Following the philological restoration of the building after the tragic airplane accident in April 2002 the realization of a “piazza alta” at the 31st floor of the Palazzo configure the original vision of Giò Ponti of a public viewing platform, a piazza in the sky. It was his way of giving back to the city the ground space stolen by the skyscraper’s footprint.
When we think of city traveling, our experience leads us back to a sum of places to be visited, where spots of the urban textile include hotels, whose features bend accordingly depending on the city in which they dwell. In some cities, such as Milan, hotels and accommodation facilities try to make themselves touristic attractions, sites “to be visited”, instead of just being places of rest and temporary staying.
The project is located on an area with a landscape of great importance for its intrinsic agricultural tradition, characterized by the presence of terraces built with dry stone walls of considerable size. A compromise between the design philosophy and the morphologic complexity of the soil had to be reached due to the peculiarity of the settlement type. On that account, emerges the idea of a single façade towards the valley and its bending profile which simulates the soil contour lines.
The new offices should be integrated into an existing building on the company area. To confer an independent character, the necessary spaces were added as an autonomous, two story volume above the existing ground floor as a kind of architectural parasite.
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