POLIMI MSc01_Après | Design Report 2019 by Ilaria Ghilardi

APRÃ&#x2C6;S A C Q U A

P O T A B I L E

Real Experience to share

D E S I G N

R E P O R T

P I A Z Z A

C A R B O N A R I

Polytechnic of Milan - Master Programme Architecture - Built environment - Interiors Design and Construction studio

A project for BNL Paribas by Ghilardi, Kaveh, Vespa.

C O N T E N T S

CHAPTER 1

Historical research

CHAPTER 2

Milanese water tanks

CHAPTER 3

Decays Analysis

CHAPTER 4

Beer Market research

CHAPTER 5

Brew pub references

CHAPTER 6

KM 0 restaurant and Urban garden research

CHAPTER 7

KM 0 restaurant and Urban garden references

CHAPTER 8

Materials

CHAPTER 9

Brochure for investors

CHAPTER 10

Products and Merchandising

CHAPTER 11

Bibliography and Sitography

HISTORY

MILANESE WATER TANKS

The possibility of giving rise to a city has always been linked to the ability to ensure an adequate supply of water. The problem, already admirably solved by our Roman ancestors, came back strongly in the XIX century, when industrialization produced a rapid process of growth of European cities, with the consequent increase in requirements but also with frequent outbreaks of epidemics. The answer to these needs was the enactment of laws and regulations that guaranteed a verifiable quality of hydraulic services and the establishment of public and private companies that took charge of providing them. Thus, began the construction of public aqueducts. The construction of the first public aqueduct in Milan took place starting in 1888. Since Milan was not built on the banks of a large river, an imposing network of canals, derived from once-clean rivers, such as the Adda and the Ticino, which constituted an important source of water supply, both for civil and manufacturing uses. However, for drinking water, the supply traditionally took place from a myriad of private wells that drew from the rich and easily accessible groundwater. These were generally excavated wells, with brick cladding, no more than 6-7 meters deep; rare, instead, are the drilled wells, which reached 12-13 meters, obviously giving better waters. The relatively easy accessibility and abundance of water is therefore the most realistic explanation of the late development of an aqueduct in Milan. The increase in inhabitants (around 321,000 at the 1881 census), with the consequent increase in water consumption and hygiene requirements, led the authorities to tackle the problem. In the second half of the XIX century it became so indispensable to realize the public service of the aqueduct and chose to use the copious, good and natural reserve existing in the subsoil. The project for the FIRST MECHANICAL WATER LIFTING SYSTEM IS FROM 14 JULY 1888. The constant increase in the demand for drinking water, the attention paid to the efficiency of the public service in the last years of the nineteenth century and the

rapid growth of the city in the early twentieth century, led the Administration to build and distribute in the different areas of the city SEVENTEEN NEW MAIN WATER TANKS, of the simple pumping type. The consumption per inhabitant is calculated at 151 cubic meters in 1914 and 241 cubic meters in 1924. In ten years, the overall water consumption has therefore increased by 82%, private consumption by 121%, while the population served has not increased that of about 20%, going from about 630,000 to about 750,000 inhabitants. The supply of drinking water through the aqueduct from 1929 to 1930 causes the covering of numerous canals that for centuries characterized the city: the emblematic case of the Navigli, which were eventually transformed into drains and underground. The progressive exploitation of the groundwater in the following decades, also by the industrial activities of Pirelli, Falk, Montedison, causes problems for the supply of drinking water itself. On the contrary, FROM 1990 TO THE PRESENT, the closure of these and other factories has led to an increase in groundwater levels, with the need to CREATE PUMPING AND WATER DISPERSION SYSTEMS TO PREVENT FLOODING IN SUBWAYS, CAR PARKS AND UNDERGROUNDS. The year 1929 is important in the history of the aqueduct because it marks the adoption of a NEW HYDRAULIC SYSTEM, the so-called double-pumping system. The solution makes substantial progress by exploiting the wells more regularly and eliminating the sand suspended in the water, not retained by the traditional filters. The change consists in the introduction of a large settling tank, generally built in reinforced concrete, in which the water taken is decanted. Additional pumps take up water not only decanted but also filtered and introduce it into the distribution pipes. The tanks also act as a reserve and flywheel reservoir, necessary to compensate for changes in water withdrawal during the day, responding to peak flow rates.

THE AQUEDUCTIVE NETWORK TODAY

The aqueduct network of the city of Milan, managed by MM, develops today for about 2,200 km along the city streets. The waters, taken from the underground aquifer by means of 587 wells (of which at least 400 are active and functioning) draw water from the large reservoir constituted by the aquifer, are transported by about 100 km of pipes and distributed by the aqueduct network. The ducts constitute the adduction network, that is the connection between the wells and the 30 pumping stations: above-ground buildings, basements or underground ones, where the collection tanks are located, the electric and hydraulic machinery, the control and command equipment and treatment plants (activated carbon filters, aeration towers, reverse osmosis systems, chlorination, UV disinfection) that eliminate the contaminants present and make the water comply with the limits prescribed by current regulations. These guarantee the release of raised and treated water into the distribution network, also ensuring adequate pressures (on average between 4 and 6 bars). According to Legislative Decree 31/01, drinking water must in fact meet certain limit values for chemical, chemical-physical and microbiological parameters. MM, since taking over the management of the Integrated Water Service in June 2003, has launched an intervention program to increase controls to improve the quality of the water supplied. In addition to building new treatment plants, MM has strengthened the internal operating laboratory, expanding it with new rooms for microbiological analysis, for which advanced methods are adopted, through the provision of rooms dedicated to chemical analysis with cutting-edge equipment. The operating laboratory can carry out the totality of the analyses necessary both for ascertaining the characteristics of drinking water and for carrying out research activities, fundamental for guaranteeing water of excellent quality at all times. Absolute novelty for the inhabitants of the city are the houses of water: these installations constitute the natural evolution of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;vedovellaâ&#x20AC;? of Milan, which remains a socio-cultural point of reference. Water houses are considered a place

for dedicated to chemical analysis with cutting-edge equipment. The operating laboratory can carry out the totality of the analyses necessary both for ascertaining the characteristics of drinking water and for carrying out research activities, fundamental for guaranteeing water of excellent quality at all times. Absolute novelty for the inhabitants of the city are the houses of water: these installations constitute the natural evolution of the “vedovella” of Milan, which remains a socio-cultural point of reference. Water houses are considered a place for social gathering, communication and information on the quality of water supplied and, more generally, of the integrated water service. social gathering, communication and information on the quality of water supplied and, more generally, of the integrated water service.

- Bianca Dendena, “Paesaggi d’acqua: Milano e dintorni”, 2018 - Gian Luca Lapini, “Le origini del civico acquedotto di Milano”, 2004 - Gianluca Padovan e Maria Antonietta Breda “Archeologia dell’acqua potabile a Milano”, 2018 - Maria Antonietta Breda “Acqua e rifugi antiaerei: due casi milanesi”- “10-11th April 2015 Congress at Polythecnic of Milan Architettura dell’acqua a Milano: dai sistemi di gestione storici al ruolo di Metropolitana Milanese” - Ippolito Edmondo Ferrario and Gianluca Padovan, “Alla scoperta di Milano sotterranea: passaggi segreti, cripte, gallerie, labirinti e cunicoli tutti da esplorare”, 2018.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF HISTORICAL CENTRALS

All the historical centres, meaning with this term those realized in the first half of the twentieth century, have been restructured over time. The building interventions have transformed the interiors, adapting them to the new functional and plant requirements, while leaving some traces of the period elements. For an analysis of the interiors, we must therefore rely mainly on the original design drawings and period photographs. The load-bearing structures and the external composition have instead remained unchanged and pass on their architectural and urban history also to visual observation.

FUNCTIONALITY AND INTERIOR DECORATION Looking at the iconography of the time one is struck by the functional compositional and distributive solutions, with finishes and furnishings also of value. For example, great attention is paid to the engine room, conceived as a place to be â&#x20AC;&#x153;proudlyâ&#x20AC;? displayed, so much so that it is often ennobled by fine finishes (ceramic, wrought iron, marbles) and by decorations painted on the walls and on the high and airy ceilings. The lamps are of excellent workmanship and design, reflect the taste of the moment and adequately illuminate the rooms. Also the cast iron pillars, used in the centres of the beginning of the century, have the capitals and the base molded in beautiful shapes; an example, specially brought to light and enhanced following recent technical and spatial adjustments, is still visible in the Central Park. Another example of preserved antique furniture is the monumental and artistic wrought-iron staircase of the Comasina plant. The elevated building of the historic Aqueduct Centres was designed to be exhibited and clearly identifiable, as was done for elementary schools, Swimming pools and gyms, and other publicly owned buildings built by the Municipality of Milan. For each of these building types, achieving architectural quality was just as important as functionality and economy. In the first half of the twentieth century the Cagnola, Parini, Armi, Benedetto Marcello, Cenisio,

Comasina, Trotter, Poggi, Martini, Gorla, Tonezza, Espinasse, Suzzani and San Siro centres were built on top. For the Centrale Parini, built on the edge of the Public Gardens towards the ramparts of Porta Venezia, a small garden chalet was built on the corner between Via Parini and Via Manin, according to the fashion of the English garden. This construction corresponded in plan only to the entrance area; the engine room, too cumbersome to be elevated, had been built all underground and only a part of the roof emerged from the ground where low windows were made necessary for its illumination. For the Centrale Armi, instead, forms of the Liberty were adopted, a language that characterized many buildings in the area in which it was inserted. In Benedetto Marcello and Cenisio there was extensive use of brick and frames decorated according to the buildings that surrounded them. The project for the Trotter plant was strongly influenced by the presence of the Park. The buildings Poggi, Martini, Gorla, Tonezza, Espinasse and Suzzani were especially affected by the time they were built; in their constructions we can still see linearity of volumes and decorations in use in the architecture of the Twenties and Thirties, typical of the language proposed by the currents of Rationalism and the Milanese Twentieth century. The San Siro plant is not comparable to any of the previous ones nor to those built later. The upper building consists of the combination of pure volumes differentiated according to function. The entrance is in fact housed in a cylindrical element that approaches the parallelepipeds of different heights built to house offices and engine rooms. The accumulation tanks are semi-underground and covered by earth to form lawns treated as lawns. We can state that Architecture in elevated and underground architecture: between exhibition and camouflage it is almost a maximum synthesis of the criteria experimented up to then. A highly special construction is the cover of the large well built in the Plato plant; the plan is circular, while the structure is an ogival dome of reinforced concrete whose terminal part is perforated to allow light to enter.

As regards the underground stations, it is necessary to distinguish between the purely urban context of squares and large avenues and the context of the city’s historical parks. In the urban context we have Vercelli, Maggiolina, Beatrice d’Este, Indipendenza, Crema and Naples with regard to the lifting stations of the first type, therefore without the accumulation tank; Cantore and Ovidio among those of the second type. In these switchboards, only the word “drinking water” placed at the entrance stated that below were the machines for raising drinking water. In the first subterranean centres, only the roof and the terminal part of the walls emerged from the ground along which narrow windows were protected, protected by railings, to illuminate the underground spaces. The extrados of the roof was generally surrounded by a wrought iron railing that also had decorative features, attention confirmed by the careful selection of the covering materials. In the following the building is completely underground and the roof surface is treated as a lawn and surrounded by a low fence. The only exception to the type just described is constituted by the Maggiolina power plant, built above ground and covered to create a hill emerging from Piazza Carbonari. Among the subterranean power stations it was a peculiarity the Ovidio Central, built completely underground for protection in case of aerial bombardments. Its architecture, which as mentioned is an exception, is illustrated in more detail in the following paragraph dedicated to anti-aircraft building. In the city’s public parks the Central Park of Viale Elvezia was built near the Civic Arena and the Sempione Park, the Central Italy in the same Park, but towards the Cadorna Station, and the Centrale Palestro at the Public Gardens, the oldest in Milan , next to via Palestro, where the façade was covered with materials that recalled the rusticity of the rocailles and rocks found in the Public Gardens. - Maria Antonietta Breda “Un impianto indispensabile per la città moderna. Gli edifici di pompaggio dell’acqua potabile di Milano.” - Congress at Polythecnico of Milan 10-11th April 2015 “Architettura dell’acqua a Milano: dai sistemi di gestione storici al ruolo di Metropolitana Milanese” - Bianca Dendena, “Paesaggi d’acqua: Milano e dintorni”, 2018

CENTRALS “ BOMB PROOF” At the end of the 1930s the engineers of the Civic Aqueduct faced the problem of the defence of the Aqueduct from the bombing. Among the many provisions, some specifically concerned the protection of the central units. The only power plant built entirely with the above anti-bomb criteria was the Ovidio lifting station, built in 1939 under the square of the same name. The completely underground work required an impermeable roof made by the Italian Company Special Products for Building (sipsem), while the armoured and antigas special windows were supplied by the Biraghi Company, which had already supplied those for the Cantore and Benedetto Marcello plants. The plant was rebuilt in the seventies and the windows were replaced. No other specific documents are currently available on the preparation of defence measures for the aqueduct plants built before 1939. However, based on what is written by Ing. Cecchi, it is very likely that interventions have been made.

- Maria Antonietta Breda “Acqua e rifugi antiaerei: due casi milanesi” - Congress at Polythecnico of Milan 10-11th April 2015 “Architettura dell’acqua a Milano: dai sistemi di gestione storici al ruolo di Metropolitana Milanese” - Gianluca Padovan e Maria Antonietta Breda “Archeologia dell’acqua potabile a Milano”, 2018 - Ippolito Edmondo Ferrario and Gianluca Padovan, “Alla scoperta di Milano sotterranea: passaggi segreti, cripte, gallerie, labirinti e cunicoli tutti da esplorare”, 2018.

LIST OF THE WATER TANKS IN MILAN

Between 1898, ten years after the first installation at the Arena (1888), and 1927, the last year of the construction of the first type hydraulic power plants, the following water tanks were built in the city center: - Parini in via Giuseppe Parini (1903) - Parco in via Elvezia (1908) - Italia in Viale Italia (1919, today in Viale Emilio Alemagna) - Palestro in the homonymous street (1926). To the north the new water tanks are built: - Comasina in the today piazzale Carlo Maciachini (1909) - Maggiolina in today’s Piazza Carbonari (1912) To the north east they build: - Cagnola in Piazza Firenze (1898) - Trotter in the homonymous park (1920). To the northwest it rises: - Cenisio (1906) To the east it is built: - Centrale Benedetto Marcello (1901). To the west we find: - Weapons in Via Cassiodoro (1904) - Vercelli in piazza Piemonte (1906) and Independence in the green area of Corso Indipendenza (1925). To the south they are located: - Beatrice d’Este in Viale Beatrice D’Este (1924) - Napoli, in the square of the same name (1927).

There are 11 new water tanks built between 1929 and 1939 with a NEW TYPE OF HYDRAULIC SYSTEM: - Ascanio Sforza (1929) - Espinasse (1929) - Poggi (1930) - Martini (1930) - Carriera (1930) - Gorla (1932) - Bastioni Porta Nuova (1933) - Cantore (1935) - Suzzani (1937) - Ovidio (1939) - San Siro (1948).

- Bianca Dendena, “Paesaggi d’acqua: Milano e dintorni”, 2018 - Gian Luca Lapini, “Le origini del civico acquedotto di Milano”, 2004 - Ippolito Edmondo Ferrario and Gianluca Padovan, “Alla scoperta di Milano sotterranea: passaggi segreti, cripte, gallerie, labirinti e cunicoli tutti da esplorare”, 2018.

MAGGIOLINA PUMPING CENTRE 1912

The approval, on June 8th 1910, of the project of the Technical Office for the construction of the tenth plant, to be completed by the summer of 1911, on a land owned by the municipality and near the Cascina Maggiolina (hence the name given to the new water tank). In this case the building of the Maggiolina was built underground as in the previous Vercelli and Parco drinking water buildings. The potential of the plant was set at 400 liters per second and for the machines. For economic reasons it was preferred to drill 28 wells with a diameter of m. 0.30, instead of thirteen or fourteen of the usual diameters of m. 0.80. The report shows that for each project the greatest attention was paid to the technical aspects and at the same time we wanted to reach even the best economy. With this last building, a water supply per inhabitant of over 300 liters a day was reached, the urban pipeline reached the development of over 360 kilometers, and in the city there were 185 fountains and 2497 hydrants. In whole pumping centers, only the word â&#x20AC;&#x153;ACQUA POTABILEâ&#x20AC;? (drinking water) placed at the entrance, stated that below were the machines for raising drinking water (examples of the machinery in the following pages). In the first subterranean water tanks, only the roof and the terminal part of the walls emerged from the ground along which narrow windows were protected, protected by railings, to illuminate the underground spaces. The extrados of the roof was generally surrounded by a wrought iron railing that also had decorative features, attention confirmed by the careful selection of the covering materials. In the following the building is completely underground and the roof surface is treated as a lawn and surrounded by a low fence. The only exception to the type just described is constituted by the Maggiolina water tank, built above ground and designed so as to blend into the green, therefore almost hypogean and surfacing on the surface only to form a terrace with a balustrade. The architectural treatment of the faĂ§ade (north-east), although without showing a particular refinement in the formal or material solutions, is marked by a sober decorum that alludes to the monumentality typical of public buildings of the early twentieth century and which is expressed in square holes framed, in fake ashlar smooth with horizontal

partition and in the architraved portal, bearing the word “drinking water”, dominated by the coat of arms of the Municipality of Milan.

- Pdf of the technical report of “Palazzina dell’acqua Maggiolina - Bianca Dendena, “Paesaggi d’acqua: Milano e dintorni”, publisher Fondazione Feltrinelli, 2018 - Ippolito Edmondo Ferrario and Gianluca Padovan, “Alla scoperta di Milano sotterranea: passaggi segreti, cripte, gallerie, labirinti e cunicoli tutti da esplorare”, publisher Newton Compton, 2018.

(Ercore Marelli archivio fotografico_1928)

Water tank Pumps