ABOUT

The Milan city centre project was part of a massive operation of urban transformation.
in fact, the project area was part of a green park that was recently built.
The park’s design leitmotif was connecting every park entrance by continuous paths. that created a path network which formed a kind of chessboard within the park. in a way it was a sort of new interpretation of the roman cardo and decumano. The project area was a free plot within the scheme.
Following the idea of “continuity”, “ circularity” and “dynamism” we designed the civic centre with a layout of continuous route. we used two shapes that complemented each other: a curved line and a simple circle.
The only way to create an unstopped line that connects different floors was by designing a helix and the easiest way to emphasise the centre of a circle was by creating a void in its centre.
Therefore, our civic centre was formed by a peripheral helix going around a solid drum. the void inside the drum was a playground patio. The helix was not just the access to the civic centre, it was also a linear museum ending in a conference hall located on the top floor. whilst the fulcrum drum allowed several functions of the program such as administration, lecture and various rooms for free activities. rooms were defined and divided by sliding walls.