THE PAST AT A NEW PACE

We live in a country that vaunts an extraordinary wealth of history and old buildings. It almost seems like the old dominates the contemporary to the point of making us feel bridled by the past. And yet, it is the biggest opportunity we have because places linked to modern life and prospects due to a formula based on dialog with the superintendencies, city councils and permitissuing systems is an exemplary method globally. We applied this methodology to a place in Milan that will come as a surprise to many. We’re talking about a set in the famous crisscross of luxury streets between via Monte Napoleone, piazza San Babila, corso Venezia, via della Spiga and via Sant’Andrea.

In order to understand where we are and just how spectacular this place is, you need to visualize the city from above on a map. You’ll see it right there, at the very heart of the city, which is known all over the world as the Quadrilatero della Moda. It’s a majestic and impressive old palazzo, originally dating to the Renaissance, which Charles Borromeo commissioned in the seventeenth century as the Seminary of Milan in the Church’s history. Keep your eyes on the map and you’ll realize that this same place forms an exceptionally large square with an equally square courtyard at its core. It’s a quadrilateral in the Quadrilatero! It was designed as such so that all the face onto this wonderfully large courtyard surrounded by columns. If you look closely, you’ll also notice two peduncles, which protrude out from the large square plan towards corso Venezia and via Sant’Andrea respectively. These two entrances now allow a shortcut at last through the Quadrilatero della Moda from corso Venezia to via Sant’Andrea and have renamed this almost metaphysical stonepaved courtyard, with its silent expanse, as Piazza del Quadrilatero. Not only a surprising cut-through, but also a new gathering place for the world of fashion, the contemporary and the past.

M IC hele d e l u CC h I , w I th h I s des I gn and arC h I te C ture f I r M a M dl CI rC le , was beh I nd the restorat I on of the real estate C o M plex that now hosts p ortra I t M I lano experiences, the success of this palazzo lies in the fact that the hotel, restaurant, bar and boutiques all look out onto the Piazza del Quadrilatero not for their own sake, but to give shape to a vibrant space, where people meet and exchange ideas in full Milanese spirit as a city that never and in all that time I have always watched in awe at how (and how much) Milan has changed and continues to change. We are in the metropolis that best represents Italy internationally for its singular ability to absorb incredible contributions of technology and the market and turn them into new lifestyles, while maintaining the baseline of the place’s history and identity, because nobody knows how to hold the contemporary and the extraordinary centuries-old past together like the Milanesi do. Portrait Milano is the essence of this uniqueness. It’s also full of secrets because, beyond the central piazza, little courtyards and gardens still exist that escaped changes to the neighborhood and city down the centuries. The building is made up of two porticoes, one on top of the meditation took place. The courtyard and the palazzo have witnessed extraordinary moments of history over the centuries as a war hospital, a warehouse, military barracks, a ministry, a prison and as a tram depot at night. Now, its columns, cornices, doorways and monumental staircases set an extraordinary scene as the perfect setting for 21st-century events.

When I draw this building with its arches and porticoes, I always show it full of people. I picture them as they walk through this place, not only to discover its ancient magic, but to experience contemporary living in an ancient place. That is the wonder that we can create: putting the past in touch with the present.