of colours. Thus form becomes space. This is a fundamental characteristic of Viganò’s design process […]”
The space is characterized by the naked exhibition of the steel structural elements, by the geometries of the suspended crossing walkways, by the scenographic presence of the pipes of the exposed systems.