Nature Blended Architecture P39 competition proposal for a new High-Rise in Milan skyline
Politecnico di Milano Scuola AUIC - Architettura Urbanistica e Ingegneria delle Costruzioni MSc Course: Architettura delle Costruzioni - Building Architecture scientific disciplinary sector: ICAR / 14 ARCHITECTURAL AND URBAN COMPOSITION Supervisor:
Prof. Francesca Battisti
Co-Supervisors: Prof. Angjeliu Grigor Prof. Dotelli Giovanni Prof. Romano Francesco Prof. Tagliabue Lavinia Chiara Students:
Andrea Castellan Paolo Dolceamore
A. Castellan P. Dolceamore
Nature Blended Architecture P39 competition proposal for a new High-Rise in Milan skyline
Table of Content 00 Abstract
01 An unsolved question A summary of the historical evolution of the Porta Nuova area from late 19th century to the Nineties
02 The High-Rise Game An overview of the ongoing and future transformations occurring in the area
03 Toward Urban Sustainability The set of urban scale strategies outlined in the project
04 Architectural Composition Relationship with the sorroundings, mixed use programme, and all the choices that shaped the project
05 A comprehensive project How the proposed idea of Architecture is enhanced by the design of structural and technical systems
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Abstract The hereby presented thesis concerns the design of an entry to the International P39 competition, issued by the real estate company COIMA in 2019. The brief called for a new development for the “Pirellino� building and the neighboring area of Porta Nuova-Gioia, representing a chance to take part to the pressing debate about the impact of the new high-rises on the cityscape. Firstly, from an urban scale perspective, the project promotes a new level of urban sustainability, through a gradual mobility conversion towards more sustainable means, to be eased thanks to a street network rearrangement that involves the existing Naviglio Martesana uncovering project. The design team opted for the demolition of the existing building, since it appeared to be very complex to adapt to the required standards, and the reallocation of the tower on the margin of the underlying BAM park, in order to free some of its surface. The building itself was conceived as a set of intertwining volumes that establish visual relationships with the surroundings. Two urban assets taken into account were the park and via Pirelli, the gateway to the area. Special overhangs were designed with a steel structural conception, to distinguish them from the main reinforced concrete frame. The volume composition contributes to show the mixed-use nature of the building, meant to broaden the range of activities and spaces that both district and city can benefit from. Public functions, including an exhibition space, leisure areas, and a bike storage, are located at the base and top of the tower, while the central part hosts the office floors. The design was integrated with a series of building systems, with sustainability and carbon footprint reduction as key values. Besides HVAC, Water Management and Renewable Energy systems, a set of natural elements has been introduced, not only for their impact on livability, but also as part of a larger commitment to pursue sustainability and architectural language integration.
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Il seguente progetto di tesi ha come tema una proposta per il concorso internazionale P39, bandito dalla compagnia di Real Estate COIMA nel 2019. Il bando richiedeva la progettazione di un nuovo sviluppo per l’edificio noto come“Pirellino” e la circostante area di Porta Nuova-Gioia, offrendo la possibilità di inserirsi nel vivace dibattito sull’impatto che i nuovi edifici alti stanno avendo sul paesaggio urbano. Da un punto di vista urbano il progetto promuove una graduale conversione della mobilità verso modelli più sostenibili, attraverso il riassetto della rete stradale e includendo il progetto esistente di riapertura del naviglio Martesana. Il team di progetto ha optato per la demolizione dell’edificio attuale, scelta motivata dalla complessità di adattarlo agli standard richiesti, e ha proposto di riallocare la torre ai margini del parco BAM , liberando così parte della sua superficie. L’edificio è stato concepito come un assemblaggio di volumi che hanno il compito di instaurare dei rapporti visivi con il contesto. Due degli elementi urbani presi in considerazione sono stati il parco e via Pirelli, portale di accesso all’area. Gli sbalzi sono stati progettati in acciaio, in modo da distinguerli dalla struttura principale in calcestruzzo armato. La composizione di volumi contribuisce a mostrare la natura di mix funzionale che caratterizza il progetto, necessaria per ampliare la scelta di spazi e attività di cui il distretto e la città possono beneficiare. La base e la sommità dell’edificio ospitano funzioni pubbliche, tra cui uno spazio espositivo, ambienti ricreativi, e un deposito bici, mentre nella parte centrale della torre trovano posto i piani ufficio. Il progetto è stato integrato con una serie di sistemi che hanno come valori centrali la sostenibilità e la riduzione dell’impronta di carbonio. Accanto ai sistemi di HVAC, gestione delle acque e produzione di energie rinnovabili, sono stati introdotti una serie di elementi naturali che non solo hanno un impatto sulla vivibilità degli ambienti, ma che dimostrano anche la volontà di integrare sostenibilità e linguaggio architettonico.
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An unsolved question Early 20th Century At the beginning of the 20th century, the city of Milan is undergoing some major development; the consolidated historic urban core is no longer able to host the growing population, and new neighbourhoods are planned and built outside of the 16th century walls. The north-eastern border of the city, located north of Porta Volta, is turned into a railway hub, following the construction of the lines to Venice, Como (1938), Monza and Turin (1940). In 1857, in the Piazza della Repubblica location, the construction of the new Central Station railway hub began. This infrastructure was designed to collect lines coming from different origins. The location choice, anyways, ended up setting a barrier for the future development of the city, and also worsening an ongoing urban fragmentation. In fact, the new station broke off the network of historical roads that formed the framework of this part of the suburbs. The Cesare Beruto plan (1889), which tried to organise the emerging city through large urban blocks to be situated between the Spanish walls and its outermost boundary, was unable to overcome the barriers set by the existing infrastructural system. In 1911, the adoption of a new master plan drafted by Pavia-Masera represented a turning point for the area. The plan stood out for its intention to reorganise the transport infrastructures and, for this reason, it includes a new allocation for the Central Station, the introduction of the new rail yard of Via Farini, the suppression of the Sempione rail yard and other projects that will permanently mark the Milanese railway junction.
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Beruto plan, 1889
The urban fragmentation was reconsidered in the new Master Plan drafted by Albertini in 1934. On the Garibaldi-Repubblica areas, the plan confirms the moving back of the railway to Via Carlo Farini; the general layout of the area is structured on a new street network that involves the extension of Viale Tunisia up to its intersection with Via Carlo Farini, while Viale Fulvio Testi, through Via Volturno, comes to an end on the extension of Viale Tunisia up to the bastioni. Regardless of the fact that the street network layout conceived by Albertini was not actually realised, his plan draws the attention on the reallocation of the railway system to the present Porta Garibaldi Station. Despite its contradictions, it is going to become the main urban planning issue debated during the post-war period. It is only in the post-war period that, for the first time, with the 1953 plan, the historical relationship between infrastructure and production system is replaced by a relationship between accessibility and location of the information and business services. In fact, since the beginning of the Fifties, an actual mobility revolution has taken place: Cars are now the means that ensure freedom of movement and
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
An unsolved question
Masera plan, 1912
everything is structured and defined only as a function of it, as a sign of an achieved individual freedom. This generates a new vision of urban space and new ways of using time. The 1953 plan stems from the vision of an exponential economic and urban growth, driven by the Italian economic miracle atmosphere. The city is considered as a set of individual travels through a system of relations centred on the exclusive development of the road network and on the use of private means of transport. In this view, the major urban functions are located at the intersection of the new proposed urban motorways. The detailed plan drafted in 1953 is going to be modified several times over the years, as to pinpoint the technical and administrative impossibility to give a definitive layout to this part of the city. Anyway, the urban settings next to the Garibaldi-Repubblica area witnessed a wide development that took place from the mid-Fifties to the beginning of the Seventies. The residential, productive and service related development increasingly spreads all over the territory; and yet the area that was
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Albertini plan, 1934
supposed to be the information and service engine of the city and of the region cannot get off the ground and still lacks a defined layout. The difficulty in planning this part of the city can possibly be found in the rigidity of the model imposed for the business centre, a plan drafted regardless of the existing urban tissue. With the approval of the “Piano di Inquadramento operativo� for Garibaldi-Repubblica in 1978, and the consequent birth of a new infrastructure (Passante Ferroviario), a modernised idea of the business district persists. The plan envisioned the setting of some activities related to the financial and insurance field, together with the regional information system, large commercial malls and cultural centres. Following the approval of the plan, a competition by invitation promoted by Casabella was issued. The competition was asking for a new vision of the district, to be achieved through to densification of the district in the area between the two stations (Varesine and Garibaldi), and the design of accessible green spaces and services for the citizens. While the Casabella competition had no tangible consequences, the completion of the underground railway line granted Porta Nuova an entirely different position in
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
An unsolved question
PRG, 1953
the metropolitan area, and the interest around it grew even further. In order to control the evolution of the district, a new specific plan (“progetto d’area�) was drafted, introducing solid new urban blocks arranged around a central park.
A final resolution Finally, in 1991 the AIM (Associazione Interessi Metropolitani) competition was issued to design the financial pole of the area as prescribed by the Piano Regolatore. This can be regarded as the turning point in the process that led to the realisation of the present layout of the area. One of the main topics of the entries of the competitions that were published during the years was how to give a structure to the undefined nature of the big open space at the center of the district. Perhaps the projects that gave the best answers were the ones that tried to deal with the shape of the void, mending the often irregular
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G.Grassi
A. B. Belgioioso
P. Nicolin
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
An unsolved question
boundary between it and the existing neighborhoods. Some of them put objects in the middle of the open space, subdividing it into smaller areas characterized by a more human scale. This is the case of Belgiojoso’s proposals: especially in the first one, the designed blocks interact with and take advantage of the existing buildings, like P39 tower; together they generate a series of connected clearings and represent a smoother transition from the historical city fabric, with its smaller and bigger piazzas. Grassi splits the space into wider fields thanks to the employment of an elongated group of buildings that fulfill a double role: one is being a barrier between the P39-P35 and the big green area in front of Garibaldi Station; the other consists in prolonging the Corso di Porta Nuova axis. The jury anyway awarded Nicolin’s proposal, which was based on the idea of a vertical city displaced around the central public park. Nicolin analysed the street network and compared its functionality with public and private interests and needs, achieving a project that tried to derive shapes from the existing fabric rather than overimposing new objects to it. The AIM competition ignited the actual transformation process that started only in 1999, following the initiative of private developers together with the Municipality of Milan and Lombardy Region. This led to the 2003 competition for the new Lombardy Region headquarters, and to the 2004 competition for the central park and the Porta Nuova gardens (Biblioteca degli alberi).
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The High-Rise game State of the art Nowadays, the Porta Nuova district, with its 350,000 square metres of buildings and 160,000 square metres of landscape and pedestrian paths, represents one of the most attractive neighbourhoods in Milan, and can be regarded as one of the greatest urban renewal projects in recent history. The Porta Nuova development can be divided into the following areas: Garibaldi-Repubblica, characterised by CÊsar Pelli’s concept plan and based on the building of a central podium, posing as a new urban square and pursuing the criteria of connection, walking area and accessibility; Porta Nuova-Varesine, hosting an iconic steel and glass office building, Torre Varesina B (Diamante); Porta Nuova-Isola, whose concept plan was drafted by Studio Boeri, also the designer of the two Bosco Verticale residential towers; Porta Nuova-Gioia, the area orbiting around the intersection between via Melchiorre Gioia and via Pirelli. While the areas nearby Garibaldi station have already been completed, the Porta Nuova district is still undergoing major transformations, mostly thanks to the synergy between the real estate company Coima and the municipality of Milan. From this cooperation, an entire masterplan for the Porta Nuova-Gioia area was developed, with the aim of renovating all the buildings located around BAM, the park designed as a tree library by Inside Outside. The Masterplan was developed by firms appointed from Coima in compliance with goals and rules set up by the PGT2030, and involve both real estate assets (Gioia20, Gioia22, Pirelli35, Pirelli39) and their surrounding public spaces. The vision stated by Coima encompasses the impacts that the design will have on
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Panoramic view taken from Palazzo Lombardia, taken from P. Dolceamore 26/01/2020
many levels: the Porta Nuova district will be completed, creating an urban regeneration corridor together with the new Scalo Farini, Bovisa and MIND (Green Gate), and ultimately empowering a network of cities.
The Porta Nuova Gioia Masterplan In November 2019, the Real Estate company COIMA purchased the Pirelli 39 lot. The building, also known as “Pirellino� for its resemblance with the more renowned Pirelli Skyscraper designed by Gio Ponti, was auctioned in March by the Municipality of Milan. The company, born as a branch of Hines, is arguably the main player behind the striking transformation process of Porta Nuova that started at the beginning of the 90s, having invested in most of the plots involved, including the
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
The High-Rise game
Unicredit tower and piazza Gae Aulenti, the Unicredit Pavilion, Porta Nuova-Varesine, Bosco Verticale and many others. Recently, with most of the construction sites in the Garibaldi area completed, Coima has started to shape the nearby Porta Nuova-Gioia area, situated at the opposite corner of the BAM park, perhaps the most defining and recognizable project in the district. As a matter of fact, the cluster of high rise buildings that the concentration of investments and the tight cooperation with public institutions have allowed, holds the vast central void only filled by the Biblioteca degli Alberi park as the gravitational center around which every element must be arranged. In this framework, the expansion toward the Gioia area appears to be a natural step in an ongoing process of densification. Coima is involved in the development of many plots in the Gioia area, some of which are currently in the construction site phase: Gioia 22, Gioia 20, Pirelli 35 and Pirelli 39 are only some of the most relevant. In order to coordinate such massive and closely related projects, Coima appointed a Masterplan Team with the likes of Cesar Pelli and Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel as designers. The Masterplan team has outlined a set of guidelines and documents that translates the principles dictated by Coima into prescriptions for the ongoing and soon to be developed projects. The chance to develop such an extensive part of the district with a comprehensive design coordinated by the same team is only beneficial with respect to the expected outcome and therefore for the citizenship. The Porta Nuova Gioia Masterplan advocates for few general principles to be followed and are later turned into very specific indications related to parts or elements of the district. The proposed vision for Porta Nuova is one of modern green and sustainable development that can impact not only at a city level but within a broader network of cities. Key features are: - the pedestrian and cyclable paths and areas extension; the establishment of the most sustainable and livable neighbourhood through an environmental urban benchmark oriented by key indicators; the expansion of the green areas; - a cultural type of driver, with the will to implement a community entertainment and
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cultural program and to grant a 24/7 set of activities and integrated services for the neighbourhood; - a particular focus on the connection between the area and the rest of the ongoing developments alongside the so-called MIND corridor;
Porta Nuova Gioia Design Guidelines The P39 competition was launched within the described context. Scope of the competition was the transformation of the Pirelli 39 tower, to be turned into a modern standards complying high-rise that fully exploits the GFA potential ruled by the building code, while also offering an image coherent with the principles of sustainability and innovation oriented approach featured in Coima’s vision. Moreover, the careful planning of the public space involved was the second but not less relevant theme to be addressed by participants; in the competition’s guidelines it is stated that the urban landscape, considered as green and social infrastructure, has a major impact on the quality of life in the city, and therefore the project should pursue strategies such as resources consumption efficiency, climate change mitigation measures, urban quality improvement, management cost reduction, and public space enrichment. As a matter of fact, the P39 project is not just meant to be focused on one aspect, but has a comprehensive nature per-se, involving urban design, architecture, sustainability aspect and above all a vision for future practises in the discipline. More specifically, the main elements and topics on which participants were asked to focus were listed in the guidelines. The design of the Pirelli 39 tower. It is recognized that the existing building has a typological and morphological value, not to mention the historical value; nevertheless, it is also pointed out that the building technologies adopted and therefore the present condition of the building produce a substantial inadequacy to the nowadays use and future vision; therefore, participants are left with the option to propo-
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
The High-Rise game
Porta Nuova Gioia Masterplan plot, taken from Bando concorso P39 - Allegato A
se either a refurbishment or a demolition, albeit the maximum edificatory potential exploitation is a must, alongside a the compliance with contemporary efficiency and environmental sustainability standards, and the achievement of a certain image advocating for the principles of sustainability and innovation oriented approach featured in Coima’s vision; Gioia Bridge. Within this framework, the volume spanning over via Gioia, is payed a special attention; it is recognized as perhaps the most iconic part of the plot, and its transformation is required,both in the cases of demolition or refurbishment; perhaps due to its peculiar appeal, it is asked to demand to Gioia Bridge the cultural part of the programme, making it a space open to public, able to host events and catalyze activities and people. The public space system enhancement. The extension of BAM coordinated with Park Design Guidelines is paramount to the project, with the weak connection
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between the two sides of the BAM park currently parted by via Gioia identified as the major issue. Some ways in which this connection may be achieved are suggested, ranging from a road section rearrangement, to the permanent closure option, perhaps with the underground canal uncovering. For the nearby streets and walkways, a general requalification is foreseen, with special focus on the Crossroad between Via Gioia and Via Sassetti, and the road section of the streets along the path linking the Central to the Farini area. Participants are asked to prioritize an accessibility improvement, providing solutions to foster pedestrian and cycle connections and removing existing barriers detrimental to the quality of the area. Sustainability parameters. The proposal has to integrate a general ecological and sustainable approach, coherently with Coima’s vision, the applicable legislative instruments and the Municipality policies in general. This translates in the application of the C40 Reinventing Cities parameters, with the zero CO2 emissions as the goal. The parameters are energy efficiency and clear energy supply, circular economy and sustainable materials management, green mobility, resilience and adaptation, new eco services for the site, smart cities and green growth, sustainable hydric resources management, biodiversity, agriculture and reforestation, inclusive practices beneficial to the community, innovative urban and architectural design.
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
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Public Space Main Themes 1. BAM extension 2. Gioia Bridge 3. Gioia Road 4. Gioia Crossroad 5. Link Farini - Centrale taken from: Bando concorso P39 Allegato A
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Toward Urban Sustainability An upcoming challenge Urban sustainability is the idea that a city can be organised without excessive reliance on the surrounding territory and be able to power itself with renewable sources of energy. The aim of it is to create the smallest possible ecological footprint and to produce the lowest quantity of pollution possible, to efficiently use land, compost used materials, recycle it or convert waste-to-energy, and to make the city’s overall contribution to climate change minimal. It is estimated that over 50% of the world’s population now lives in urban areas and that this will rise to 70% by 2050. This is a tremendous change which will have an impact both on the millions of people that move and on the cities that they move into. Such a change confronts planners and developers with a challenge. However, urban systems can be more environmentally sustainable than rural or suburban living, where people may be further from each other, from essential services and from the workplace. With people and resources located so close to one another it is possible to save energy and resources by the effective planning of services such as food transportation and mass transit systems. Cities also benefit the economy by bringing people together in one relatively small area where ideas can easily be generated and developed.
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Milan Urban Development Plan The achievement of Urban Sustainability is a collective goal that more and more communities and cities are starting to seek, but the challenges to re-imagine a city differ largely depending on its background and context; with respect to this topic, Milan can be regarded as a remarkable case study of historical large european city that is trying to transition from a consolidated urban set-up toward a more sustainable and contemporary one. The city of Milan has always been one of the most impactful breeding grounds for cultural, social and economical activity within Italy and Europe. Focusing on the second post-war period, perhaps more than other italian metropolitan areas, Milan has known a dizzying spiral of growth that granted the city a fervent economic development. This kind of growth was consequently paired by an equally striking urban sprawl that was for the most part not so carefully planned. A traditionally dense and self-contained city was faced with the urges and needs of a small metropolis: the growing number of underground lines and the completion of the Passante Ferroviario railway line are the most evident responses that the city government put in place to face the evolution of the city dynamics. Nevertheless, when the new City Council started to work on the new Urban Development Plan at the beginning of the centuries, the city was affected by several issues that needed radical changes to the urban programmes in order to be solved. In an interview by Nicola Leonardi for “The Plan�, Andrea Boschetti and Alberto Francini, Studio Metrogramma architects and urban planners involved in the drafting of said law (Piano di Governo del Territorio), pointed out the unsolved issues left behind by decades of poorly regulated expansion and at times actual building speculation: land consumption, lack of proper neighbourhood services in the outskirts, lack of density and functional mix, and overall environmental sustainability for what concerns urban planning. The plan that sprouted from these observations was structured on three key goals in the form of city attributes to be achieved through the new policies: efficiency,
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
Toward Urban Sustainability
Three Urban Policies and Fifteen Goals, taken from: THE PLAN 047_MILAN PGT Urban Development Plan
attractivity and liveability. The strategies outlined in the PGT are addressing the Porta Nuova Area extensively. The plan aims at turning Milan into a network city, which is the antithesis of a city composed of juxtaposed enclaves or one conceived as a central hub with surrounding outskirts. A network city is based on a set of “quality densification nodes�, that allow nearby previously underserviced areas to acquire great autonomy and efficiency. These nodes are defined as epicentres, since the beneficial effects produced by their transformation will propagate like waves to neighbourhoods not necessarily directly concerned by regeneration projects. The areas undergoing transformation will drive the revitalisation of the entire urban fabric. These areas represent the nodes of the new infrastructure network and environmental enhancement to be put in place. Rundown neighbourhoods and disused sites will thus once again be returned to the city. The multiple epicentre concept that underpins the plan is key to the mobility improvement, being scaled to a regional level in order to enhance the connectivity with surrounding cities and areas. Particular importance is given to the railway lines
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The New Network City taken from: THE PLAN 047_MILAN PGT Urban Development Plan
Transformation Areas taken from: THE PLAN 047_MILAN PGT Urban Development Plan
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
Toward Urban Sustainability
system that will be complemented by a new circular line that will take advantage of the existing and abandoned rail yards, that will be requalified and become strong connection means for the epicentres. The PGT pays great attention to the specific identities of the various neighbourhoods and districts. In order to do so, the plan zoned the city on the basis of social and cultural identity patterns, through data collected with a general survey. The areas, named NIL (Local Identity Nuclei) helped to create a more accurate picture of the actual issues and of the potential for development at a very refined scale, to rethink the contemporary identity and role of each area bearing in mind the history and traditional features of each area to be respected. The Plan breaks down its lines of action in two macro areas: voids and solids. The urban voids, which have been carefully mapped and studied, are a fundamental asset for the future development of the city; their connection is one of the most important goals set by the plan, and is meant to be achieved by an urban scale green strategy; in said strategy, the requalification of peri urban parks, meant to revitalize the peripheral districts, has to be followed by a strong policy of radial connection between said parks and the city centre ones, via a series of green lanes, or spokes, for the most part tree lined avenues that start from the old spanish walls and connect the epicentres of the future city. A set of big public interest project opportunities concerning big urban voids is outlined in the plan.The 15 projects encompass the diverse public sector components of the city such as green areas, services, transport. “Passeggiata Bastioni” and “Ring dei Viali” are, among the 15 projects, perhaps the ones that involve more directly the Porta Nuova district. With respect to the solid city, the plan advocates an extensive densification. Anyway, Greater density does not mean wholesale indiscriminate increase of urban volumes. Increasing density means compacting the urban fabric, consolidating the city’s more fragile areas or reinforcing key infrastructure and service nodes. Den-
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15 Public Interest Project
Periurban Park and Green spokes
Urban Scale green: Epicentres
Local Scale Green: Parks and Gardens
taken from: THE PLAN 047_MILAN PGT Urban Development Plan
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
Toward Urban Sustainability
Strategies sifying is especially aimed at “porous” areas, thereby promoting growth within the city limits. This in turn signifies promoting new ways of living and experiencing a city undergoing constant transformation as it adapts to the new opportunities offered by today’s world. Despite a flat demographic curve, Milan still has considerable demand for building land in order to upgrade and modernise its urban fabric. The plan follows the principle of not consuming green field sites but rather the so-called brown fields (abandoned or decommissioned industrial plants, railway yards, dumps). The strategies to pursue this kind of quality densification are the pinpointing of some areas recognized as possible drivers of urban transformation (TA) and the outlining of specific rules concerning the development of said areas and the of the consolidated urban fabric (CUF) alongside an incentive programme for energy-efficient optimization of the building stock. The design team approached the project following the indications described in the simple yet already thorough competition brief and the principles outlined in the PGT2030, in effort to show a possible step forward in the path toward urban sustainability. The first principle that was adopted is the densification: in a morphological sense, since the new tower has been designed to consume the least possible amount of soil, optimizing the extension of its footprint, but at the same time from the point of view of the services implemented inside the project; the mixed-use nature of the building and the number and extension of public spaces featured in it might actually have a great impact on the liveability of the neighbourhood. Secondly, the project pays great attention to the quality of the “voids”, including streets, parks and public spaces in general involved in the plot. The design team’s strategy includes measures aimed at encouraging a gradual yet significant mobility conversion, such as a street network rearrangement or bicycle and pedestrian paths substantial improvement and extension not only inside the plot but in a big-
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Street Network Rearrangement
existing building main roads bycicle lanes design building main roads bycicle lanes naviglio reopening
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
Toward Urban Sustainability
Current Configuration
Phase 1
Final Configuration
ger portion of the district spanning from the Central station to the entire BAM park. Perhaps the most impactful ideas proposed are the closure of via Gioia in the section spanning from via Pirelli to viale della Liberazione and the implementation of the Naviglio reopening project. The Naviglio uncovering project was drafted between 2008 and 2010 by a team
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led by Politecnico di Milano professors. Preliminary studies have shown that the reopening of the “inner trench” is feasible from an architectural and engineering point of view, and is suitable for the environmental requalification of the city, the reorganization of the transport system and overall the retrieval of the partially lost water city character of Milan. The project involves the likes of 8,5 kilometres of canal and 25 bridges located between the Cascina de Pom location, where the Naviglio Martesana sinks, up to the Darsena, along via Gioia, via San Marco, the inner belt and the “conca dei Navigli”. From the cityscape point of view, reopening the canals will spur the creation of pedestrian and green areas that will enhance the existing urban fabric with non-motorised mobility areas. Moreover, the project will be of great use in several public interest sectors such as renewable energy production, biodiversity, water resources management, heat island reduction, not to mention the real estate implications with the valorisation of the existing landscape and the sprout of new touristic and leisure opportunities. The via Gioia closure was designed as a set of steps that lead to the complete closure, and may be realized independently from the Naviglio uncovering or even the new P39 tower. The final scenario imagined for the area is the creation of a second Darsena, a public space generated by the matching between the Martesana uncovered canal and the BAM park gently sloping towards it. The Darsena would represent a vibrant public space, representing an interesting variation within the BAM park, and benefitting from the interaction with the lower levels of the P39 tower. Finally, to pursue the mentioned mobility conversion from the traditional vehicular one toward more sustainable so-called “soft mobility” solutions, the new tower was designed as a potential “modal exchange point”. In order to do so, a new bike parking has been located in the underground levels of the tower, in direct connection with the adjacent multilevel underground car parking and Darsena space, but also with the underground green line metro stop Gioia. The bike parking has been designed following the example provided by several Dutch case studies, where
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
Toward Urban Sustainability
Masterplan: Path subdivision, Bridges and Basins Source: Studio di FattibilitĂ per la riapertura dei Navigli Milanesi, April 2015
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Masterplan, out of scale
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
Toward Urban Sustainability
bikes represent the main transportation means. In the proposed scenario, the bike parking is a completely permeable space, accessible from several directions and allowing users to switch from a long range transport such as trains, cars or underground, to the bike.
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Architectural Composition Old and New The design process of the new P39 Tower started with a choice on the two options provided by the real estate company Coima in the competition brief: the refurbishment of the existing P39 “Pirellino� building, or the conception of a brand new architecture. The design team resolved that the latter was a better solution, taking also into account the nature of this thesis project, its contents and its expected outcome. As a matter of fact, operations of refurbishment are to be preferred over new constructions, in an attempt to reduce the carbon footprint that would be increased by new material production and transportation, together with the multiple and complex site operations. On the other hand, Pirellino tower has many characteristics that make it a difficult object to handle. One for all, the quality of its spaces responds to standards that today are obsolete, and it would be hard to adapt it to the wellbeing requirements demanded by Coima. The design team thought that a new construction would be also a good opportunity to have the freedom necessary to implement a number of sustainability strategies that otherwise would not find a place in the existing building. Finally, Pirellino is a cumbersome presence in the context of BAM, and its reallocation would have a beneficial impact on what the park represents for the whole Porta Nuova-Gioia area, which is at the forefront of Milan’s present evolution.
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Volume Position and composition of the designed building are tightly connected. The project is the result of an assembly of volumes on a central core, a “volume zero�, that is the square-plan main tower. Each form has an impact on the way in which the building engages with its closer or farther surroundings, and it is related to one or more topographic features of the site that act as guidelines. First there is the vast void represented by BAM, the park designed by Inside Outside, encircled by a ring of high-rise buildings that include Torre Unicredit, Torre Unipol, the Solaria group, Gioia 20 and 22, Palazzo Lombardia, Bosco Verticale and Torri Garibaldi. The new tower had to become part of this belt, a tall object that would belong to the border between the empty space and the rest of the city, acting as a new element of backdrop for the park. This drift from the original P39 footprint allowed BAM to reclaim more land and, with a process of resonance, to conquer the horizontal and vertical surfaces of the new skyscraper through green roofs and living walls. Secondly, the intersection between the principal axis of via Pirelli and via Gioia had
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
Architectural Composition
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1. main body placement 2. park connection 3. south volume
4. first overhang: exhibition space 5. second overhang: greenhouse 6. third overhang: verandas
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a role in defining how the building would present itself to the city and how the users could access it. Via Pirelli physically and visually connects Porta Nuova-Gioia area with Milan’s Centrale station, and thus with the rest of Italy and Europe; moreover, this axis continues west in a green corridor of parks and recent cultural developments, eventually reaching the new research campus of MIND. Consequently, the project places itself in this trajectory as a gate to the neighborhood from the north-western side, occupying the most extreme corner of the park. As previously said, a composition of volumes is carried out starting from a main parallelepiped. A sloped platform acts as a base on BAM side, gradually mending the difference of levels and offering the park a medium to cling to the building; here, a tall living wall facade covers the tower from the ground until its upper extremity. A second tower body, slightly lower than the first one and with an elongated rectangular plan facing south-west, is slided in respect to the first one. It is the volume that points at the center of Milan, and from its top floors it grants views of the old town; moreover, it is the most exposed to the south, so it can host those functions that require lots of daylight. These masses make up the conventional part of the project, and are structurally conceived as a reinforced concrete frame with columns, central cores and waffle slabs. A set of three other volumes, all of them overhanging from the main body, represent the most expressive moments of the composition; to assert their difference from the rest of the building, and to face their cantilevered nature, their structure was designed using steel, each time studying the most suitable solution. The biggest cantilever, colloquially called “Stecca�, is the one that crosses via Gioia axis and the naviglio Martesana reopening. Its skeleton is a three-floor-high steel truss, visible from the outside, supported externally by four V-shaped columns. The volume echoes the old Pirellino horizontal part and its bridge character, while being less obtrusive; instead of physically connecting the two sides of BAM, which are currently parted by an extremely congested street, the new object offers a visual relationship: at its extremity, from the inside, people can get a full panoramic view of the park. Its elongated shape pierces the tower and emerges on the other side with
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
Architectural Composition
a shorter arm; from the park side it reinforces the idea of a boundary or backdrop, while from via Pirelli and via Gioia it boosts the directionality of the street and of the urban corridor, assuming the role of portal to the other side. The other volumes are the greenhouse and the verandas, both supported by steel
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beams and ties. The greenhouse is grafted to the two tall bodies, and it belongs exclusively to the BAM area; it is the element where the park crawls inside the building as a series of vegetated basins. Being detached from the ground, it signals one of the entrances to the building. The stack of verandas, instead, is facing towards Centrale station; it was conceived as a lantern that makes the building recognizable in the skyline, and due to the fact that at every floor it hosts one corridor provided with plants and shrubs, it symbolically projects the green of Biblioteca degli Alberi towards the rest of the city.
Transversal section, out of scale
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
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Architectural Composition
Programme As requested by the competition brief, the new P39 building hosts a mix of different functions. The aim was to found a city hub that would attract a wide portion of the population of Milan and inject a further input of life in a neighborhood where Coima and the city itself are making such a considerable investment. The building is subdivided in vertically stacked functional areas where the lower levels and the rooftop floors host all the functions open to the general public, while a series of office floors
Longitudinal section, out of scale
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to be rented by various companies are located in the central part of the tower. Vertical distribution is subdivided into distinct columns of elevators, two groups of three serving the offices, and one set of two connecting ground and floor, that also includes a goods lift. The specifications expressed in the brief explicitly mentioned the need to include residential, tertiary, retail and public spaces in the project, but since it was also asked to the participants to give their best possible interpretation according to guidelines and frameworks, the design team decided to formulate its own original interpretation, which excluded housing units from the picture. The reason lays in the fact that, given the nature of the neighborhood, the apartments would automatically configure as a luxury good targeted towards higher class renters; this is seen as a situation in conflict with the the will to implement public functions accessible to all the citizens, be it as a place of leisure or a place of work. As it is common for a traditional high-rise arrangement, the base represents the part of the tower that most belongs to the city, and a crucial point of its design was the definition of its accesses. The underground level hosts a bicycle storage that continues on level -2, where plant rooms, technical spaces, storages and a server room can also be found. The bicycle storage communicates with the existing parking lot under the eastern part of BAM, and it is directly connected with the metro station Gioia, Line 2. This junction, reachable by the streets and the cycling paths that surround the building from every side, represents a point of modal interchange between cars, buses, metro, bikes and pedestrians; it favours also the development of a soft mobility, giving the possibility to the users (especially office workers and other employees) to find adequate facilities where to park their bicycles or scooters. The main pedestrian accesses are located at three different levels, in an attempt to grant a continuous flow from the street level of via Pirelli and via Gioia, to the lower level of the naviglio promenade and to the slightly higher level of BAM park. The public space designed around the naviglio Martesana reopening represents a way of connecting the two sides of the park while preserving an historical urban axis; here BAM gently sinks and allows pedestrian and cycling paths to cross it. In front
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
Architectural Composition
of the facade where P39 building opens on the canal, a wooden deck and a group of wide theater-like steps contribute to create a space with a character of urban square, named “Darsena� for its proximity to the water element; a row of food and drink stores benefits from it, and every kiosk has the possibility to make use of the deck for placing extra tables when the weather is good. From here people can enter the bike parking, accessible also through a ramp located on the P35 building side. Through an escalator, the ground floor retail area can be reached; this small shopping center is accessible on the west from an elevated promenade that overlooks the naviglio and that, passing through the V-shaped columns of the cantilever, joins via Pirelli. Another entrance is located on the eastern corner of the building, in the shadow of the other extremity of the cantilever together with the access to the triple height lobby dedicated to the office floors; these entryways disclose themselves to the people that arrive from Centrale station through via Pirelli. The slope that joins the park to the building, crossed by paths and covered with bushes, allows to reach a two-storey fitness and wellness center. The second recognizable block, represented by the overhanging volume, hosts a three-levels exhibition space. It is one of the most important moments of the project, because its purpose is to catalyze the transformation of the new P39 building into a new cultural hub. In its interiors the main reinforced concrete structure is joined with the special steel trusses, and in more than one occasion each one marks a different functional area; this is the case of the first floor, where reception desk and tools for the consultation of online resources are delimited by V-shaped steel elements. The route followed by visitors is circular and, moving further in the first floor, an area dedicated to the vertical distribution can be found, while an archive, a locker room, an office and staff rooms are fitted around the central cores. The eastern part of the block coincides with an ample triple-height room hosting the main exhibition hall where the major works will be displayed, benefitting from a privileged point of view on BAM. Here, the four big trusses can be fully appreciated and, together with the space they define, they can be observed also from the upper floors through large glass windows. The second level is completely dedicated to
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Underground floor plan, out of scale
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Architectural Composition
Ground floor plan, out of scale
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the artwork showcase, and its space has a flexible open plan organization that can adapt to the needs of future exhibitions with the employment of movable partitions. The third level hosts a cafe and a shop, and it benefits from the presence of the first floor of the greenhouse; the northern portion of the plan is a hall with a large staircase that leads to the upper level, which is shared between the general public and the office employees. From here visitors can reach the vast green terrace located on top of the cantilevered volume; a playful composition of paths, vegetated areas and raised wooden platforms make it possible to consider it as a portion of park lifted up from street level. The other half of this floor belongs exclusively to the office complex, and it hosts a common canteen for all the employees, which is served by a smaller terrace overlooking via Pirelli. The stack of 16 office floors occupies most of the extent of the tower. Given that the shape of the tower changes repeatedly, two typical floor configurations were defined, where the first one is smaller, while the second one expands thanks to the presence of the volume overhanging above via Pirelli. During the design pro-
Exhibition space first level plan, out of scale
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
Architectural Composition
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cess it was important to arrange the functions according to the different needs that the users may have, and to allow a good level of flexibility; consequently, the working environment was subdivided into open space offices and enclosed offices. The tower volume facing south-west was the most logical placement for the open space use, because it is the portion of building that benefits the most from daylight exposition; using a system of Venetian blinds allocated in the cavity of the double-skin facade, the users are able to regulate the quantity of sunlight that can enter the room. If deemed necessary, this space can be subdivided into smaller enclosed units; especially in the current historical situation, and during any future pandemic, it becomes a decisive element for any company that has to comply with health regulations and carry on with its activities. The HVAC system design took into account this possibility, so every potential unit is equipped with the necessary terminals of air supply and return. As a design choice aimed at attaining a vague industrial feeling, the heating, ventilation and cooling system is left exposed on the ceiling throughout the whole floor, while pavements are realised in resin; the 80 x 80 cm grid defined by the waffle slab was used as a module to place ducts and partitions. Going south beyond the elevator landings, on one side there is a welcome
Main office floor type plans, out of scale
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
Architectural Composition
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area with a reception and a room for private meetings, the open space and, in the proposed small-type plan, a large meeting room; on the other side a common area is located, including a lunch corner with a kitchen and small storages; beyond the services block, in the northern side, the enclosed offices can be found, together with the direction and a video room; all these spaces need less sunlight, and for this reason they are located on the northern side of the floor. Instead, the greenhouse volume is placed south-west; it fulfils the function of a common area for the leisure time the employees may want to spend there during their breaks. It is organized through a stack of platforms coming in four different shapes that, while not directly connected, visually grant a feeling of community between the inhabitants of the various floors. Every platform and its vegetation are visible from the offices: the aim of bringing the green element inside the building is to create an environment that has a beneficial effect on mental and physical health and that assures high wellbeing standards. For what concerns the large-type plan, the enclosed working spaces increase and are arranged differently, due to the insertion of a new volume in the composition. The main change brought by this addition is the introduction of another branch to the distribution scheme of the office floor, the veranda; this space
26th and 28th level floor plans, out of scale
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
Architectural Composition
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is subdivided into two tracks: one is a corridor that grants access to the meeting room and other offices, the other is a raised wooden platform corresponding to the overhang on via Pirelli; in this second part, a slower circulation is encouraged, together with a more informal working environment where people can sit on pillows or at desks looking the panorama of Milan. Basins of vegetation bring once again a hint of green inside the building and contribute in establishing a relaxed atmosphere. A visual suggestion that helped define this spatial device is the traditional Japanese veranda, engawa, an interface between the external courtyard and the interior rooms: in this case the function is inverted, and the platform becomes an interface between the office spaces and Milan’s skyline. The last section of the building is the rooftop. This part is characterized by its dominance on the surroundings, and it allows the users to have a remarkable number of quality views of the park, the neighborhood and the city. Thus, it was natural to assign to it a public function and to make it accessible to the citizens. Above a technical floor, necessary to manage the HVAC and water management systems, that includes also a panoramic hall, there is a two-storey restaurant and a three-storey lounge bar; both can take advantage of a green terrace where to extend their service during the warmer season. The block of services and cooking facilities is moved east with respect to the continuous stack that covers most of the tower; thanks to this, the restaurant’s dining area is placed on the western side of the building, with a double height space overlooking BAM. A tall living wall supports the stairway that brings it to the upper level. The lounge bar is a charming location for traditional Milanese gatherings; it is developed following a circular path on three consecutive levels; it includes the same platforms used for the office verandas as a way to have a more interesting, greener interior, and to pinpoint the panoramic zone. On top of the bar there is a technical roof where several batteries of photovoltaic panels are installed. Both the rooftop terraces and the lower ones are framed by a curb composed by vases of shrubs and points of installation for the maintenance davits, that acts also as a safety barrier.
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
Architectural Composition
Facades Pirelli 39’s structural grid has an intercolumn of 8 meters that is scaled down to its submultiple of 80 centimeters thanks to the adoption of a waffle slab system. This distance between ribs was employed as a generative device that helped define the interior distribution and partitioning, as well as the rhythm of the facades. As a rule, and independent of its composition, every facade of the tower has a span of 1,6 meters, equivalent to three ribs and two ceiling domes. Moreover, the reinforced concrete columns are not perimetral, so that the floor slabs exceed their axis: this allowed to arrange every facade at the desired position. The building’s location and composition of volumes set it as an interface between two spheres of influence, the one of BAM park, and the one of the part of Milan north-east of it. The design team decided to differentiate the facade typology depending on the situation, as well as on the interior functions, but maintaining a coherent envelope for each volume. The side of the building facing via Pirelli had to be characterized with a more formal appearance, a sober look that would suit an office facility and that would not look coherent when compared with the character of the existing buildings of the past and of the present, like Gioia 20. For this reason, a clean fiber cement-cladded facade was designed, with slender openings and a light gray tone. Technically a curtain wall, it is composed by a steel substructure necessary to anchor the fibreC Formparts panels to the slabs and by an aluminium frame for the triple-glass panes. This envelope covers the whole square-plan tower volume, with a variation on the park side. Here the building had to adopt a disposition of openness towards its surroundings, and to be perceived as a symbolic extension of BAM. For this reason, on this side the fiber cement envelope was replaced with a living wall facade of the same proportions. It was important that this facade would cover the whole height of the building, to become a statement of will for the whole project; to do so, it employs the same substructure as the fiber cement one, with stronger elements to face the stronger wind action at the upper levels of the tower, and it employs plant species resistant to wind and cold. The vegetation does not need soil, but
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Fiber Cement cladded Facade exploded axonometry, out of scale
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
Architectural Composition
Double skin Facade exploded axonometry, out of scale
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it is potted in a substratum that receives water and the necessary nutrients from an irrigation system, it is contained in a cage and firmly attached to its backing; its maintenance, similarly to the other facades, is carried out from platforms lowered with portable cranes that are installed on the terraces when necessary. To allow the office spaces to gain a good amount of daylight from south, the greenhouse, the volume overhanging on via Pirelli and the elongated tower volume are surrounded by a glazed curtain wall facade. The latter volume is the most exposed one, so a double skin system was adopted as a way to create a ventilated buffer zone that could reduce the cooling and heating loads for the indoor spaces. Since open space offices are placed next to this type of facade, a shading system for the solar control was necessary. Venetian blinds are placed in the double skin cavity,
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Living wall layers 1. Rockwool insulation 2. Waterproof backing board 3. Rear drainage layer 4. Aluminium rails and dripline 5. Biotile growing medium 6. Panel box 7. Plant pods Living wall cladded Facade exploded axonometry, out of scale
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
Architectural Composition
1. Building in Via del Lauro | 2. Building in Via dei Cavalieri del Santo Sepolcro | 3. Spirit de Milan | 4. Courtyard in Via Tortona | 5. Villa Mozart | 6. Morgante Cocktail & Soul | 7. Centro dell’Incisione | 8. Building in Via degli Aldobrandini | 9. Building in Viale Majno | 10. Building in Via Ampere | 11. Shopping center ‘Fiordaliso’ | 12. Palazzo Trivulzio’s courtyard | 13. Building in Via de Castillia | 14. VIU hotel | 15. Buildings in Piazza Sant’Erasmo | 16. Klima hotel | 17. Palazzo Beltrade | 18. Crivelli 15 | 19. Quadronno 24 | 20. Bosco Verticale
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close to the inner glass, and they automatically move to protect from glare or to allow for passive heating depending on the season and time of the day. On the string courses there are shutters that can open to generate a stack ventilation inside the cavity, and that are equipped with photovoltaic panels that complement the ones on the rooftop. For what concerns the volume cantilevering above naviglio Martesana and the entryways on via Pirelli, two were the requirements that led the design of its facades. First, the interior space needed an envelope that would help control the admittance of daylight, potentially detrimental for the observation of the artworks in display; secondly, the imposing steel structure had to be perceived from the outside as a peculiar and distinguished element of the building. The design team chose a
Exhibition space main hall axonometry, out of scale
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
Architectural Composition
translucent glazed facade system, Pilkington Profilit, composed by a sequence of hollow glass channels.The system is made translucent on the side facades by the application of a protective film on the glass channels, while for the facade facing BAM a different version is employed, to grant a better view of the exterior; in this way the structure can be distinguished from the outside (even clearly at night, if the lights are on), and the interior can benefit from a diffused light supply without the inconvenience of glare.
Overhanging volumes axonometries, out of scale
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Controlling the process One of the most defining qualities of this thesis work is its comprehensiveness, an attribute that is perhaps essential in contemporary architecture projects. As a matter of fact, several elements play a role in the definition of an architecture’s quality, and nowadays designers are confronted with this complexity. This has a lot to do with the role of contemporary Architects: although the level of expertise that technicians and professionals concurring at the design of project of such a scale is arguably out of reach for them, it is paramount to possess a level of understanding as deep as possible of the several disciplines intervening in the design process, in order to be able to join the conversation and propose ones vision. Only under these circumstances the architect will be able to effectively conjugate all the necessary systems and technologies with its view and integrate them in it, rather than having to accept them passively as datum to be squared in its creative process.
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BIM Environment The development of the hereby presented project was carried out from the beginning in a BIM Environment with the software Autodesk Revit. As a base for the modelling, dwg format plans drawn in AutoCAD were linked to the Architecture model. Softwares such as SketchUp and Rhinoceros were used to model the buildings of the neighbourhood, based on CADMapper data. The model was built in a shared environment, using Dropbox as a cloud that hosted a central Revit file. Each user worked on their own local models, periodically synchronizing them with the central one. To ease the process, more models for different areas/disciplines (architecture, topography, services etc) were linked together. Each model had a series of worksets used to segregate different elements of the model and manage them in an easier way. The model was then exported (often in a simplified version) and imported into secondary softwares, or directly loaded through a series of plug-ins. These softwares
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
A comprehensive project
were essential to perform a series of analysis of the building’s efficiency. The FEM software Midas was used for a structural analysis of the most complex parts of the project. Autodesk Insight and Velux Daylight visualizer were useful to run solar radiation and lighting analysis and for optioneering (f.i. effectiveness of shading devices). Enscape was also used to render views set up in Revit. Green Building Studio allowed to evaluate the energetic and economic impact of the project, and to understand which could be viable options to approximate the n-ZEB goal. Following the analysis results, necessary corrections were applied to the model, from which dwg and pdf files could be exported and post-produced using Adobe applications. The use of a BIM environment has made the designing process faster and more flexible, allowing teammates to work together remotely, and summarize a large amount of information.
Site Analysis Before the actual designing phase, there has been preliminary analysis of the context where the project was going to be developed. It was important that site characteristics would not have a negative impact on the building and, if possible, that they could represent a resource for enhancing and optimizing some of its aspects. Analysis were present in the project development at every stage, as a preliminary step but also as a tool of verification and update. Taking into consideration the site analysis, various design strategies were defined. It is important to keep in mind that Milan belongs to what is called a ‘temperate climate’: this definition is quite loose, since it includes geographical areas with different characteristics. The climate data analysis and the optioneering led to the envelope choices that
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r.c. core
r.c. slab and columns
steel overhangs
Exploded axonometry of structural elements, out of scale
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
A comprehensive project
have been previously described. Horizontal surfaces are part of two different strategies that both aim at energy optimization. Some of them are used as terraces for the users of the building, and are mostly covered with green roofs: this is important to reduce the heat island effect that affects most cities and that puts unnecessary stress on the building. On the other hand, the rooftop is covered by photovoltaic panels to exploit a source of renewable energy; some portions of the vertical surfaces facing south are covered by panels too.
Structural Design Overview From the structural point of view, the design is conceived as a reinforced concrete framework following a 8x8 meter grid; the dimension of the grid was limited due to the fact that to meet the surface requirements, it was necessary for the building to be considerably tall, resulting in a significant load on vertical structures; the building is composed by continuous slabs as horizontal elements, and by square section reinforced concrete columns as vertical elements. Service cores of the same material, dedicated to the vertical distribution, toilets and shafts for plants, are grouped in one strip that occupies the square tower volume’s center. For the horizontal structures, a waffle slab solution was chosen, in order to allow floor slab to overhang slightly from the vertical structure, and free facades from columns; furthermore, a waffle slab grants the freedom to overhang slightly differently when needed, in order to accomodate facades of different volumes that have to be located on different flushes. Base and rooftop of the building host public functions, so the floor loads are bigger than the ones characterising the office floors. This, in addition to the reduction of stresses that affects upper parts of the structure, allows to gradually decrease the column section moving to the upper floors. A number of special situations alter the structural regularity. The elongated volume, three-storeys high, overhangs from the
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main structure for 24 meters on one side and for 8 meters on the opposite one. At the sides of the volume, the reinforced concrete frame stops and leaves room for a steel structure based on three storey high trusses.
HVAC system The HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) system of a building is extremely important in contemporary high rise buildings, and needs to be designed carefully, being tightly linked with the quality and temperature of the indoor air. For the P39 project, a mixed air+water system (primary air) was chosen. Since the
Exploded axonometry of the Office floor type with HVAC layout, out of scale
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
A comprehensive project
skyscraper is relatively large and has different functions, a subdivision in four areas was done. Each one of these blocks was assigned one AHU (Air Handling Unit) installed in two technical rooms at level -2 and level 23, with the function of air supply and treatment: first, through a series of filters, it purifies external air and part of the exhaust indoor air from pollutants (such as various emissions, particulate matter, pollen, fungi etc) and odours (typical city smells, human odours, cooking smell, furniture emissions etc); then it controls the humidity of the air. It only partially regulates air temperature through coils. The AHUs distribute treated air in the building with a primary system of ducts that pass through the whole skyscraper from top to bottom in designated shafts; then, with a secondary system of ducts that branch out in every floor, air is supplied to every room. Exhaust indoor air is extracted and partially re-treated, partially expelled outside. Since the chosen HVAC system is the mixed one, the air outlets are chilled beams. In these devices air is heated or conditioned through a hot and cold water system, and then it is distributed. The advantages of this system lay in its better control of air temperature, since it is directly handled in the ambient units, and in the claimed minor use of energy in relation to its better chilling power. Another advantage is in the low sound levels given by the absence of fans. Some disadvantages are the installation costs and risk of water leaks. For the P39, active beams were chosen over passive ones, because they work with an integral air supply. This primary air passes through nozzles, which induce indoor air from the room up through the cooling coil. This induction process allows an active chilled beam to provide much more cooling capacity than a passive chilled beam.
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Areas and Shafts As previously stated, the building has been subdivided into four areas, characterized by different functions. Area 1 is the public rooftop, hosting a restaurant and a lounge bar; area 2, the biggest one, contains the office floors; area 3 is the exhibition space and area 4 is the ground block, hosting a gym, a retail area and a bike parking. Atop of area 2 there will be a technical floor (Level 23) that will host the AHUs for area 1 and area 2. In the bottom of the building, floor -2, will be a technical floor with the AHUs for area 3 and area 4, the heat pump and the connection with the geothermal system. The shafts where the vertical primary system of ducts will be located are arranged on the corner of the two vertical distribution cores (x2) and in the middle of the service block (x8). In total, the shafts dedicated to air supply are 8 (2 in the cores and 4 in the service block). On each floor, the secondary system of ducts will branch out from the shafts, for air supply and air return; it will be linked with the chilled beam terminals.
Energy The project team aimed to achieve the nZeb standard with several strategies, including the exploitation of renewable energy sources and the optimization of the building’s envelope. This task was eased by the BIM environment tools that helped to collect data and analyze several options of orientation and building technologies. The energy consumption reduction was perhaps the most impactful aspect to be taken care of, and was pursued studying in detail the performances of the envelope. More specifically, a significant part of the worse exposed facades was designed reducing the glazed surface percentage to 50% with a lightframe technology that allowed to super insulate the opaque part of said facade, while a triple glazed low-e curtain system was chosen for the glazed parts. For south exposed facades a dou-
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
A comprehensive project
ble skin full height crawl space technology was adopted instead.This technology allows to take advantage of the convective movement generated in the crawl space by the excessive heat, while also providing protection from the strong winds for the venetian blinds installed in the cavity. Besides the optimization of heating and cooling systems, more strategies were adopted to face the excessive internal heat gains produced by occupants and machinery during the summer; aside from the double skin facade, the greenhouse was designed to work as a vertical chimneys, allowing stack ventilation and natural cooling thanks to the vapour released by the greenery hosted in it. To support the energy needs for the thermal control of the building, a geothermal energy and photovoltaic panels systems were implemented. The geothermal system is a closed loop type of system, composed of a loop of pipes planted underground. In the loop, a water/antifreeze mixture circulates between the underground and the building, to take advantage of the temperature difference to exchange heat during both winter and summer working conditions. The geothermal system pipes will be connected to a heat pump that will heat sanitary water and the water used for the chilled beams; the latter will be partially or completely composed by collected rainwater and naviglio water, treated as needed. The photovoltaic system has been broken down in two different systems, one hosted on the rooftop and another integrated with the glazed facades. Installed on the rooftop there are several arrays of photovoltaic panels. Their placement was determined on the basis of a solar radiation analysis carried out with the software Insight, which allowed to exclude all the areas where the hours of shade are prevalent. The optimal degree of inclination was defined after a query of the Climate Consultant resource, while the inter-panel distance was deduced through a simple formula. A different type of panel will be installed on the string course shutters, in a vertical position; its efficiency is lower than the rooftop one, but the output is regained thanks to its thick distribution on the facade. Finally, an innovative glass fabricated with solar cells will be used as the outer portion of the double skin system, for an additional gain.
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Water Management A solid asset that the project exploits for water supply is rainwater; in fact, with an average of 1013mm of rainfall per year in the city of Milan (climate-data.org), the adoption of a rainwater management system could be really beneficial in a site like P39; first of all, Rainwater harvesting provides an independent water supply during regional water restrictions, and in developed countries, is often used to supplement the main supply. It provides water when a drought occurs, can help mitigate flooding of low-
Rainwater Green roof
Gutter
Filter train
Conveyance
Floating pump intake
Stainless steel mesh filter Ozone Carbon Fiberglass Mesh filter generator filter filter
Chlorination
Cistern First-flush
Cistern Air admittance valve
Cold water distribution
Hot water distribution Drainage system
Living wall
Filter
Stack
Branch discharge pipe
Naviglio
Greenhouse
Drain
Sewers
Cold water tank
Hot water tank
Heat pump
Aqueduct
Water Management scheme
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
A comprehensive project
lying areas, and reduces demand on wells which may enable groundwater levels to be sustained. It also helps in the availability of potable water, as rainwater is substantially free of salinity and other salts. Application of rainwater harvesting in urban water systems provides a substantial benefit for both water supply and wastewater subsystems by reducing the need for clean water in water distribution systems, less generated stormwater in sewer systems, and a reduction in stormwater runoff polluting freshwater bodies. This study shows that it would be possible to harvest 4144 m3 of rainwater on average with the proposed system. Although the harvested rainfall expectation is very large, it is wise not to rely entirely on it for hot and cold water supply because of the unpredictability of the rainfall and of the high demand of water needed for green roofs and living walls which are featured in the building. Therefore, separated tanks should be dimensioned and installed as a backup. The rainwater collected by this system is paramount for the daily irrigation of the living wall, which is irrigated by a computerized capillary drip system, and the rest of the greenery located on the terraces and inside the building.
Safety Fire-resistant staircases are mandatory for public buildings and are regulated by DM 03/08/2015. The building is served by two central R.C. cores that host a set of 6 elevators for the offices and 2 elevators for the public spaces, a goods lift and two shafts, alongside two safety staircases. A third core dedicated to the lower levels is located in the southern part of the building, connecting level -2 and -1, provided with three elevators and a safety staircase. Vertical escape routes are designed as anti-smoke staircases, with continuous fireproof walls and REI doors not obstructing the passage. They are signaled and
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Nature-blended Architecture
accessible through safe filter compartments that are provided with anti-smoke chimneys allowing the expulsion of gas from above. The regulation requests that, if a building is more than 54 m tall, at least one of the staircases must reach the roof. In the P39 case, one of them goes up to the rooftop and makes it accessible for maintenance purposes; the other one reaches the terrace to guarantee an opening for the chimney. The horizontal escape routes for the main staircases are two corridors located at the same position on floor -1 and 0, directly connecting the vertical route with the exterior on naviglio side, and one corridor at floor 1, directly connecting the stairs with the park.
Maintenance In contemporary high rise buildings, facade access for maintenance and cleaning is a topic that has to be addressed, since due to the technology of modern days curtain walls, usually it is not possible to reach exterior surfaces from the inside of the building. Among the most common solutions adopted these days, simple portable davits appear to be the most suitable for the presented project. A davit is originally a special safety device designed especially for ships. It is most often used for supporting and lowering lifeboats and other small vessels from big ships. In facade access, the idea is the same: the davit is used for supporting, raising, and lowering BMU-cradles or modular suspended platforms (MSP’s) A davit looks like a simple and small crane or gallows. In order to move whatever is hanging from the davit, a hoist is needed in the hanging part (e.g. BMU-cradle). A davit system consists of two main parts: the portable davit arm and the base plate or pedestal. The davit arm consists of the visual part of the davit and the base is basically a metal plate mounted to the roof in which the davit arm is attached to. When the davits are used for facade access, one or two davits are used. One davit
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
A comprehensive project
is enough if there is a small 1-hoist BMU-cradle hanging from it. However, if there is a larger 2-hoist BMU-cradle or a modular suspended platform, a davit is needed for each end of the platform. Davits are usually one of the cheapest alternatives for facade access. This means it is usually suitable for the simple buildings. The davit system is not visually impactful as the cranes are movable and thus can be stored away when not in use. The davits usually have wheels to make them easy to move. Erecting and lowering the davit is also made as simple as possible for quick and efficient access. Often the davits are used together with a long modular suspended platform, making it possible to access even 40 feet (12 meters) wide parts of a facade in one go before the davits are moved to a new location. The long platform makes the davits an efficient option for simple, straight facades. High buildings with a small perimeter are often well suited for davits. When the work is done, the platform is stored at ground level or lifted to the roof, where it can be stored together with the davits.
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Nature-blended Architecture
Certifications The development plan that Coima has outlined for the Porta Nuova Gioia area has the goal of establishing one of the most sustainable and liveable neighborhoods in Milan. To do so, as previously stated, participants were asked to design their proposal in order to meet the standards of a list of certifications. The design team studied the content of LEED and WELL certification requests, and compiled a table where for each field that is important for the project, the respective categories in the two formats are listed. Then, each one was associated with a strategy that is implemented in the design; in this way the research themes and strengths of the project became even clearer and backed up by professional guidelines. All these strategies have the same final goal of a sustainable system that encompasses also the well-being of the single person and of nature.
Politecnico di Milano | MSc in Building Architecture | A.Y. 2019/2020
A comprehensive project
A. Castellan, P. Dolceamore
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Bibliography History Andreola I. Biraghi M. Lo Ricco G. (2015), Milan architectural guide 1945-2015, Hoepli, Milan; Berizzi C. (2015), Milan: buidings and projects since 1919, DOM, Berlin; Brenna S (2010), La Strada Lombarda: Progetti per una Milano città madre della propria cultura insediativa, Gangemi Editore, Milan; Cao E. Piva A. (2009), Vittoriano Viganò. A come Asimmetria, Gangemi Editore, Rome; Coppa A. Tenconi L. (2015), Grattanuvole. Un secolo di grattacieli a Milano, Maggioli Editore, Milan; De Seta C (1996), Milano 2000: una tela da ricucire, in La Città europea dal XV al XX secolo, Rizzoli, Milan; Degli Esposti L. (2018), Milano Capitale del Moderno, ActarD Inc., Milan; De Finetti G. (2002), Milano Costruzione di una città, HOEPLI, Milan; Morandi C. (2007), Milan. The Great Transformation, Marsilio, Milan;
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Nicolin P. (2005), Conflitti. Architettura contemporanea in Italia, Skira, Milan; Secchi B, Il concorso per l’area Garibaldi-Repubblica a Milano, in Casabella 590; aim.milano.it/concorso-garibaldi-repubblica; archphoto.it: - Manzione L. (2015), Trent’anni di solitudine: l’architettura in Italia dal 1985 al 2015; archphoto.it/archives/2169: blog.urbanfile.org/: -Arsuffi R. (2019), Milano | Scalo Farini – Prime modifiche al masterplan https://blog.urbanfile.org/2019/07/23/milano-scalo-farini-prime-modifiche-al-masterplan/ -Montella M. (2014), Milano Porta Nuova – La storia di un area e le sue trasformazioni – Capitolo 1: Porta Nuova e le origini https://blog.urbanfile.org/2014/07/09/zona-porta-nuova-la-storia-di-un-area-e-le-sue-trasformazioni-capitolo-1-porta-nuova-e-le-origini/ journals.openedition.org: -Franco Purini (2016), Dal Postmodernismo al Nuovo Realismo. Note sull’architettura italiana negli ultimi trent’anni, in Rivista di estetica [online], 61; http://journals.openedition.org/estetica/1103 ordinearchitetti.mi.it: Cimino P. A. (2010), From the idea of the city to the built city: the Garibaldi-Repubblica area; en/mappe/itinerario/49-from-the-idea-of-the-city-to-the-built-city-the-garibaldi-repubblica-area/saggio; studionicolin.com/exhibit/progetto-per-larea-garibaldi-repubblica/
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Urban Planning Boatti A. Prusicki M. (2018), I nuovi navigli milanesi, Maggioli Editore, Milan; Crang, M. (2001). Rhythms of the City: Temporalised space and motion. In J. May & N. Thrift (Eds.), Timespace : geographies of temporality (pp. 187-207). London: Routledge. Cullen G. (1961), Townscape, New York, Reinhold Pub. Corp.; Leonardi N. Interview to Boschetti A. Francini A.: Milano città densa, in The Plan 047 Lynch K. (1960), The image of the City, The MIT Press, Boston; Olive F. (2002), L’urbanistica di Milano, HOEPLI, Milan;
geoportale.comune.milano.it insideoutside.nl/Biblioteca-degli-Alberi-Milan research.systematica.net/: Bazzoni F. Boni G. Choubassi R. Presicce D. (2020), Access to green areas and public realm: the case of Milan; research.systematica.net/research/access-to-green-areas-and-public-realm-the-case-of-milan/ riaprireinavigli.it/naviglio-martesana-foto-storiche-g-5.html#prettyPhoto progettonavigli.comune.milano.it/progetto/il-progetto-di-riapertura/
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Architectural Design Avermaete, T., Havik, K., Teerds, H., & Woltjes, C. (2009). Architectural Positions: Architecture, Modernity and the Public Sphere. Amsterdam: SUN Publishers. Aubertin P. Cote D. Dambrin M. Bisceglia S.(2009), L’invention de la Tour Européenne: Exposition et ouvrages créés par le Pavillon de l’Arsenal, Paris, 2009; Böhme, G. (2017). Athmospheric Architetures: The Aesthetics of Felt Spaces. London: Bloomsbury Academic. Gans, H. (1968). People and Plans. New York: Basic Books. Goldberger P. (1985), “Facadism” on the Rise: Preservation or Illusion? The New York Times, July 15. Koolhaas R (2014). Elements of Architecture, la Biennale di Venezia, Venice; Koolhaas, R. (2002). Junkspace. October, 100(1), pp. 175-190. Koolhaas R. (1978), Delirious New York, Electa, Milan 2001; Lotus International Magazine, monographic numbers: Milano Boom (n.131,2007), Meteo Milano (N. 161,2016). Lynn S. Beedle (1988), Second Century of the Skyscraper: Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York; Moneo, R. (2018). FREESPACE [Venice Biennale exhibition]. Arsenale, 2018. Nordenson G. (2003), Tall Building as Metaphor in Tall Buildings, The Museum of Modern Art, New York;
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gizmoweb.org: Biraghi M. (2010), Green is the colour; http://www.gizmoweb.org/2010/02/green-is-the-colour/ Quinzii C. Terna D. (2010), Milano a pezzi: una circolare in città; http://www.gizmoweb.org/2010/06/milano-a-pezzi-una-circolare-in-citta-by-quinzii-terna/ Biraghi M. (2011), Il brutto dell’architettura; http://www.gizmoweb.org/2011/10/il-brutto-dellarchitettura/ Biraghi M. (2013), Guida all’architettura di Milano 1954-2014; http://www.gizmoweb.org/2013/10/guida-allarchitettura-di-milano-1954-2014/ Biraghi M. (2014), Il grande gioco dei grattacieli; http://www.gizmoweb.org/2014/11/il-grande-gioco-dei-grattacieli/ Ornaghi N. Zorzi F. (2015), Nuovi Clienti; http://www.gizmoweb.org/2015/10/nuovi-clienti/ Biraghi M. (2015), Campo in città; http://www.gizmoweb.org/2015/03/campo-in-citta/ Biraghi M. (2017), La sparizione dell’architettura; http://www.gizmoweb.org/2017/07/la-sparizione-dellarchitettura/ archdaily.com: - Niczki T. (2020), How to Build Sustainable, Healthy, and Profitable Office Buildings in 10 Simple Steps https://www.archdaily.com/935230/how-to-build-sustainable-healthy-and-profitable-office-buildingsin-10-simple-steps? - Souza E. (2019), How Can We Reduce Carbon Emissions in Architectural Projects? https://www.archdaily.com/919040/how-can-we-reduce-carbon-emissions-in-architectural-projects - Stouhi D. (2020), Out of Office: How Workplaces Evolved form cubicles to Coffee Shops; https://www.archdaily.com/935691/out-of-office-how-workplaces-evolved-from-cubicles-to-coffee-shops?
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Technology Abu-Tair A. FĹrat S. Kinuthia J. (2018) Proceedings of 3rd International Sustainable Buildings Symposium, Springer, Cham, Switzerland; Cayetano C. (2018), Green Architecture Today, Loft Media Publishing, Madrid; Golasz-Szolomicka H. Szolomicki J. ( 2019), Technological Advances and Trends in Modern High-Rise Buildings, Faculty of Architecture, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Wroclaw, Poland; Jodidio P. (2018), Green architecture, Taschen, Cologne; Le Noci C. Sangiorgio S. Rubini L. (2016), Il nuovo edificio green. Soluzioni per il benessere abitativo e l’efficienza energetica, HOEPLI, Milan; Bidoglio G. Vanham D. (2014), The water footprint of Milan, in Water Science Technology VOLUME 69, February 2014; Parker D. Wood A. (2013), The Tall Buildings Reference Book, Routledge,New York NY; Sayigh A. (2017), Sustainable High Rise Buildings in Urban Zones. Advantages, Challenges, and Global Case Studie, Springer, Cham, Switzerland; Schodek D. L. (2013), Structures, Pearson College Division, Cambridge, Massachusetts;
urban analysis 1
site
metro
tramways
bus lines
pirellino tower
0
200
main axis
100
p35 building
500
bam park
1000
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
Biblioteca degli Alberi di Milano park is encircled by a ring of high-rise buildings that include Torre Unicredit, Torre Unipol, the Solaria group, Gioia 20 and 22, Palazzo Lombardia, Bosco Verticale and Torri Garibaldi. These towers, together with P35 and Rasoio buildings, represent a backdrop for the park.
buildings of bam
high-rise buildings
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
public transport
hydrographic network
Porta Nuova-Gioia area is well connected with the rest of the city, especially through Gioia metro station and the bus lines that cross the park. It is also very close to Garibaldi train station and to the tramway network.
green areas
green corridor
railway network
When the Porta Nuova district will be completed, it will create an urban regeneration corridor composed of parks and recent cultural developments including the new Scalo Farini, Bovisa and MIND. This corridor, through Milan’s Centrale station, will connect the city with the rest of Italy and Europe.
plan | scale 1:10000
site transformation and mobility 2
main roads
bycicle lanes
naviglio reopening
phase 2
main roads, mobility deviation
bycicle lanes
naviglio
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
In the second phase via Gioia will be completely closed, and the park will gently lower to naviglio Martesana’s level through a series of vegetated steps. This area will become completely non-motorised and the two halves of BAM will be finally mended. Via Gioia’s traffic will be deviated to nearby streets. The Darsena, a vibrant public space, will represent an interesting variation within the park and it will interact with the lower levels of the P39 tower.
designed building
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
phase 1
designed building
Preliminary studies of the naviglio uncovering project drafted in 2008-2010 have shown that the reopening of the “inner trench” is feasible and suitable for the environmental requalification of the city. In the first phase, via Gioia will be reduced to two lanes, for a smoother transition. The reopening of the canals will spur the creation of pedestrian and green areas that will enhance the existing urban fabric with non-motorised mobility areas.
bycicle lanes
current configuration
main roads
Via Gioia is currently a very congested street with multiple lanes that parts BAM park in two distinct areas. It is a source of air and noise pollution and it represents a difficult barrier for pedestrian to cross. Since this urban axis was originally defined by the presence of naviglio Martesana, the design team proposed to carry out its uncovering together with a gradual suppression of via Gioia’s traffic, independently froom the new P39 building construction.
existing building
axonometry | scale 1:1000
se-nw skyline | scale 1:500
building and city 3
view from piazza Alvar Aalto
view from via Gioia north
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
view from via Pirelli
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
overhanging volume 2 A suspended volume facing Centrale station and formed by a stack of verandas, it acts as a lantern that projects the green of BAM on the skyline of Milan.
overhanging volume 1 A volume detached from the ground and grafted to the two tall bodies, it belongs exclusively to BAM as a greenhouse where the park crawls inside the building.
cantilevered volume A big cantilevered volume echoes the old Pirellino’s bridge nature, but less obtrusively. It reinforces the park backdrop and it boosts the directionality of via Pirelli.
elongated tower
50
A second tower body, lower than the first one and with an elongated rectangular plan, is slided in respect to the first one. It points at the center of Milan.
25
sloped base
10
A sloped platform acts as a base on BAM side, gradually mending the difference of levels and offering the park a medium to cling to the building
5
main tower
0
The project is the result of an assembly of volumes on a central core, that is the square-plan main tower. Each form engages differently with the surroundings
masterplan | scale 1:500
manifesto 4
nature-blended politecnico di milano architecture: | msc in P39 building competition architecture proposal | a.y.for 2019/2020 a new high-rise | architectural in milan design skyline studio | politecnico for complex di milano construction | msc in building 2 | prof. f. architecture battisti | prof. | a.y.g.2019/2020 angjeliu | |prof. prof.g.f.dotelli battisti| |prof. prof.f.g.romano angjeliu| prof. | prof.l.g. c. dotelli tagliabue | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
skydome h400
skydome h350
skydome h300
skydome h250
skydome h200
product
0,113
0,151
0,169
0,185
0,205
820
860
900
160
200
0,222
0,185
820
860
900
120
120
0,153
160
900
200
0,139
0,123
0,125
200
820
860
860
900
120
160
160
200
0,099
820
120
0,910
0,100
860
900
160
200
0,800
820
120
Concrete volume (m3/m2)
Rib interax I (mm)
Rib width T (mm)
0,272
0,255
0,235
0,235
0,219
0,201
0,203
0,189
0,173
0,175
0,163
0,149
0,150
0,141
0,130
Slab thickness H1 = 50 mm
0,322
0,305
0,285
0,285
0,269
0,231
0,253
0,239
0,223
0,225
0,213
0,199
0,200
0,191
0,180
Slab thickness H1 = 100 mm
0,372
0,355
0,335
0,335
0,319
0,301
0,303
0,289
0,273
0,275
0,263
0,249
0,250
0,241
0,230
Slab thickness H1 = 150 mm
Slab concrete volume (m3/m2)
reinforced concrete core
To pre-dimension a slab made using SKYDOME, from the table it is possible to find the slab thickness in function of span between supports and loads acting on the slab. The table on the side allows to calculate concrete consumption and consequently the slab weight, in function of chosen dome height and rib width. For a 300+50 mm slab (300 mm of dome + 50 mm of upper slab) with a 160 mm rib, concrete consumption will be of 0.189 m³/m² for a 472.50 kg/m² weight. Following the variable and permanent load calculations that can be found in the next pages, three products were chosen, for three different slabs with different functions: H300 with T = 120 mm and H1 = 50 mm (c.v. = 0.173 m³/m²); H400 with T = 120 mm and H1 = 50 mm (c.v. = 0.235 m³/m²); H400 with T = 120 mm and H1 = 100 mm (c.v. = 0.285 m³/m²).
waffle slab load
structural conception
r.c. slabs and columns
‘type b’ office floor structural plan
steel overhangs
From the structural point of view, the design is conceived as a reinforced concrete framework following a 8x8 meter grid; the dimension of the grid was limited due to the fact that to meet the surface requirements, it was necessary for the building to be considerably tall, resulting in a significant load on vertical structures; the building is composed by continuous slabs as horizontal elements, and by square section reinforced concrete columns as vertical elements. Service cores of the same material, dedicated to the vertical distribution, toilets and shafts for plants, are grouped in one strip that occupies the square tower volume’s center. For the horizontal structures, a waffle slab solution was chosen, in order to allow floor slab to overhang slightly from the vertical structure, and free facades from columns; furthermore, a waffle slab grants the freedom to overhang slightly differently when needed, in order to accomodate facades of different volumes that have to be located on different flushes. Base and rooftop of the building host public functions, so the floor loads are bigger than the ones characterising the office floors. This, in addition to the reduction of stresses that affects upper parts of the structure, allows to gradually decrease the column section moving to the upper floors.
structural conception
5
0,100
0,400
10
0,100
5
0,035
0,300
900
Herbs, Flowers, ivies ( h < perennials 0,6 m)
15
0,400
0,100
0,035
Shrubs
Trees
60
0,600
0,150
0,035
200
1,000
0,300
-
Big trees
Next to the conventional part of the project, structurally conceived as a reinforced concrete frame with columns, central cores and waffle slabs, a set of three other volumes, all of them overhanging from the main body, represent the most expressive moments of the composition; to assert their difference from the rest of the building, and to face their cantilevered nature, their structure was designed using steel, each time studying the most suitable solution. The elongated volume, three-storeys high, overhangs
special parts
Considering â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;shrubâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; as the planned plant typology, minimum thickness is 0,4 m for the soil and 0,036 m for the drainage. Mass is 15 kg/m2.
In the next table there are the approximate loads to be expected for the structural strength calculation, again depending on the type of vegetation.
Substratum thickness is chosen in function of the planned vegetation typology and the excess load on the roof to be considered for the structural strength can be calcuulated considering a soil mass by volume of 2100 kg/mÂł. The table on the side lists the minimum thickness of soil and drainage layer (polystyrene or granulated) in function of the plant category.
The planned layers are: 1. varnish 2. waterproof layer I - loose install. 3. waterproof layer II - fully welded 4. drainage plate - freestanding 5. nonwoven root filter 6. soil
The project has a series of terraces that are organized as a composition of paths and actual green roof. To simplify the load calculation, they will be considered entirely covered with the green roof stratigraphy. Also, for what concerns the drainage layer, its load will comprise the value of 2 kg/m2 of water accumulated during heavy rain days, as declared by the producer.
green roof load
from the main structure for 24 meters on one side and for 8 meters on the opposite one. At the sides of the volume, the reinforced concrete frame stops and leaves room for a steel structure based on three storey high trusses. The other volumes are the greenhouse and the verandas, both supported by steel beams and ties.
floor with cantilever structural plan
â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;type aâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; office floor structural plan
Pirelli 39â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s structural grid has an intercolumn of 8 meters that is scaled down to its submultiple of 80 centimeters thanks to the adoption of a waffle slab system. This distance between ribs was employed as a generative device that helped define the interior distribution and partitioning, as well as the rhythm of the facades. As a rule, and independent of its composition, every facade of the tower has a span of 1,6 meters, equivalent to three ribs and two ceiling domes. Moreover, the reinforced concrete columns are not perimetral, so that the floor slabs exceed their axis: this allowed to arrange every facade at the desired position.
structure and facades
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
drainage with polystyrene panels (min. thickness, m) drainage with granulated layer ( i.e. Leca, min. thickness, m) soil (min. thickness, m) mass on area (kg/m2)
Plants
plant typology in relation to soil thickness
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
explosed axonometry of the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s structure
volumes and surfaces 6
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
underground level 7
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
underground level plan | scale 1:200
0 1
2
5
20
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
10
grounding 8
view of bam from p39
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
view of p39 from bam
section ne-sw | scale 1:200
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
park level 9
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
level 1 plan | scale 1:200
0 1
2
5
20
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
10
spatial sequence 10
view of darsena from naviglio level
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
view of darsena from street level
section se-nw | scale 1:200
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
20
5
1
exhibition space - second level
The second level is completely dedicated to the artwork showcase, and its space has a flexible open plan organization that can adapt to the needs of future exhibitions with the employment of movable partitions.
2
5
10
0 1
2
5
10
level 4 plan | scale 1:200
0 1
20
1
1
1. Exhibition spaces 2. Toilet
legend
2
2
legend
6
10
1. Landing 2. Welcome counter 3. Study area 4. Library 5. Locker room 6. Office 7. Staff room 8. Staff toilet 9. Main exhibition room 10. Storage 11. Toilet
level 3 plan | scale 1:200
11 8 7
10
exhibition space - first level
9
11
10
The overhanging volume hosts an exhibition space with the purpose of generating a new cultural hub. Here, the reinforced concrete structure is joined with the special steel trusses, marking different functional areas as in the first floor, where reception and library are delimited by V-shaped steel elements. An ample triple-height room acts as main exhibition hall with a privileged view on BAM.
exhibition space
4
2
3
1
11
2
5
10 20
view of main exhibition room
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
reception hall
0 1
level 5 plan | scale 1:200
1
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
legend 1. Shop 2. Coffee shop 3. Kitchen 4. Staff room 5. Staff Toilet 6. Greenhouse 7. Toilet
6
2
exhibition space - third level
3
The third level hosts a cafe and a shop, and it benefits from the presence of the first floor of the greenhouse; the northern portion of the plan is a hall with a large staircase that leads to the upper level, which is shared between the general public and the office employees.
5 4
7
7
For what concerns the volume cantilevering above naviglio Martesana and the entryways on via Pirelli, two were the requirements that led the design of its facades. First, the interior space needed an envelope that would help control the admittance of daylight, potentially detrimental for the observation of the artworks in display; secondly, the imposing steel structure had to be perceived from the outside as a peculiar and distinguished element of the building. The design team chose a translucent glazed facade system, Pilkington Profilit, composed by a sequence of hollow glass channels.The system is made translucent on the side facades by the application of a protective film on the glass channels, while for the facade facing BAM a different version is employed, to grant a better view of the exterior; in this way the structure can be distinguished from the outside (even clearly at night, if the lights are on), and the interior can benefit from a diffused light supply without the inconvenience of glare.
translucent facade
steel overhang and translucent facade
0,49
70%
0,63
42
G 70 F 60
light transmission
solar heat gain coeff. (SHGC, NFRC 200)
coeff (STC, E90)
condensation resistance factor (CRF, AAMA 1503)
Uninsulated
0,21
G 79 F 60
44
0,42
50%
LUMIRA AEROGEL Panel 16 mm (clear)
Pilkington Profilit data
U value (glass only)
K 25/60 Series Profilit
0,19
G 79 F 60
44
0,31
38%
LUMIRA AEROGEL Panel 25 mm (clear)
To understand the entity of the displacement expected for this structure, the software Midas was used. One of the interior trusses was chosen and modeled with the relative punctual loads on the upper and lower nodes. After choosing S355 as steel type, to the secondary beams connecting the trusses a IPE360 profile was assigned, verifing that it wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t determine a change in the results. For the truss elements, four different beam sections were tested (HEA600, HEB600, HEA800, HEM800, HEM1000). The results show that the maximum displacement is of 9,7 centimeters in the terminal part of the overhang when using HEB600.
The horizontal volume located between fourth and sixth level is overhanging remarkably; this part of the structure was solved using steel trusses; the proposed solution consists of four trusses that follow the structural grid; they are placed next to the concrete structure and are joined to the r.c. columns; on the west side, there are four trusses spanning 24 meters, on the east side four, spanning 8 meters. These trusses are three storeys high, going from the first floor of the volume and to its ceiling. Floor slabs of Type D and E in the bottom and on top of these trusses, creating a sort of metal box. Because of its dimensions, only the The last set of columns supporting the volume lays outside of the building, so shape and sections of these four columns can be chosen more freely and help to support the load of the overhang; the solution chosen was to use an element made with two slanted columns, arranged as big Vs reproducing the geometry of the truss; this solution would decrease the effective overhang of to 20 meters instead of 32 (without any support).
steel truss
r.c. column-steel truss interface
4
4
4
4
4
4
1.16255 x 10-2 m 5.81275 x 10-3 m 0.00000 x 100 m
1.74382 x 10-2 m
2.90637 x 10-2 m 2.32510 x 10-2 m
3.48765 x 10-2 m
4.06892 x 10-2 m
4.65020 x 10-2 m
5.23147 x 10-2 m
5.81275 x 10-2 m
6.39402 x 10-2 m
Post-Processor DISPLACEMENT RESULTANT
midas Gen
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
4
Load: 17,6 kN/m2 A: 64 m2 x 17,6 kN/m2 = 1126 kN B: 32 m2 x 17,6 kN/m2 = 563 kN
4
Load: 25,6 kN/m2 A: 64 m2 x 25,6 kN/m2 = 1640 kN B: 32 m2 x 25,6 kN/m2 = 820 kN C: 16 m2 x 25,6 kN/m2 = 410 kN
4
Lower nodes
4
Upper nodes
4
steel truss-v shaped support node
12
main exhibition room
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
main exhibition room
translucent facade detail, scale 1:50
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
0 1
2
5
10
levels 7-13 plan | scale 1:200
10
20
20
1
1
9
13
13
11
10 10
2
6
12
8
7
3
7
5
4
legend
5
7
1. Management office 2. Enclosed offices 3. Video room 4. Meeting room 5. Open space offices 6. Reception 7. Private meeting room 8. Meeting space 9. Kitchen 10. Service rooms 11. Dining area 12. Greenhouse 13. Toilet
2
legend
2
1
1. Dining area 2. Food counter 3. Kitchen 4. Pantry 5. Staff room 6. Staff toilet 7. Greenhouse 8. Toilet
3
office floor - variant a
0 1
level 6 plan | scale 1:200
8
8 6 5 4
Functions were arranged according to the different needs that the users may have, allowing a good level of flexibility; the working environment was subdivided into open space offices and enclosed offices. The tower volume facing south-west was the most logical placement for the open space use, because it is the portion of building that benefits the most from daylight exposition; using a system of Venetian blind, the users are able to regulate the quantity of sunlight that can enter the room.
Here visitors can reach the vast green terrace located on top of the cantilevered volume; a playful composition of paths, vegetated areas and raised wooden platforms make it possible to consider it as a portion of park lifted up from street level. The other half of this floor belongs exclusively to the office complex, and it hosts a common canteen for all the employees, which is served by a smaller terrace overlooking via Pirelli.
canteen floor and terraces
offices 13
2
5
10
open space office
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
open space office
0 1 20
14
9
8
8
3 3 3 3
6
13
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
legend
7
13 5 4
1. Archive 2. Video room 3. Enclosed offices 4. Management office 5. Meeting room 6. Open space offices 7. Reception 8. Private meeting room 9. Meeting space 10. Kitchen 11. Service rooms 12. Dining area 13. Veranda 14. Greenhouse 15. Toilet
levels 14-22 plan | scale 1:200
11 11 12
4
office floor - variant b
10
15
15
2
Beyond the elevator landings, on one side there is a welcome area with a reception, the open space and, in the proposed small-type plan, a meeting room; on the other side there is a common area including a lunch corner with a kitchen; then the enclosed offices, direction and video room can be found; all these spaces need less sunlight, and are located on the northern side. For what concerns the large-type plan, the enclosed working spaces increase and are arranged differently.
1
hvac system and safety measures The HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) system of a building is extremely important in contemporary high rise buildings, and needs to be designed carefully, being tightly linked with the quality and temperature of the indoor air. For the P39 project, a mixed air+water system (primary air) was chosen. Since the skyscraper is relatively large and has different functions, a subdivision in four areas was done. Each one of these blocks was assigned one AHU (Air Handling Unit) installed in two technical rooms at level -2 and level 23, with the function of air supply and treatment: first, through a series of filters, it purifies external air and part of the exhaust indoor air from pollutants (such as various emissions, particulate matter, pollen, fungi etc) and odours (typical city smells, human odours, cooking smell, furniture emissions etc); then it controls the humidity of the air. It only partially regulates air temperature through coils. The AHUs distribute treated air in the building with a primary system of ducts that pass through the whole skyscraper from top to bottom in designated shafts; then, with a secondary system of ducts that branch out in every floor, air is supplied to every room. The system was designed taking into account the fact that the Covid19 pandemic made necessary a change of paradigm in using working spaces. Air supply and return have separate branches for different environments to prevent contamination. For what concerns the offices, the open space can be subdivided into smaller enclosed units; especially in the current historical situation, and during any future pandemic, it becomes a decisive element for any company that has to comply with health regulations and carry on with its activities. The HVAC system design took into account this possibility, so every potential unit is equipped with the necessary terminals of air supply and return. As a design choice aimed at attaining a vague industrial feeling, the heating, ventilation and cooling system is left exposed on the ceiling throughout the whole floor, while pavements are realised in resin; the 80 x 80 cm grid defined by the waffle slab was used as a module to place ducts and partitions.
Exhaust indoor air is extracted and partially re-treated, partially expelled outside.
typical office floor duct layout
14
Ground
hvac system - summer functioning
Expansion valve
hepa filter
ECDC has provided a series of guidelines to prevent the diffusion of Covid19 pathogens through ventilation system. Studies have demonstrated that High Efficiency
Rainwater
Ground
Particulate Air (HEPA) filters have a good performance with particles of the SARS-Cov-2 virus size (approximately 70â&#x2C6;&#x2019;120 nm). They are used in aeroplanes and in healthcare settings, but their role in buildings o other than hospitals in preventing the transmission of infectious diseases has yet to be analysed Nevertheless, it can be inferred that their effect will be comparable. Thus, and a HEPA filter will be installed in every AHU present in the P39 building, and changed frequently to respect the guidelines.
Naviglio water
Water treatment
Room
Return air
Exhaust air
Water storage
Closed loop vertical geothermal system
Evaporator
Condenser
Supply air
AHU
hvac system - winter functioning
Compressor
Heat pump
Induced air
For the P39, active beams were chosen over passive ones, because they work with an integral air supply. This primary air passes through nozzles, which induce indoor air from the room up through the cooling coil. This induction process allows an active chilled beam to provide much more cooling capacity than a passive chilled beam.
Naviglio water
Primary air
Filter
Active chilled beam
Humidity control
Heating and cooling coils
Outdoor air
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
chilled beam functioning
Since the chosen HVAC system is the mixed one, the air outlets are chilled beams. In these devices air is heated or conditioned through a hot and cold water system, and then it is distributed. The advantages of this system lay in its better control of air temperature, since it is directly handled in the ambient units, and in the claimed minor use of energy in relation to its better chilling power. Another advantage is in the low sound levels given by the absence of fans. Some disadvantages are the installation costs and risk of water leaks.
Rainwater
Water treatment
Room
Return air
Exhaust air
Water storage
Closed loop vertical geothermal system
Evaporator
AHU
Expansion valve
Supply air
Condenser
Heat pump
Induced air
Compressor
Primary air
Filter
Active chilled beam
Humidity control
Heating and cooling coils
Outdoor air
p39 building hvac system layout
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
office - partitioned configuration
office - regular open space configuration
greenhouse
architectural axonometry
The greenhouse volume is placed south-west; it fulfils the function of a common area for the leisure time the employees may want to spend there during their breaks. It is organized through a stack of platforms coming in four different shapes that, while not directly connected, visually grant a feeling of community between the inhabitants of the various floors. Every platform and its vegetation are visible from the offices: the aim of bringing the green element inside the building is to create an environment that has a beneficial effect on mental and physical health and that assures high wellbeing standards. Its structutre consists of a frame of horizontal steel beams with the task of supporting the various shapes of slabs composing the greenhouse. Each layer of the frame is connected to the respective tower floor, and groups of two layers are linked to the concrete structure by means of taut cables. All the layers are connected one another through vertical elements.
15
section, scale 1:50
greenhouse
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
view of greenhouse from the office
elevation, scale 1:50
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
structural axonometry
architectural axonometry
The veranda is subdivided in two tracks: one is a corridor that grants access to the offices, the other is a raised wooden platform corresponding to the overhang on via Pirelli; here, a slower circulation is encouraged, together with a more informal working environment where people can sit on pillows or at desks looking the panorama. Basins of vegetation bring a hint of green inside the building and contribute in establishing a relaxed atmosphere. A visual suggestion that helped define this spatial device is the traditional Japanese veranda, engawa, interface between courtyard and rooms: in this case the function is inverted, and the platform becomes an interface between the office spaces and Milanâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s skyline. Structurally it uses a system of steel beams orthogonal to the slab edge, that act as a support for the remaining floor surface and for the facade. On the corners they are reinforced by diagonal elements; every 3 floors there is a series of vertical X-shaped bracings.
veranda 16
veranda and video room
section, scale 1:50
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
veranda
structural axonometry
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
, scale 1:50
fibreC cladded facade
12.
11. 17. 15. 16.
10.
4.
7.
8. 9.
6. 5.
24. 23. 26.
25.
17
11. 14.
16. 13.
17. 8. 19.
29.
30.
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
facade detail, scale 1:20 andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
19.
18.
3.
27.
22.
13. 15.
1.
2.
21.
20.
fibreC cladded facade 18
- Manufacturer certification: ISO 14001:2009 ISO 9001:2008 Characteristics
Characteristics
Technical Specifications Thermal Conductivity = 0,037 W/mK Density: 15 kg/m3 Vapour Resistance = 1 Fire Reaction : A1
Specifics
Thermal Conductivity = 0,35 W/mK Density : 1150 kg/m3 Vapour Resistance = 50 Fire Reaction: A1
FibreC glassfibre reinforced concrete panels produced by extrusion Density: 2.0 - 2.42 kg/dmÂł EN 12467 Fire Reaction : A1
Specifics
Thermal Conductivity = 0,033 W/mK Vapour Resistance = 1 Fire Reaction : A1
Specifics
Recycled Recyclable
Sustainable Pre-Assembly
Recycled Recyclable
Fire Resistant
Recyclable
Water Resistant
Natural
Characteristics
EPD: cradle to grave + module D
Certifications
Fire Resistant
Rockwool Fixrock
Natural
Characteristics
ETA-07/0173 Certificate ICMQ Certificate
Certifications
Rieder Fiber Cement Cladding Certifications Produced with ECOSE Technology CE (EN13170) certified ANAB-ICEA certificate
Ekovetro Knauf
Certifications
EPD-KNA-2010111-D
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
Aquapanel Knauf
1. Reinforced concrete waffle slab 2. Rockwool insulation (horizontal) 3. Floor underlay 4. Resin layer 5. Steel profile for interface with slab 6. Steel profile 7. Aluminium curtain wall frame 8. Rockwool insulation (vertical) 9. Cavity closer 10. Local support for formpart 11. Undercut anchor Keil KH BH 12. Adjusting screw 13. Hook-on profile 14. Profile rail 15. Self-drilling screw 16. Support profile 17. Bracket and thermal separation 18. Anchor 19. Breather membrane 20. Formparts fiberC panel (horizontal) 21. Formparts fiberC panel (vertical) 22. Interior panel 23. Parapet anchor and rail 24. Parapet glass panel 25. Parapet handrail 26. Copper gutter 27. Reinforced concrete column 28. Triple glazing 29. Vertical steel C profiles 30. Horizontal steel C profiles
legend
Concrete Colacem
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
C50/60 for Structural Elements C25/30 for non-Structural Elements
Specifics
Characteristics
EPD: cradle to gate
Certifications
double skin glazed facade 19
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
facade detail, scale 1:20 andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
double skin glazed facade 20
3
Recyclable
Dry Construction
Self-Supporting
Pre painted Steel on Zync base Sendzimir S 320 GD + Z 275 Coil-coating C03 Effective span: 842 mm Height: 151 mm
Specifications
Characteristics
Certifications
Pilkington Profilit Glass
Ekovetro Knauf
Aluminium Framing Translucent May be in-filled with Aerogel Sound Insulating
Specifications
Dry Construction Minimal Maintenance
Customizable
Characteristics
AAMA 501.4 ASTM F 588-97 ANSI Z97.1-1984
AAMA 101 S.297 AAMA 1801-97 AAMA/NWWDA 101/1
Resin Flooring
Specifics
Easy to clean Water and Stain Resistant Fire Reaction: A2 Abrasion, Impact Resistance
Recycled Recyclable
Recycled Recyclable Specifics
Characteristics
Indoor Air Quality: A+ UNI EN ISO 16000- 9:2016
Natural
Easy Maintenance Sound Isolation Outdoor heat island reduction Indoor humidity control
Specifications
Characteristics
Leed Credits Well Credits
Certifications
Thermal Conductivity = 0,033 W/mK Vapour Resistance = 1 Fire Reaction : A1
Natural
FibreC glassfibre reinforced concrete panels produced by extrusion Density: 2.0 - 2.42 kg/dm³ EN 12467 Fire Reaction : A1
Certifications
Specifics
Technical Specifications
Recycled Recyclable
Sustainable Pre-Assembly
Natural
Characteristics
EPD: cradle to grave + module D
Certifications
Recycled
Thermal Conductivity = 0,037 W/mK Density: 15 kg/m3 Vapour Resistance = 1 Fire Reaction : A1
Certifications
Rockwool Fixrock
Recyclable
Sage Greenlife
Characteristics
Characteristics Fire Resistant
- Manufacturer certification: ISO 14001:2009 ISO 9001:2008
Produced with ECOSE Technology CE (EN13170) certified ANAB-ICEA certificate
Natural
Certifications
Rieder Fiber Cement Cladding Certifications
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
Corrugated Sheet Tecnodec
Fire Reaction: A1
1. Concrete Column - Square section 800x800 2. Schueco FWS-50 – 34mm double glazing panel 3. Schueco FWS-50 - Vertical mullion 4. Schueco FWS-50 - Horizontal mullion 5. Foam insulation 6. Venetian Blinds - Front coverplate 7. Operable spandrel panel 8. Venetian blinds - Slats 9. Pressure welded grating N6 10. L-Angle H60/60/6 11.Aquapanel UPN120 channel Knauf 12. IPE120 Certifications 13. Schueco FWS-35 - Horizontal EPD-KNA-2010111-D mullion 14. Schueco FWS-35 - Vertical mullion ETA-07/0173 Certificate ICMQ Certificate panel 15. Schueco FWS-35 – 38mm triple glazing 16. Venetian Blinds – side frame Characteristics 17. Venetian Blinds – Fixing brackets Water Resistant 18. Resin Flooring finish Fire Resistant 19. Rockwhool Insulation panels Recyclable 20. Waffle Slab – Skydome H350 Specifics 21. Waffle Slab – Concrete Rib Thermal Conductivity = 0,35 W/mK 22. Border Beam 400x800 Density : 1150 kg/m 23. HVAC return air duct Vapour Resistance = 50
legend
Dry Construction Recyclable
s355 for beams and columns B450C for re-bars
Specifics
Characteristics
EPD: cradle to gate (A1-A3, C3, D)
Certifications
C50/60 for Structural Elements C25/30 for non-Structural Elements
Specifics
Characteristics
EPD: cradle to gate
Certifications
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
Mittal Structural Steels
Concrete Colacem
20
20
1
9
8
10
6
9 7
20
20
7
4
1
8
1
3
5
8 6
2
2
5
10
0 1
10
level 26 plan | scale 1:200
5
0 1
2
level 25 plan | scale 1:200
legend
4
1. Tables 2. Raised platform 3. Counter 4. Kitchen 5. Pantry 6. Staff rooms 7. Terrace 8. Toilet
3
5
10
legend
1
5
2
5
1. Dining hall 2. Kitchen 3. Pantry 4. Staff rooms 5. Toilet
1
2
0 1
10
level 24 plan | scale 1:200
5
0 1
2
level 23 plan | scale 1:200
legend
3
4
5
1. Entrance 2. Dining hall 3. Bar 4. Storage 5. Kitchen 6. Pantry 7. Staff rooms 8. Terrace 9. Toilet 10. Lounge
2
2
legend
1
2
1. Panoramic hall 2. Technical spaces
2
2
rooftop 21
20
20
2
1
1
lounge barâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s terrace
5
10
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
restaurantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s terrace
2
0 1
10
level 28 plan | scale 1:200
5
0 1
2
level 27 plan | scale 1:200
2
2
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
legend
2
1. Tables 2. Raised platform
1
legend
1
2
1. Tables 2. Raised platform
2
1
water management and living wall
Sewers
maintenance
A solid asset that the project exploits for water supply is rainwater; in fact, with an average of 1013mm of rainfall per year in the city of Milan (climate-data.org), the adoption of a rainwater management system could be really beneficial in a site like P39. Rainwater harvesting provides an independent water supply during regional water restrictions, and in developed countries, is often used to supplement the main supply. It provides water when a drought occurs, can help mitigate flooding of low-lying areas, and reduces demand on wells which may enable groundwater levels
rainwater management
Naviglio
Filter
Cistern
Filter train
Drain
Stack
Air admittance valve
Ozone Carbon Fiberglass Mesh filter generator filter filter
water management diagram
Cistern
Hot water tank
Heat pump
Gutter
Greenhouse
fall expectation is very large, it is wise not to rely entirely on it for hot and cold water supply because of the unpredictability of the rainfall and of the high demand of water needed for green roofs and living walls which are featured in the building. Therefore, separated tanks should be dimensioned and installed as a backup. The rainwater collected by this system is paramount for the daily irrigation of the living wall, which is irrigated by a computerized capillary drip system, and the rest of the greenery located on the terraces and inside the building.
Aqueduct
Living wall
First-flush
Conveyance
Stainless steel mesh filter
Drainage system
Hot water distribution
to be sustained. It also helps in the availability of potable water, as rainwater is substantially free of salinity and other salts. Application of rainwater harvesting in urban water systems provides a substantial benefit for both water supply and wastewater subsystems by reducing the need for clean water in water distribution systems, less generated stormwater in sewer systems, and a reduction in stormwater runoff polluting freshwater bodies. Studies show that it would be possible to harvest 4144 mÂł of rainwater on average with the proposed system. Although the harvested rain-
Cold water tank
Branch discharge pipe
Cold water distribution
Chlorination
Floating pump intake
Green roof
Rainwater
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1
living wall
3
1. Rockwool insulation 2. Waterproof backing board 3. Rear drainage layer 4. Aluminium rails and dripline 5. Biotile growing medium 6. Panel box 7. Plant pods
Living wall layers
2
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Sound Abatement
Recycled Shell
Pest Reduction
Modular
4
Proven Interior Longevity
Exterior Winter Survivability
Versatility in Climate Zones
Water Efficient
Efficient Nutrient Delivery System
Non-Deteriorating Growth Medium
Ease of Maintenance
5
Our living walls support LEED initiatives and the WELL Building Standard. Both of these sustainable certifications make your space healthier, happier, and more planet-friendly. Your space and the people within it will benefit greatly from our sustainable living wall system.
COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
On the side of BAM the fiber cement envelope was replaced with a living wall facade of the same proportions. It was important that this facade would cover the whole height of the building, to become a statement of will for the whole project; to do so, it employs the same substructure as the fiber cement one, with stronger elements to face the stronger wind action Our living walls support LEED initiatives at the upper levels of the tower, and it employs plant species resistant to wind and cold. The vegetation does not need soil, and the WELL Building Standard. but it is potted in a substratum that receives water and the necessary nutrients from an irrigation system.
6
Soleirola
Ficus Elastica
Dracaena Janet Craig
Adiantum
7
Adiantum
Soleirola
Syngonium Podophyllum Pink Nephthytis
Philodendron Scandens
Epipremnum Aureum Marble Queen Pothos
Aglaonema Maria
In contemporary high rise buildings, facade access for maintenance and cleaning can be a problematic topic, since with modern days curtain walls, usually it is not possible to reach exterior surfaces from the inside of the building. Among the most common solutions adopted these days, simple portable davits appear to be the most suitable for the presented project. A davit is originally a special safety device designed especially for ships. It is most often used for supporting and lowering lifeboats and other small vessels from big
Syngonium
Soleirola
Syngonium Pod. White Butterfly N.
Schefflera
Epipremnum A. Gold
Anthurium Red
Syngonium
Connection to power grid
Air infusion
Rainwater harvesting
Auto-reservoir Top-up
Pump
Biofilter
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
The vegetation growing on a living wall produces oxygen so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s helpful to lower the carbon footprint. It helps also reduce heath island effect in the city..
Pumps put the the collected water in recirculation. Different species of plants can make the the surface more interesting, and can help each other in growing healthy.
Adiantum
Soleirola
Soleirola
Pipes connected to the rainwater management system distributes nutrient and air-infused water to the medium. Reservoirs collect the residual water.
Soleirola
Adiantum
Auto pH balancing
Hidden reservoir
Remote monitoring
Pump recirculation
davit system is not visually impactful as the cranes are movable and thus can be stored away when not in use. The davits usually have wheels to make them easy to move. Erecting and lowering the davit is also made as simple as possible for quick and efficient access. Often the davits are used together with a long modular suspended platform, making it possible to access even 12 m-wide parts of a facade in one go before the davits are moved to a new location. The long platform makes the davits an efficient option for simple, straight facades.
One panel is made up of a medium and the cavities necessaries to pot the plants. Everything is contained in a safety cage to prevent the detachment of fragments.
ships. In facade access, the idea is the same: the davit is used for supporting, raising, and lowering cradles or modular suspended platforms. A davit looks like a simple and small crane or gallows. In order to move whatever is hanging from the davit, a hoist is needed in the hanging part. A davit system consists of two main parts: the portable davit arm and the base plate or pedestal. The davit arm consists of the visual part of the davit and the base is basically a metal plate mounted to the roof in which the davit arm is attached to. The
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
p39 building irrigation layout
Po t R ac C on k ta Tr ine ay r Fe lt
Quality views
sustainability strategies
indooR natuRe access (gReenhouse)
Quality views
living wall facade
Photovoltaic Panels
installed on RooftoP
chilled beam system
shading devices (venetian blinds)
enveloPes
low tRansmittance
foR woRkstations
access to daylight
Photovoltaic Panels installed on facade
and tReatment
RainwateR collection
23
Compatibility
Energy
Light
Water
Green
Mobility
Field
fRiendly stReets
PedestRian and bicycle
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I05 - Green Building Rating Systems
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L05 - Enhanced Daylight Access
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EQ09 - Quality Views
EA02 - Optimize Energy Performance
EA05 - Renewable Energy Production
Window area no less 10% of floor area. Quality views to the outdoors.
L04 - Glare Control
LEED certification is recognized as a satisfactory sustainability system.
Installation of photovoltaic panels on the roof and on the facades. Geothermal energy system
Design of facade systems with low transmittance. Employment of chilled beam technology.
Access to daylight for regularly occupied spaces. Proximity of workstations to the transparent envelope. Employment of shading devices (venetian blinds, translucent facade).
L01 - Light Exposure and Education
Rainwater collection and treatment (through green roofs). Employment of naviglio water.
EQ08 - Interior Lighting
W09 β - Onsite Non-Potable Water Reuse
SS04 - Rainwater Management WE01 - Outdoor Water User Reduction WE02 - Indoor Water Use Reduction
Living wall facade.
Employment of green roofs.
Variety of exterior public spaces at different levels. Implementation of biophilic elements like trees and bushes. Water element with the naviglio excavation. Outdoor nature access (BAM, green terraces). Indoor nature access (greenhouse, green corridors).
Bicycle storage serving the building.
EQ07 - Daylight
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IN01 - Innovation
M02 - Access to Nature M09 - Enhanced Access to Nature
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V09 - Exterior Active Design
SS05 - Heat Island Reduction
V04 - Active Commuter and Occupant Support
Access to mass trasit through direct link to Gioia metro station. Pedestrian and bicycle friendly streets along naviglio Martesana.
Common sustainability strategy
MAIN STRATEGIES AND CERTIFICATIONS
SS03 - Open Space
V05 - Site Planning and Selection
WELL
LT05 - Bicyclle Facilities
LT04 - Access to Quality Transit
LEED
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Green Building Studio: Estimate of photovoltaic potentia.
Green Building Studio: Compare base run and alternative runs to understand the potential optimization degree.
Green Building Studio: LEED custom Daylight Autonomy calculation. Velux: Daylight analysis to compare scenarios with and without shading systems. Insight: Solar radiation analysis.
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Employed software
geotheRmal eneRgy system
to metRo station
bicycle stoRage
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
63/112
Leed certification: Gold
outdooR natuRe access (gReen teRRaces)
diRect connection
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
Symbol
vaRiety of
exteRioR sPaces
emPloyment of naviglio wateR
outdooR natuRe access (bam)
shading devices (tRanslucent glass)
Part of the information contained in a BIM model is connected with energy consumption of the building. This topic is paramount for sustainable design, but also complex to analyze. Thanks to some softwares such as Green Building Studio, it is possible to evaluate the energy balance of a project during the design process, and inform decisions based on the results. It is important to carefully
green building studio analysis
The development of the project was carried out from the beginning in a BIM Environment with the software Autodesk Revit. As a base for the modelling, dwg format plans drawn in AutoCAD were linked to the Architecture model. The model was built in a shared environment, using Dropbox as a cloud that hosted a central Revit file. Each user worked on their own local models, periodically synchronizing them with the central one. To ease the process, more models for different areas/disciplines (architecture, topography, services etc) were linked together. Each model had a series of worksets used to segregate different elements of the model and manage them in an easier way. The model was then exported (often in a simplified version) and imported into secondary softwares, or directly loaded through a series of plug-ins. These softwares were essential to perform a series of analysis of the buildingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s efficiency.
bim workflow
HP-ASHRAE2
HP17-1
4-pipe1
P39_GBS7.xml
Project Default Utility Rates
HP-ASHRAE2
HP17-1
4-pipe1
P39_GBS7.xml
Project Default Utility Rates
bim-based design and analysis
200
200 50
Total Energy Fuel (Natural Gas)
0
Electricity Total Energy
0
Total Energy
400 100
400
600 150
600
800200
800
1000250
1000
300
350
Spandrels: MegaSlateÂŽ II Facciata GG Nominal power: 190 W Efficiency: 17,7% Yearly energy production: 130000 kWh
Roof panels: Maxeon 5 COM Nominal power: 450 W Efficiency: 22,2% Yearly energy production: 43000 kWh
The photovoltaic system has been broken down in two different systems, one hosted on the rooftop and another integrated with the glazed facades. Installed on the rooftop there are several arrays of photovoltaic panels. A different type of panel will be installed on the string course shutters, in a vertical position; its efficiency is lower than the rooftop one, but the output is regained thanks to its thick distribution on the facade. Finally, an innovative glass fabricated with solar cells will be used as the outer portion of the double skin system, for an additional gain.
photovoltaic panels
The Insight plug-in application for Revit has been used to analyse the solar exposure of the complex. Results of this analysis have had an impact on the design; first, the analysis showed which ones of the different roof surfaces characterizing the design are the most suitable for photovoltaic panel installation; also, the analysis helped to locate the most shaded areas on green roofs, helping to choose where to place green or paved areas.
solar radiation analysis
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t c v ug Sep Oc No De A
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l t Ju Aug Sep Oc Nov Dec
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r r y n n b Ja Fe Ma Ap Ma Ju
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l t Ju Aug Sep Oc Nov Dec
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r y n r n b Ja Fe Ma Ap Ma Ju
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l t Ju Aug Sep Oc Nov Dec
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r y n r n b Ja Fe Ma Ap Ma Ju
r r y n n b Ja Fe Ma Ap Ma Ju
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1M
2M
3M
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HP-ASHRAE2
HP17-1
4-pipe1
P39_GBS7.xml
Project Default Utility Rates
r r y n b n Ja Fe Ma Ap Ma Ju
r y n r n b Ja Fe Ma Ap Ma Ju
r r y n b n Ja Fe Ma Ap Ma Ju
l t Ju Aug Sep Oc Nov Dec
1000800
12501000
l t Ju Aug Sep Oc Nov Dec
l t Ju Aug Sep Oc Nov Dec
l t Ju Aug Sep Oc Nov Dec
750600
r y n r n b Ja Fe Ma Ap Ma Ju
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r r y n b n Ja Fe Ma Ap Ma Ju
r r y n b n Ja Fe Ma Ap Ma Ju
r r y n b n Ja Fe Ma Ap Ma Ju
l t Ju Aug Sep Oc Nov Dec
l t Ju Aug Sep Oc Nov Dec
l t Ju Aug Sep Oc Nov Dec
l t Ju Aug Sep Oc Nov Dec
2000
r r y n n b Ja Fe Ma Ap Ma Ju
1750
daylight analysis
total yearly energy production 463000 kWh
December 12 am Clear
June 12 am Clear
December 12 am Clear Venetian blinds closed
December 12 am Clear Venetian blinds open
June 12 am Clear Venetian blinds closed
June 12 am Clear
lux
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore
Daylight analyses have been performed with the software Velux to check the indoor lighting quality. The analysis shows that in the open plan office space the narrow plan and the double glazed facades allow the environment to be flooded with light; at the same time, venetian blinds placed in the crawl space of the double skin facade help to shade the office when the sun is low pitched or particularly intense. In the exhibition space, the interior space comfort using a translucent envelope seems to be satysfing.
Glazed facade: UbiquitousEnergy Transparency: 38,3% Efficiency: 9,8% Yearly energy production: 289000 kWh
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
alternative run 3
alternative run 2
alternative run 1
base run
plan the modelling for this purpose, producing a simplified version for it that includes the individuation of rooms. After launching an analysis with a base run, multiple alternative runs were tried, changing some parameters, especially in relation to the HVAC system characteristics. Eventually, a satisfying result was obtained, and many data useful for the Leed certification (water management, daylight) was provided.
manifesto
nature-blended architecture: P39 competition proposal for a new high-rise in milan skyline | politecnico di milano | msc in building architecture | a.y. 2019/2020 | prof. f. battisti | prof. g. angjeliu | prof. g. dotelli | prof. f. romano | prof. l. c. tagliabue
25
andrea castellan | paolo dolceamore