The projects defines 13 large buildings, 17 medium buildings, and 16 small units for a 64.000 sqm. gross floor area. The wood project stems from the desire of creating a space rather than a building.
It looks for an immediate relationship with scale of the architectures and of the open space with the individuation of the correct size for the unusual scale along with the desire to use a spatial principle and not a form, thus scale suggest similarities to linear systems of stoà from Mediterranean classicism.
The unit of space and structure is made evident by the use of wood as a single material, choosing not to deal with the issue of diversity rather than with the uniformity one.
The system repeats reiterating at different scales the same tapered column with median entasis, and the same slab element. In this way both biggest units (stecche) the smallest ones ( kiosks and infopoints) are composed with the same precast system.
The project with its bareness offers the charm that structures have: the lack of what binds the building to a kind of contemporarity and makes it universal, giving up with the unnecessary. This buildings have no facades but shadows.
Location: Milan, Italy
Architects: Onsitestudio
Project Team: Liverani, Molteni architetti
Consultants: Monica Lavagna, Lavinia Chiara Tagliabue, Michela Buzzetti
Client: EXPO S.p.a., Metropolitana Milanese s.p.a.