Bachelor’s Thesis

Written and designed by:

Milos Mirkovic

Supervisor:

Prof. Gaia Caramellino

Assistant supervisor:

Nicole De Togni

Bachelor of Science Architecture and Society Faculty of Architecture Politecnico di Milano

September 2014

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Shaping a residential neighbourhood in post-war Milan: the contribution of Gualtiero

Casalegno (1956-2014)

1. Introduction 3

2. Urban transformations in Milan between 1945-1975 7

2.1. The post-war reconstruction 7

2.2. General City Plan of 1953 12

2.2.1. Economic boom 12

2.2.2. New construction projects 14

2.2.3. Significant expansion areas 20

2.2.4. The legacy of General City Plan of 1953 23

3. The architect: Gualtiero Casalegno (1912-1999) 31

3.1. Biography 31

3.2. A selection of projects 33

3.2.1. Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 30 (1928-1930) 33

3.2.2. Piazza Solferino (1949) 35

3.2.3. Corso Sclopis 37

3.2.4. Sestriere 39

3.2.5. Corso Alberto Picco 42

3.2.6. Via Papacino 43

3.2.7. Corso Matteotti (1958) 45

3.2.8. Corso Duca d’Aosta 48

3.2.9. Via Vico (1956) 50

3.2.10. Corso Cairoli (1957) 52

3.2.11. Corso Vittorio Emanuele 52

3.2.12. Via Ventimiglia 54

4. The Milnosa District and its historical development 61

4.1. The “Zone 2” 61

4.2. The urban development of the area through cartography

(late 19th – 21st century) 62

4.2.1. Milnosa district at the end of 19th 62

4.2.2. Milnosa district in the first half of 20th century 63

4.2.3. Milnosa district in the second half of 20th century 65

4.2.4. The present situation 69

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5. The history of Milnosa district through archival material 71

5.1. The construction of a new residential district in an area of expansion 72

5.2. Convenzioni urbanistiche (“Urban agreements”) 73

5.2.1. First urban agreement of 1943 (Convenzione urbanistica) 73

5.2.2. Second urban agreement of 1952 (Convenzione urbanistica) 73

5.2.3. Third urban agreement of 1954 (Convenzione urbanistica) 74

5.3. The present situation 76

6. Bibliography 85

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1. Introduction The aim of this paper is to describe the story of the architect Gualtiero Casalegno (whose

professional figure was less explored) and his contribution to the post-war Italian

architecture, with the focus on the residential district Milnosa in Milan, Italy (first buildings

built in 1956). It is interesting because it allowed me to describe chronologically, through the

history of the planning-design-construction and transformation, the building from its

construction in 1950s until today. The project itself opens many ways of research and allows

to address to it different methodologies and instruments of research (archival materials,

journals, books, cartography, interviews, cultural periods). It describes the history of the

development of neighbourhood (with background story of Italian post-war reconstruction

process) through different phases, from its beginning and first urban agreements to the

district which we see today, from the scale of the city (macroscale) to the scale of domestic

space (microscale).

The architect Gualtiero Casalegno was chosen due to legacy he left, which can be count in

numerous projects which marked the period of building boom after the end of WWII, both in

Turin and Milan, in numerous residential buildings that he designed at that time. The

important and influential role of his profession was less studied and hence the focus is

basically on the contribution of the architect in the period of reconstruction in post-war

ages. After the devastation caused by bombings in the WWII, the need for new urban

settlements and for reconstruction of bombed buildings appeared, causing many young

architects to participate in this process and leave their mark to the new layout of the Italian

cities. The reason why Milnosa district was chosen as a study case can be found in its

interesting background which allowed me to address different levels of research to it, and as

an active process where this urban settlement can be described through time with the use of

historical sources which describe the development of the district, from first initiatives until

today. The location of the building is quite interesting because it is in the centre of Milan, in

the part which was affected by the post-war urban transformation, where the interesting

information is obtained from the planning history. This contribution of the architect is not

well-known and does not have many information. Hence, this paper is composed of many

different sources (archival materials, drawings of the buildings, articles, cultural periods,

cartography material, city maps, interviews with the inhabitants, books, pictures taken at

site) which helped me to construct the story from the macroscale (the scale of the city),

through the scale of the district, to the microscale, which is the scale of domestic space of

inhabitants which is mostly perceived through the interviews. All these information and

sources allowed me to create the story of Milnosa district, from 1956-2014, which was never

written before.

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In order to better understand and explain the process of the construction and the need for

the emergence of this district, the chapters are organized chronologically. They all describe

different subject in order to reach the level of comprehension of Milnosa district and its

development, each having the focus on different story, and together, they document the

story of architect Gualtiero Casalegno and a simple process of life of one neighbourhood.

First chapter describes the level of the city and explains briefly through the analysis of

bibliography material, the spatial development of the city of Milan in the period between

1945 and 1975. After the end of WWII, reconstruction process emerged and many new

projects and modifications were made to the city of Milan. After the reconstruction plan

which was established in 1945, the need for the new Master Plan appeared. With the

introduction of a General City Plan of 1953 (first one for the city of Milan) many different

functions were introduced, with the transformation of most central areas and the

construction of new residential district, among which was predicted the construction of the

Milnosa district. The detailed analysis were done on this period in order to better

understand the changes which influenced the development of the city and to understand

the story of period of reconstruction in the post-war period.

The following chapter is composed of two parts. The first part is devoted to the professional

biography of the unexplored figure of the architect Gualtiero Casalegno (1912-1999)

involved in many projects and residential buildings which marked his career and the second

one focuses on some of his most significant contributions in different housing projects.

Gualtiero Casalegno started his long career after graduating from the Faculty of Architecture

at Politecnico di Torino, when he started working at some of the most famous architectural

firms in Turin. His most significant projects (including the Milnosa district) were designed

after the end of the war, when the architect helped in the reconstruction processes of cities

of Turin and Milan. The housing projects which are introduced are numerous in order to

understand the architecture of Gualtiero Casalegno, and, the housing project in via

Ventimiglia helped me to better construct the story of Milnosa district, because they are

quite similar.

Third chapter is exploring the development of the district Milnosa in different points of time

through history, with the use of cartography materials. Here the research goes from the

wider scale to the scale of the district, with the constant focus on the area of interest. In this

chapter, cartography of the area was used instead of book references to describe the story

of the emergence of the district and its surroundings. From the maps of 1889 (Beruto plan),

throughout General City Plan of 1953, to the City Plan of 2004, the story of the development

was constructed, with the introduction and description of middle class in this part of the city.

The development was described in detail because it helps to perceive the district as it is

today, and it acts as a certain link with the final chapter.

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The final chapter of the thesis documents the real story of the Milnosa district, taking into

consideration the planning, design, urban agreements for the area (convenzioni

urbanistiche), construction and transformation of the district, with the focus on buildings in

via Cagliero. Here one can see that, from the scale of the city, through the scale of the

district, I came to the scale of domestic space. Through the description of urban agreements

for the area and the analysis of archival material and drawings, I could understand the

development of the district completely and describe chronologically its life span from 1956

until 2014. Using the personal statements of the residents of these buildings, which were

collected through interviews, the subjective criteria is also considered. It helped me to

perceive the district through the eyes of inhabitants, to find out their needs, social life and

subjective opinions and, finally, to understand the district from the scale of domestic space.

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2. Urban transformations in Milan between 1945-1975 2.1. The post-war reconstruction It is often stated that Milan is a city which is completely renovated, with historical buildings

(taking out rare exceptions of mere survival) isolated from their original context, in the

middle of great extensions of more recent buildings. This massive urban and architectural

change mostly happened in the period of reconstruction which followed the endings of the

World War I and II.

The World War II had a devastating effect on the city of Milan, with a quarter of built

heritage being destroyed by the bombings occurred in 1943. The reconstruction in the post-

war period was the priority like in all other European cities. In Italy, the reconstruction is one

thing and the General City Plan is the other being the first to take place outside of a general

project. This was the difference between Italy and other European nations. In the most

damaged European cities the reconstruction is developed with a far-reaching process, which

aims to reconstruct the backbone of regional planning, but also aimed at a general design of

urban regeneration and renewal. In Italy it took place not only setting aside master plans

developed during the fascism, but also not using the instrument of the new Piano Regolatore

Generale (General City Plan) expected by planning law which was approved in 1942. Hence,

for the reconstruction, the master plan has been replaced by a specific tool called ‘the

reconstruction plan’.

This plan was extraordinary and temporary, but it had the effect until the end of the 1980s,

when some parts of the reconstruction plan were applied too. The reconstruction plan was

established by a decree of 1945 and then completely regulated by the law of 1951, with the

validity of 10 years. It was a detailed plan with the road network, infrastructures and public

spaces, the indication of the areas marked for demolition and reconstruction and

construction of the new ones. The reconstruction plan was characterized by the absolute

permissiveness of planning and building and for the rapidity of the time required for its

approval and implementation. In Milan, the reconstruction plans were not only emblematic

and representative of the way in which the country faced the emergence after the World

War, but they also directed the transformation of the city in the direction already initiated

by Albertini in the thirties, with his complete reform of the city.

In 1945 was held the competition for the new Master plan, which did not give any winner

but ended with a public debate focused on the future of the city. Among a lot of the

presented proposals, there was the one which stood out, by the AR (Architetti Riuniti). It was

a group composed of 11 young architects, inspired by the Modern Movement. The main

ideas were the decentralization of the industrial zones into periphery, the formation of the

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new city districts, the stopping of the tertiary activities in the city centre, the anticipation of

a new organization of mobility including an underground railway network integrated with

the regional railway and two axes that intersected in the business district (in the area of

scalo Sempione), as well as the construction of the new urban parks.

The plan AR from 1945 (www.lanzone.it/Materiali/03_diapositive.pdf)

The new General City Plan was adopted by the Municipality in 1948, on the basis of the

proposals by the group AR. Even though at the beginning, the plan had similarities with the

‘plan AR’, in its final version of 1953 many of those ideas were diluted in a technical report

which returned in a formalistic version; a plan which has effectively ensured the expansion

and transformation of Milan more in accordance with the laws of the real estate scheme

than the new urbanism rules.

The intervention on the most damaged parts of the city was divided in two reconstruction

plans. The first one was adopted in 1948 and completely approved at the beginning of 1949,

and the second one adopted in 1949 and approved in 1950. The works were done in the

southern part of the city centre affected by the ravages of war: from piazza Duomo to porta

Ticinese and porta Romana, in the so called ‘archaeological zone’, and in northern part of the

city: from piazza Scala to corso Garibaldi and corso Sempione and to Stazione Centrale. The

interventions also occurred in the centre, as the implementation of the corso Vittorio

Emanuele in its present form with the side streets, as well as the piazza Liberty and the

opening (in 1956) of the corso Europa. (Federico Oliva, 2002)

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The plan shows destroyed areas (in black) and heavily damaged (in grey) caused by the bombings.

In the northern part of the city, the one which was less damaged by the bombings, was

expected the demolition of the corso Garibaldi and the realization of the new business

district. In addition to the development of the central areas, the external areas were also

included in reconstruction plan, such as San Siro, viale Zara and viale Palmanova. In the most

outside areas, the reconstruction plan radically changed the quality of the new building

fabrics with the increased building heights and the opening of the buildings, compared to

ones in the past which were mainly traditional Milanese form, characterized by the closed

shape. One can see still the affect of the plan of 1934, whose influence will be felt for so

many years.

To illustrate the negative effects of the reconstruction plans and subsequent detailed plans

that have incorporated the forecasts, the current appearance of many streets in the city

centre can be highlighted, including the most important historical routes such as corso

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Garibaldi, corso di Porta Romana or corso di Porta Ticinese. In these streets one can see the

modern buildings which are taller that the old ones, set back from the road edge and from

the layout of historic buildings, with the disorder which is now irrecoverable. This was the

way in which reconstruction plans worked: instead of the damaged and demolished building,

the new one was erected being two or three floors higher than the old one and was

distanced from the street by couple of meters, in order to ensure an unlikely future

alignment of the new buildings. Clearly the idea was that of a progressive enlargement of all

these roads, which in the end did not happen and the subsequent zoning plans have blocked

this, but the results are certainly not satisfactory. (Federico Oliva, 2002)

Areas of reconstruction from 1949 (www.lanzone.it/Materiali/03_diapositive.pdf)

The enormous possibilities enabled by the realization of reconstruction plans (number of

new premises raised from 16000 units to 40000 units in first months of 1950) were then

addressed, especially in the central areas towards speculative interventions (luxury

residences, office buildings) almost totally neglecting public services and encouraging so

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what was already one of the characteristics that distinguished the city, also differentiating

from other major Italian cities: the outsourcing of the central zone, whose urban fabric did

not almost exist anymore, though being limited to certain parts.

Despite the availability of the new planning law (legge urbanistica, 17 agosto 1942, n. 1150)

inspired by rationalist principles, development and redevelopment processes were yet

governed by elementary façade alignment plans, leaving the private actors to build

autonomously along generic public guidelines, instead of envisioning a new and functionally

organized city, based on a new infrastructural system, to be implemented through detailed

operational plans (in accordance with the essential principles of the Modernist Movement).

One can note that, following the new planning law, the General City Plan should be

conceived in Italy as a detailed comprehensive plan; a long term tool defining once and for

all (except variants) the land-use pattern, the spatial distribution of strategic and ordinary

urban functions, the location of development rights and a set of preservation rules regarding

the historical residential stock.

The consequences of the outsourcing of the central zone of Milan (the zone which is left

after the demolition of the Spanish walls) boosted by reconstruction plans, were those of a

massive social replacement. It was caused by the movement of the lower class to the

suburbs and the increase in urban congestion, because the estimated replacement and

considerable increase in housing density were not accompanied by appropriate

infrastructure for the development of new and efficient public transport lines (the first

metro line will be finished at the beginning of the 1960s).

The future urban policy was largely influenced by the reconstruction plans, at least for the

central zones, which can be seen with the new General City Plan. This new plan did not give

any form of the urban planning. The area which is included in the inner ring will give up on

all the forms of urban planning, deferring to the provisions of the building code and marking

the final destiny of this area and the whole city. The only continuity in the urban policy of

Milan is the fact of the intensive transformations of the central zones, the continuity which

will be broken only at the end of seventies with a choices proposed by a new City Plan of

1980.

These partial regulations had the effect on the overall image of the centre of Milan, together

with the individual projects of rebuilding which marked this period. In 1953, the new General

City Plan was brought with its detailed plans which completed the works of reconstruction:

the transformation of most central areas, with the higher density and new urban loads, the

spatial distribution of different density building types: intensive semi-intensive, semi-

extensive, extensive types, an intensification of the outsourcing process already started in

the thirties, the replacement of the old urban fabric with a new small streets to realignments

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(only being partially realized), the almost total absence of public facilities and green areas in

particular, surprisingly, not so rare in the centre of Milan.

Congestion and accessibility problems increased, while the weakness of infrastructures and

public facilities programs did not help to overcome these difficulties. One can note only a

limited set of great public projects: the enlargement of the Fiera, the redevelopment of the

vegetable market, the creation of some new green parks (Lambro, Forlanini, Nord and

Trenno) and of the Lambrate cemetery.

Intensive redevelopment strategies caused a chaotic condition, due to the choice of

different building types, that were not consistent with the road alignments nor to the other

typical rationalist principles. In the consolidated city, generic guidelines were not able to

hamper the private initiatives. This set of factors led to the low quality periphery which can

be noted today. (Federico Oliva, 2002)

2.2. General City Plan of 1953

2.2.1. Economic boom

Milano in the 1950s was, as stated before, marked by the reconstruction process after the

end of the WWII. With the number of inhabitants around 1275000 and about 323000

working places in industrial sector, it was the richest city in Italy in that period.

The city borders were still the same as predicted by the expansion of 1912, which still was

the obligatory reference. On the eastern part of the city, the expansion has finished,

covering the land until the railway belt. The expansion was not entirely completed because

there was a gap south of the station of porta Vittoria (with the expansion axis north-south

from 1912 which has not yet been completed) with the missing part from piazzale Bologna

until piazzale Cuoco with its railway bridge. In the eastern part of the city, near stazione

Centrale towards viale Zara, the whole land until the railway belt was not completed, being

left with many empty pieces.

According to the new General City Plan of the 1953, the number of inhabitants should

increase to 2500000. There are still similarities with the Albertini plan (and his expansion to

3650000 inhabitants) because the urban planning was not moving towards the territorial

openness and decentralization. The effects of decentralization can be seen in the periphery

areas of Milan, with new areas being provided for industrial sector (487 hectares) and, from

1860 hectares of industrial land already occupied, 789 hectares were confirmed to maintain

the same function (hence erasing 1071 hectares).

Instead of this new areas provided by moving the industrial sector outside the central areas

of the city, the new buildings and offices emerged, providing the money to property owners

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by renting them. With this, the tertiarization process was intensified. Thanks to the provision

of the new business centre (which required new accessibility to the area), the realization of

the two axes, two new highways which were supposed to intersect as new ‘cardo e

decumano’ of Milan, was postponed. It was not completely realized in the coming years, but

only by constructing the metro line 2 (Garibaldi and Gioia stations) and with railway station

of Garibaldi. The type of the buildings built there were only skyscrapers and tall buildings,

which in this period of the Milan’s construction were not built and designed much, so this

area remained empty and that part used to be a funfair for a large period of time. This

empty area can be noticed also nowadays, because still, the business centre has not been

completely finished.

Existing plants and new planned productive areas (light violet) according to the City Plan of 1953 (Municipality

of Milan, 1963)

The business centre represented new ‘down town milanese’, which had completed the

construction of the two new skyscrapers nearby: one at piazza Republica, built in 1954, and

the second one was skyscraper Pirelli, near stazione Centrale, built between 1955 and 1960.

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The actual choices regarding the settlement system (residential, industrial, tertiary) did not

follow the direction of decentralization, even not the industry (with the forecast of almost

500 hectares of new industrial areas in the periphery). Regarding the residential and tertiary

activities, the forecasts were big and massive in order to prevent any decentralization in

metropolitan area. (Maurizio Boriani, 1982)

2.2.2. New construction projects

Milan had a huge area of the city (nearly 3400 acres; which is more than 50% of the city area

nowadays) classified in two zones: the built ones (A1) and the free areas (A2). The rules

allowed any type of intervention, normally omitting some functions which are not meant to

be put in the centre of any city. It was a big ‘building reservoir’, estimated at additional 260

million cubic meters (i.e. 2600000 residential or office rooms). Its use was not only act as the

open areas, but also to offer the wide range for demolition, extension, reconstruction of the

existing buildings, which could arise from anything.

If the regulations of the existing city represented the first construction possibilities of the

plan, the second one was represented by building’s substitutions. It represented the

demolition and reconstruction which was explicitly planed (always in relation with the

existing city), with specific interventions entrusted normally with the new rules of the

"intensive manufacturing" (the higher building density expected by the plan), but also of the

"semi-intensive manufacturing’’. (Federico Oliva, 2002)

The forecasts of the growth of the city were finally entrusted by the building areas indicated

in the plan with the new zoning technique: from the inside areas not being completed to the

outskirts of the city. These residential areas were divided into four different typologies:

intensive, semi-intensive, semi-extensive and extensive. Compared to the current

regulations, the extensive typology (15000 cubic meters per hectare) would be the upper

limit for the new residential areas (in order to have a quality). The intensive one, with 65000

cubic meters per hectare, is the absurd. To make a comparison, it is 3 times higher density

than in the area of Bicocca nowadays.

The choice of the plan was to overlap the existing city (in this case including also of free

areas) with the symbolism of the 'intensive density', except for two isolated blocks that

overlook the porta Romana, classified as the buildings with the cultural and representative

character. The plan has been fully implemented, although not all of the ‘workers' houses’

have been replaced. The intervention took place and covered the area with dark red tiles

(built in the early sixties) which end at the piazza Medaglie d’Oro and the skyscraper of porta

Romana. Along the viale Filippetti, one can still see the remaining of the Spanish walls

between buildings.

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The plan proposed other replacement interventions in the historic part of the city, following

the new rules related to the building density, when the conditions of its replacement (or

new construction) were not met. All was done in accordance with the rules proposed for the

areas A1 and A2. There were three areas targeted for this intervention, with the use as

‘intensive density area’ zone. The first one was the block bounded by corso di porta Romana,

via Lamarmora, via della Commenda e via Orti. The second one was behind the rotonda della

Besana bounded by via Pace, via Lamarmora e viale Regina Margherita. The last one was the

front building of viale Gorizia overlooking the Darsena, with a depth of 60 meters. In these

three cases, the replacements were not total, with the materials being just partially

renewed, with the intrusion of new higher and more massive buildings than the existing

ones.

Zoning of the old Spanish walls area near Porta Romana, according to General City Plan of 1953 (Municipality of

Milan, 1963)

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More extensive parts of the historic centre were subjected to the rules of ‘semi-intensive

density area’ zone: the residential blocks included in the triangle between via Lamarmora,

corso di porta Romana and viale Caldara (with the exception of public buildings and those

with already high density), blocks bordered by the triangle formed by Naviglio Grande, the

railway of porta Genova, corso Cristoforo Colombo and viale Gorizia (except the building

previously mentioned) and several blocks in the area of porta Tenaglia.

The rule of the existing plan was therefore very clear: when there could be seen a high

density buildings (like in almost all central area), it was convenient to refer to the rules of the

Building Regulations that guaranteed demolition and reconstruction of the buildings of less

density, or the construction of new buildings in the areas that might be free. Where there

were no such starting conditions, the zoning of the new Master Plan interferes which

favoured the new construction.

General City Plan of 1953 (Municipality of Milan, 1963)

This rule applied everywhere, in the most central part and in the rest of the city, without the

only part of about 1,071 hectares intended for industrial use which was in the periphery

areas of the city. Today there are the results of the large morphological discontinuity that

characterizes many parts of the urban landscape in Milan (especially those more peripheral

expansions of the Master Plan in 1912), where the different rules brought by different urban

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regulations caused the realization of tall buildings near smaller ones, the isolated buildings

which act as a curtain 5-stories high. All this created a situation of disorder and bad quality in

the shape of the city. On the other hand, the urban layout and the uniformity of the

construction rules (not for the building construction) are the essential ingredients in

constructing a quality urban environment.

Among the major replacements that the new plan proposed for building the modern city,

the one which has developed since the Beruto plan, stood out those related to the

establishment of the textile industry De Angeli-Frua located just inside the ring along the old

direction towards Torino and the establishment of Alfa Romeo at Portello, in the external

ring (Viale Serra). The other replacement concerned the old workers’ or income houses and

the replacement of the railways. The first part of the replacement was in Ripa di porta

Ticinese, from Darsena to via Fumagalli, in corso San Gottardo, from porta Ticinese to via

Tabacchi, and in the same zone the front driveway of viale Bligny.

The first intervention, the one at ex De Angeli – Frua, was built in the early sixties and clearly

shows the limits of the "intensive" of the new plan: a bad residential neighbourhood with a

lot of buildings put too near each other, almost no green and no public spaces. It is not

included in the urban environment, despite the creation of De Angleli square and via Frua

which cuts it. The second intervention, the establishment of Alfa Romeo at Portello, it has

not been realized until it has been put in operation, even though the plan envisioned a total

replacement, completing also the surrounding roads and a green belt along the boulevards

Scarampo – De Gasperi. Only at the end of nineties, many years after the displacement of

the factory and its transfer to Arese, the transformation of the area of Portello has begun. It

was done under the rules of the new ‘urban renewal programs’, established by the

administration of Mayor Marco Formentini. (Federico Oliva, 2002)

In the seventies the whole area of porta Ticinese that lies around the Darsena has become a

recovery zone, completely transformed from a social point of view, bringing more working

people and reducing the number of popular middle class. The area of Sgea was used later as

the expansion area of the nearby Bocconi University, according to the decision brought in

1999.

In the area of corso XXII Marzo and via Anfossi was the proposal to build with the intensive

density this area and to leave only the central part as the green one. Since it was all public

area, this intervention seemed strange. In the end, this whole intervention was abandoned

and the area was transformed in the park Marinai d’Italia.

In the south-east area of Milan there were many industrial and commercial buildings to be

removed. In these areas, many if the replacement interventions were done, in some cases

with an actual result of redevelopment. More often, the intervention was of the

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construction of new condominiums of individual substitutions or episodic interventions on

areas which were considered free. A widespread replacement than implemented with the

new building, and especially with the density types, which caused the effect of disorder.

Among more recent implementations, one can still find some evidence of the old industrial

building expansion of the Beruto plan, which in much more recent times has been reused,

mainly for commercial and tertiary use, but also as residential (with Italian version of

American loft).

The plan shows zoning of General City Plan of 1953. Light red – residential, dark red – mixed zones, dark blue –

industries, yellow – public services, dark green – green public zones, light green – agricultural zones.

(Municipality of Milan, 1963)

The third mode in which the plan relied the growth of the city was building on the open

areas specifically identified in the plan and regulated by four different density types. These

were called ‘expansion zones’. Along with these expansion areas, in some cases in the plan

of 1953 the areas were also intended for new construction, usually with the intensive

density in the areas completely free and inside the city. There are the examples of two

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blocks near piazzale Chiesa or four blocks in the north of viale Lungiana along the new via

Gioia, built with the cover of Naviglio della Martresana.

Looking at the Master Plan of 1953, the general colour which can be seen is red, which

represent the parts of the city with the semi-intensive density. This density was the one

mainly used for the completion of the expansion to the west of the plan of 1912, but also for

the further expansion along the external guidelines. It was difficult to reconstruct the use of

the two heaviest density completed by the previous plan.

The choice of surrounding the viale Ca Granda with the high buildings was the evident choice

or to predict higher buildings in the parts of new urban fabric, as piazza Frattini or piazzale

Giovanni dalle Bande Nere. It should be highlighted the confirmation of allotment (with the

rules of the semi-intensive density) of the former scalo Sempione, already provided in the

plan of 1912 and designed in the thirties, but not being yet realized.

The shape of the expansion plan of 1912 changed and this caused the shape of a city to

change. There were no more road blocks cut from road network and filled with building

types, just large areas identified by the technique of zoning, which in this plan were

presented with large functional zones. For the ‘function’ in urban planning refers the

intended use of the property. There were no more closed building blocks, lined up or

separated buildings but still following the course of the road, having in common the free

private space and separated from the public by walls. The new city opened with the

buildings from many different types (tower, terraces, stick) and was no longer related to the

road network. In some cases, like neighbourhoods, public housing was still bound by the

rules of rationalism with the orientation of the buildings as the heliothermic axis, to ensure

the best sunshine and better living, but almost always (without the 'almost' in its more

recent interventions) orientation is random, variable according to the unknown rules of the

project.

The new shape of the city is characterized by the functions established in it. When the

expansion occurs within the old nineteenth-century pattern, as it did in the western sector,

it is the bottom of a pejorative reissue of the old pattern, with the bulkier buildings and

indefinite urban spaces, disconcerting and without any form, which does not offer the

possibility of any relationship, life and commercial activities. However, when the expansion

occurs out of the old pattern, the urban project is the result of a compromise between the

old and new ideas. Only in some neighbourhood appears an attempt to define a new urban

space, as in the courts located inside the new buildings or along the new urban axes. But, in

general, the urban expansion is without form, and the one form which is almost always

missing is the design of the public space, namely fundamental constitutive element of the

city.

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2.2.3. Significant expansion areas

The great expansion of Milan which occurred under the Master Plan of 1953 configured the

periphery substantially as known today. Starting from the north, the expansion is

represented by the viale Zara and Testi, which starts from the intersection with viale Marche

and ends at the municipal boundary and relies on the east end to the now old industrial

areas of the Pirelli and Breda. This expansion mainly entrusted the semi-extensive areas and

also the innermost parts (between the blocks of via Murri, the railway and via Veglia), but

also semi-intensive areas over the railway belt along the viale Testi, between the viale

Suzzani and viale Sarca; an expansion that was connected to the old core of Niguarda (one of

the municipalities incorporated in 1923), completely surrounded by the new semi-intensive

and semi-extensive areas.

Moving in clockwise direction and ignoring the completion of the historic axis of Viale

Monza, in the eastern sector of the city meets the expansion structured by the new axis of

via Palmanova, already provided in the Albertini plan of 1934, but not completed, bounded

on the west by via Padova and on the east by the new forecast of the park Lambro. Even in

this case, the technique used by the plan was to provide intensive and semi-intensive areas

along the main axis and semi-extensive areas in more defiladed parts. Continuing in the

same direction, there was the new urban expansion focused on piazza Udine and via Feltre,

separated to the town by the railway belt and adjacent to the outside with the park Lambro.

Also in this case there were semi-intensive areas in the more central parts and lower density

facing the outside.

The same rule was used to make the neighbourhood "Feltre" which, with the tall buildings

with a distinctly urban character enclose a large green space, representing one of the best

achievements of the plan of 1953. However, to the east there was not a substantial

expansion of the city, except the axis of via Macenate, where were located until the thirties

some industries (like Caproni) and whose front was expected as a residential area, while in

Taliedo there was predicted a large industrial zone, now fully realized. In this part of the city

the plan of 1953 did not provide the realization of the neighbourhood ‘Forlanini nuovo’, nor

the residential and tertiary fabric which today exists along viale Ungheria. These two

interventions were done in the sixties as the subject to subsequent variations or maybe even

some previous convention. (Maurizio Boriani, 1982)

For the southern part of the city, between the axis of corso Lodi and the Naviglio Grande,

there were predicted numerous expansions. The first one concerned the completion of the

public intervention of viale Omero. It was divided into various interventions that despite the

poverty of the area and the severity of the building built, had a few reasons of not interest.

21

Some zoning samples of General City Plan of 1953 (clockwise from top left: Parco Sempione, Eastern sector,

Centre, South sector)

The second intervention was along via Ripamonti (later expanded), i.e. with the current

neighbourhood ‘Ripamonti’ with a church della Madonna di Fatima in the centre, adjacent to

a small residential area along via Antonini, where was being in realization the

neighbourhood Antonini (1950-1952). The third one concerned the completion of the

expansion already provided by the plan of 1912, around piazzale Abbiategrasso and along via

Valle and via Medeghino, but also along the Naviglio Pavese, from the overpass Schiavoni to

the Conca Fallata.

As a part of this expansion, there was also the creation of the district ‘Chiesa Rossa’, with a

beautiful civic, commercial and religious centre built around an elevated plaza, for once

completing the initial project. Finally, the expansion of the area of Barona, centred on the

axis of the current viale Faenza and viale Famagusta, the axis which was supposed to end

22

with a new cemetery for the southern part of the city, where today is located the park

Barona. This area is now characterized by the presence of the highway to Genoa connected

to the urban road network via piazza Maggi. Its realization in the late fifties brought many

changes, such as the building of the neighbourhood ‘Sant’Ambrogio’ (1964-65) and other

minor interventions such as the neighbourhood ‘Cantalupa’, as subjects to some future

variants. Thanks to the technique used by the urban plan in the southern sector, the

expansion areas were practically the only ones in which there was provided extensive type.

It involved smaller heights and a larger amount of public and green spaces. This part of the

city is most affected by agricultural areas, and the city should look out for the new forms

being less harsh and heavy.

The western part of the city was the most affected by the expected growth. The western

sector of the municipal area is the most affected by expected growth. Besides the already

mentioned completion of the expansion plan of 1912, on the west part of Milan stands out

the expansion on Baggio, one of the Comunes annexed in 1923, connected to the city by via

Forze Armate on which it relies, in addition to the military hospital, two new large residential

areas were designed, nowadays being completely built. Firstly the plan included the

neighbourhood ‘INA Casa di Baggio’, realized in the beginning of fifties in the scope of the

first seven-year plan INA Casa. Especially important was the church of Madonna dei Poveri

designed by Figini and Pollini.

In subsequent years, along the entire route of via Forze Armate, Baggio will be paid to the

city thanks to variants that will use the remaining agricultural areas, as in the case of

neighbourhood ‘Viridiana’, designed by Luigi Caccia Dominioni and Vico Magistretti, one of

the first examples of the new residence with the quality intended for the middle class

people. A little further on stands the big orange triangle (semi-intensive density) closed

between via Stratico, Rospigliosi, Dessie and Harar in the north and via Paravia and Novara in

the south. It is a large urban area now subdivided into regular blocks and fully built, that

already at the time of approval of the plan saw the presence in the most outside part of the

neighbourhood ‘INA Casa Harar’, a quality intervention done by a large group of designers,

including Luigi Figini, Gino Pollini, Gio Ponti and Piero Bottoni. Also in this area, there was

the expansion just outside the road belt (QT8), the popular district which original model

design dates back to 1947 and continues in parallel with the drafting of the plan. Therefore,

in this case the plan was not limited to indicate an area of expansion, but in its design one

can read all of the elements of the final draft of the QT8: the axis of the neighbourhood, the

‘street of life’ envisioned by Bottoni (today the viale Salmoiraghi and via Terzaghi),

connected to the ring with piazzale Stuparich, the various 'islands' in which the district was

divided and the green area occupied by monte Stella.

Further on the west, towards the outside, two major areas (a rectangle and a trapezoid)

detached from a large area and intended to agriculture, which, reunited, will become the

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neighbourhood ‘Gallaratese’ with 50000 inhabitants, the largest public housing area in

Milan. The realization of the ‘Gallaratese’ started in 1957 by the Istituto autonomo case

popolari (the neighbourhood CEP Gallaratese) and continued for the next fifteen years with

the districts G1 and G2, always by IACP, and the municipal neighbourhood ‘San Leonardo’. It

ends with the ‘central spine’, the axis intended for services, designed in 1973 by Maurizio

Calzavara, Paolo Favole, Amedeo Romano, Alberto Secchi and Silvano Tintori. The ’central

spine’, even if being only partially built, gives to the district its current form, divided along

the central axis of via Croce. The latest expansions of the western sector were related to the

urban area around the abbazia di Garegnano, bordered by viale Certosa, the highway bridge,

the railway to Turin and the area west of piazza Castelli (where the city was ending) that

extended to the old core of Villapizzone and which axes are via Varesina way and the new

via Console Marcello. In the northern sector, in addition to the expansion of Vialba (where will be built the two

districts INA Casa) and of Quarto Oggiaro was predicted the expansion to the sides of the

new highway Milano-Meda, via Fermi (also a new provision of the plan) and semi-intensive

saturation of all the areas on the sides of the axis of Comasina, even in its most central parts

(via Imbonati, via Pellegrino Rossi, via Astesani), because beyond the current via Bovio, the

open spaces at the beginning of the fifties were much more consistent than the build parts.

The expansion focused on via Comasina embraced the core of Affori (another of Comunes

annexed in 1923) and it ended with the large area later occupied by the neighbourhood

‘Comasina’ (1954-63). With more than 10000 inhabitants it was for many years the most

important achievement of public housing in Milan. (Federico Oliva, 2002)

2.2.4. The legacy of General City Plan of 1953

This plan was analyzed in detailed because, on the one hand these expansions represent the

main content and on the other, these expansion areas are nowadays the areas in which the

most people live and in even larger number, are familiar with. Every neighbourhood was

designed with all the services to be self-sufficient, equipped with all the amenities needed

for life. The urban planning of this time considered all these solutions in order to ensure the

expansion of the city to be opened and not closed by the nineteenth-century road network

and to solve the housing problems which emerged after the end of WWII and the beginning

of the big migration which occurred and people started coming in the industrialized north.

Besides, the neighbourhood was, as always, the urban typology with which the Italian public

administration (the Municipality, the IACP before and after the war, the INA Casa with its

two seven-tear plans of 1949 and 1963) achieved its interventions without experiencing the

other solutions developed by the Modern Movement, such as, for example, ‘unita di

abitazione’ in Milan has found no realization, except the building designed by Botonni in

corso Sempione. In the phase of urban transformation, the district was the manner in which

to Milan and its hinterland have been made more relevant interventions for the bourgeoisie,

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like the aforementioned neighbourhood ‘Viridiana’ or Milano San Felice, but also the

subsequent Milano 2 in Segrate and Milano 3 in Basiglio. (Federico Oliva, 2002)

The intensive debate has been developed concerning the size of the neighbourhood, the

adherence to the principles of rationalism that were increasingly searching the different

types belonging to the culture of prospective tenants (almost all immigrants from the

countryside), its internal organization (the division into ‘neighbourhood unit’, the

relationship with the green, which services had to be provided), the functional role of filter

that was supposed to happen between the community and the city. It was a very interesting

debate in the history of Italian architecture and urbanism. The district is an element of

segregation if it is without the support of an efficient public transport, however, a kind of

‘ghetto’ for the poor or for the rich and will always be a part of the city to be redeveloped.

Variants brought by the General City Plan of 1953. Red – detailed plans in force, red dashed – detailed adopted

plans, blue – approved variants, blue dashed – adopted variants. (Municipality of Milan, 1963)

The big idea of the modern urbanism to construct the expansion of the city in a

discontinuous way instead relies on a system of their own mobility in order to approach the

new districts to the city centre, to integrate them independently with of their location. For

instance, London was developed in the second half of the nineteenth century on the subway

25

lines built by the entrepreneurs themselves who made the new districts. In the case of

Siedlungen of Berlin and Frankfurt which have arisen in the twenties of the twentieth

century based on the system of iron, and their centres are continually in the presence of the

subway stations.

After World War II, the expansion has become territorial, with the design of the ‘new towns’

in the region of London or ‘villes nouvelles’ in Paris that are inextricably linked to the

accessibility to the railway. And even if the form initially given to the development of Milan

was based on the infrastructures for fundamental support for infrastructure (the plan AR),

this has almost disappeared over time, so that, among all the neighbourhoods mentioned

before, only the QT8 and ‘Gallaratese’ were served by a subway line and only the

‘Gallaratese’ was somehow designed with the function of this. (Maurizio Boriani, 1982)

The fundamental solution to the quality of the periphery is to ensure accessibility because it

guarantees the freedom of people, which is to be able to move. But instead, there is chase

for impossible goals for allocations of public or private services for the districts that could

never be self-sufficient, as if it was realistically possible to achieve in a few years what has

been formed by a process of sedimentation which lasted for centuries. There was always the

awareness of the new, expanded city being structurally different from the existing one. The

trend of population growth and urban development that were manifested in those years

were incomparable with the previous ones. Hence, the shape of the city could not be the

same as before. Of course, by bringing in every neighbourhood essential services (such as a

primary and secondary school, a minimum of the civic equipment, a church, a little green

areas) was mandatory, but had a intension to reconstruct in each new part of the city, the

urban environment of central parts which was not only impossible, but also wrong. The new

city had to be born in Italy, especially in Milan, where congestion of the central city was

already a European phenomenon. The city had to breathe and become more lively with new

urban and metropolitan parks to be its main connection element.

Therefore, the Master Plan of 1953 substantially concerned the settlement system as the

two components. The first one was the transformation of the existing city on the basis of the

building regulations and the second one was the expansion of the periphery with the new

technique of functional zoning. From the technical solution that handled the first component

the limits have already been highlighted which led to the disastrous consequences that

today the city pays hard (increasing congestion, traffic and pollution, the gradual process of

social selection, construction of an urban environment morphologically discontinuous), the

urban approach used for the expansion process has to be questioned. First of all, the major

areas that identify the new parts of the city are represented by large regular geometric

figures, drawn as if the land had no form and no quality, as if it any intervention was

possible. Even a plain territory as the Milan presents with its quality, a form that varies in

different contexts (for example, the landscape of the southern sector has its own evident

26

specificities), which must be recognized and become the basic input for the next urban

development project. Second of all, large expansion areas appear as separated from the rest

of the city and connected to it only by indication of a new road or extension of an existing

one. In this case the shape of the plan seems to follow the shape of the Master Plan, which

provides only a guideline, entrusting the future management of the definition of urban

design. Despite the appreciation of Astengo, even the Milanese urban management of those

years has shown the cultural and technical deficiencies that could not overcome the

limitations and shortcomings objective of the new Master Plan.

Different functions provided by City Plan of 1953. (Municipality of Milan, 1963)

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The 487 hectares of new areas for productive activities are distributed a bit in all directions,

the most significant is to the west, between the axis of via Inganni and the municipal

boundary. It has been fully realized, although not with the craft function indicated by the

plan. The planned expansion of the old industrial area of Bovisa has also been realized,

especially towards the east and nowadays being one of the most problematic abandoned

areas in the city. The extension was also made to the south of the industrial area where is

located the Pirelli, along viale Sarca and the railroad to Monza. The same as this was another

industrial sector north of Crescenzago, towards the border with Sesto San Giovanni, as well

as the area Taliedo. The only production area not being realized and provided by the plan is

the commercial port, repeated in the same position of the previous plans: with respect to

the plan of 1934 the port was fed by a channel coming from the west (as in the 1912 plan),

even if in the scheme this channel was lost from parts of Settimo Milanese. However, it was

the last proposal of the construction of a commercial port connected to the Po by a Navigli

channel that reaches Cremona. Finally, in the late sixties and early seventies, the design of

the waterway Milano – Cremona – Po was set aside and with it also the idea of creating a

new commercial port in the city.

Compared to the previous plan, this new Master Plan also inherits the choices for the big

road conditions, with the northern part of the ring, which will become in the Master Plan of

1976 ‘Gronda Nord’, while in the east the same path was sought of what later became the

eastern bypass of Milan. On the west, the solution is rather different, where the ring is much

broader and reaches the highway for Genoa in Rozzano, anticipating what will be the future

route of the western bypass, while to the south it was proposed the stretch of the ring of

1934 by Baggio to the Via Emilia. Also compared to the Albertini plan, the new plan

incorporated the closure of the west railway ring which had never been realized.

More generally one can say that the main roadway choices were already contained in the

previous plan, with the exception of the highway Milano-Meda. Among these, the principal

was the construction of via Palmanova and via Gioia with the Matresana canal, the

completion of corso Europa, via Larga, via Albricci, as well as the enlargements of some

historical routes inside the city such as corso Garibaldi, corso di porta Romana, corso Italia,

corso di Porta Ticinese. To the south there was the expansion within the ring of canals (via

Santa Sofia, via Molino delle Armi , via De Amicis) in application of the reconstruction plan

(this intervention was made entirely). From the old plan (and reconstruction ones) were also

cancelled some minor demolitions, like via Borgogna, via Quadronno and via Vigoni.

The expansion of the Fiera was intended for free areas along viale Scarampo and those in

front of the intersection of viale Scarampo and via Silva, which were used for years as a

parking place for Fiera. As it can be noticed nowadays, the Fiera has expanded on the open

areas to the north but has also used part of the decommissioned factory of Alfa Romeo,

which, as previously pointed out, the plan intended to turn into a residential area. The new

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zone was provided next to the existing ones, on the areas which remained free within the

railway belt.

Even though this prediction has been implemented (although partially), in 1965 with the

construction of Ortomercato on areas close to the railway, instead on the more central area,

is still partially unused (with the presence of cabins and of deposits of the car wrecks) while

in some part it has been used to realize the park Alessandrini. The plan also included the

construction of two new cemeteries, one in the south-west in the area of Barona and one in

the north-east at Lambrate, adjacent to the park Lambro, besides the expansion of other

existing cemeteries, like that one of Chiaravalle. The cemetery of the Barona has not been

realized, while the Lambrate has become, with the less usage of the cemetery

Monumentale, the second cemetery of the city. Finally, between 1958 and 1963 the Linate

airport (located in the municipality of Segrate) extended which came into operation in the

mid-thirties, and which will be further expanded and renovated in the mid-eighties on a

design by architect Aldo Rossi. In the mid-fifties was renovated and expanded the San Siro

stadium built in 1926, also being further expanded on the occasion of the Football World

Cup in 1990.

Many amenities of the neighbourhood, such as schools, civic facilities and churches were

made since the fifties and supplemented by much more detailed predictions of the plan

since 1980. To this point, the plan was criticized because it did not identify the areas of the

new facilities (in did for the existing ones), but just showed them in very symbolically

articulated within the new areas of expansion. This solution did not provide the amount of

facilities but only their prediction in the context of the detailed plan needed to implement

the provisions of the general plan. It was fifteen years before the introduction of urban

standards, i.e. the minimum amount of public facilities. However, during the constant

growth and development of the city of Milan, the Milanese administration has promoted

many interventions, bringing the city to a good level of facilities, with the exception of the

green, always lacking.

In addition to minor changes realized during the implementation, such as the park delle

Basiliche, the accommodation and the opening to the public park of villa Litta di Affori, the

plan envisaged the construction of four large parks of the city: the Lambro park to the north-

east (in existing part of the city), the park Forlanini at east along the airport road, the park

Trenno at west beyond the area of the great sports facilities, and the Milan’s part of park

Nord, a large green wedge between the old Valassina and via Fermi which also included the

hospital Niguarda. The park Nord, which is stated as a regional park in 1975, has been

completely realized for the part included in the territory of Bresso (former airport) and is

certainly one of the best Italian metropolitan parks, but the part included in the Milan area

today has not yet been implemented.

29

The park Lambro has an expansion of 90 hectares. Its construction dates back to 1936, but in

practice it has been completely rebuilt after the devastation of war and its surface has been

expanded by 6 more acres on basis of the provisions of the Master Plan. It is certainly most

interesting park in Milan from the landscape point of view, along with the now historical

park Sempione which, in fact, is now a park inside the city, since it separates two parts of the

consolidated city which belong to two different municipalities, Milan and Segrate. Its urban

characteristics were limited due to the safety issues that its patronage has placed in recent

years. The creation of the park Trenno, as large as the previous one, has instead begun in

1960. It is a park with more suburban characteristics of the previous one because it develops

in one part of the metropolitan area less compact than the north, which hence presents

different solutions of continuity. To its entirely flat is probably given the function to the use

for jogging. The third park, the park Forlanini is even more difficult to access because it is

more peripheral which currently measures approximately 75 hectares and whose

construction began in 1964. (Federico Oliva, 2002)

These are the marks left on the city by the Master Plan of 1953, marks belonging to the

urban transformation without rules concerning the existing city and the formation of a new

suburb rather than a new town plan that looks forward the future, a new efficiency of the

city in terms of infrastructure and equipment to ensure economic development and a better

quality of life for the citizens. But, in the end, this plan has turned into a tool for answering

the questions in the real estate market and, from this point of view, a disappointing

continuity with the previous plan.

30

31

3. The architect: Gualtiero Casalegno (1912-1999) 3.1. Biography Every architect leaves the trace of himself in his project, either being a shape, a colour, a

material or any other characteristic of the architect which he uses to express himself in a

certain theme and give to it a certain attitude. It can be manifested in various degrees of

adherence to the socio-economic-political reality in which we live.

It is essential that a project, even though not being implemented, finds itself a place in the

future to become realized. The city develops and changes gradually through practice and

each project addresses itself to become a part of it and to find its place in the variability of

other projects. In this manner one can analyze the long career of the Turin architect,

Gualtiero Casalegno.

Gualtiero Casalegno (June 19, 1912 – January 7, 1999) constantly engaged in trying to

respond in the best way to the problems of users and of a specific client. The logical

continuity that can be traced in the study and incessant evolution of certain types and some

basic concepts characteristic of a coherent design is not invalidated by the eclecticism and

the variety of expression.

The formation of Gualtiero Casalegno takes place during the crucial years of the pre-war

period. He graduated in 1938 in Turin, in a cultural environment lively provincial and yet

sympathetic to the fringes of the adventure of Italian rationalism. His military activities kept

him busy after the end of the WWII, when the city, destroyed by the bombings, had to be

quickly rebuilt and replaced by new constructions. This period after the end of the WWII,

was, one can say, a true utopia for the architects and urban planners, due to the large

demand for the reconstruction.

After graduating in 1938 from the Faculty of Architecture at Politecnico di Torino, he began

working at some of the most famous architectural firms in Turin. His long career begins in

the earliest years after the end of WWII, when the young architect returned from the front

and started reconstructing the Turin, which was, as many other Italian cities, devastated by

the bombing caused by the war. The renewed economic growth had created a fertile climate

both for the architects and urban planners, due to the need of rebuilding everything.

At the end of the WWII, Casalegno was engaged in the study of new constructions. It was

difficult in that time, due to the inflation and the market changes which occurred very often.

His research could be defined as autonomous, obviously taking part in militant activities,

32

informed and attentive to the reality and the news of a world and a society in rapid

evolution, thus potentially available to the more meaningful suggestions.

The way to approach issues and subjects is focused on the research of solving the housing

problems brought by a variety of needs. The way to 'situate' the housing architecture (that is

for a designer the constant of the primary activities) is always manifested in understanding

the house itself. The house is not a simple container, but a living space opened to the needs

and desires of the users. In this sense, the architecture of Casalegno should always be read,

especially in its organization and volumetric relationships and specific characterized

functions.

The architecture of Casalegno does not lend itself to be schematized in stages, as, vice-versa,

it does in terms of a cyclical nature which characterizes practically his life as an architect.

One of the key elements of his architecture remains, undoubtedly, the attention to the

materials and the definition of space in relation to the human dimension. This can be seen in

many different ways. Firstly, he used the materials which are simple and traditional, such as

concrete, stone and wood, and also those less usual, like majolica and pasta vetrosa.

Secondly, he constantly searched for innovations in terms of distribution (such as elimination

of the atrium and the introduction of living-through area in his buildings) and paid the

attention to the design of leisure spaces between the interior and the exterior of the

building, such as lodges, that almost in all his projects replace the simple balconies.

(Giuseppe Luigi Marini, 1972)

Another interesting element which can be found in his buildings, especially residential ones,

is the desire to include the works of art. He wanted to emphasize the building

characterization (one can almost say to personalize it) by putting the elements, in particular

sculptures, commissioned from the known artists as Garelli or Chicco.

The architectural production of Gualtiero Casalegno distinguish itself as the restless research

and progress of living spaces, always opened to the needs of the client, such as communal

gardens, communal spaces obtained on roof, the atria always designed to the smallest detail

(as said before, he paid a lot of attention to the details in the buildings).

The field of architecture school buildings has been addressed by Gualtiero Casalegno with

particular sensitivity, gained through many learning experiences that suggested some

innovative solutions and cutting-edge, then widely adopted as regards the organization of

the common areas and the most correct answer to the fundamental problems of lighting and

ventilation. In industrial and office buildings one can find the most elaborated architectonic

results, which are at the heart of modern life. They have served to strengthen the design

commitment over the formalisms manner and the application of standardized anonymous

33

modules, even if a certain extent satisfying the primary functions that must be

accomplished.

The architecture of Casalegno represents a true reflection of the situation and a hard

profession that tends to maturate through the experience. Everything is the result of

continuous work which involves all building stages, from the single constructive detail to the

overall design as the whole.

3.2. A selection of projects

3.2.1. Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 30 (1928-1930)

This ten-floor building is presented with a frontage of 60 meters on Corso Duca degli Abruzzi,

in one of the most popular residential areas in Turin. Situated in the front of the area of the

old Piazza d’Armi bound by the villas with large gardens and parks, also has the advantage of

enjoying a happy guidance, with an open wide panoramic field over the whole horizon.

Building in corso Duca degli Abruzzi 30 (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

The building, although it is present as a single architectural complex with its distinctive

concave facade, is sharply divided at the ’centre line’ into two roughly equal parts, of which

the one owned by the society Gualca, designed as house to rent, and the other owned by

the society Sire, for housing multiple dwellings. While one has been designed by Casalegno,

the second has been entrusted to architects Levi Montalcini and Ceresa. Both complexes are

therefore autonomous in every need and every service: two separate stairs, two sets of

elevators, two entrances to the separate garage and independently operating systems.

34

However, the intelligent co-operation and happy availability to constructive dialogue led the

designers into conducting a unified building with their different experiences. In the part

which is dedicated to rent, at the ground floor one can find the gatehouse and two offices.

The upper floors are all used for living purposes and split into two apartments per floor.

The elasticity of the plan allows individual housing to get some variability in the number of

spaces, with the possibility of separating the services for day and night. In all cases, however,

are always observed the distribution criteria and guidance that govern and distinguish the

building itself. Each apartment has two clearly separated entrances, of which the main one is

isolated from the stairs by closed compartment with glass door, at which the main elevator’s

door opens and one of the main service that is placed in direct communication with the

elevator service (working as well as lifts).

The clear division of spaces for day and night services is easily identifiable by the plans and

has been designed so that, as well as between the floors, as well as between the

apartments, there are no discontinuities in the sound insulation. Even the toilets and fixtures

are arranged to ensure and satisfy all the needs of these particular types of the apartments.

The top floor, partly places backwards, is intended for a single accommodation unit and has

the considerable advantage of using a large garden terrace, faithful to a constant attitude of

the designer, who has always intended to play with the unusual number of the green in the

garden where the surrounding vegetation (as in this case) was quite wealthy.

Ground floor plan (Giuseppe Luigi Marini,

Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

Special precautions were taken during construction to get a good thermal and acoustic

insulation, among them are: the formation of a cavity perimeter of the building to avoid the

transmission of vibrations produced by the passage of vehicles in the adjacent streets; the

installation of insulating materials in substrates of the floors; laying on cork slabs for exterior

and interior walls, the last ones being formed by two air chambers filled with insulating

material. (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, 1972)

35

The facades are covered with ceramic tiles coloured ivory; the recesses of the balconies and

terraces are covered with wood panelling with a shape identical to the slats of the shutters.

The plinth, which extends up to the first floor above ground, is instead treated with cutlery

plates split in horizontal strips.

The main entrance opens onto Corso Duca degli Abruzzi and is comprised of a wide marble

staircase and a spacious atrium with glass in crystals.

The access to the garages, placed in the lowered part, occurs by means of a ramp which with

easy maneuver allows the lead of cars directly to the individual boxes. The connection is also

possible from the courtyard where one can see cars in shadow made by the sheds and with

covered path you can access the elevators which also stop at the basement.

3.2.2. Piazza Solferino (1949)

In the years between the end of the war and the fifties, the municipalities and the state

decided to encourage capital and private initiative to solve the problem of building

reconstruction. During this period, the Casa Alta was designed, the area which was necessary

for piazza Solferino to become a public land with a viable continuity of transit sections and

with obvious economic benefit for the city. The operation has been initiated only partially

due to a serious housing crisis.

The new construction area for piazza Solferino was the triangular construction part with the

famous diagonal of via Pietro Micca. This building, as well as those on the streets front of via

Pietro Micca and via Santa Teresa, has been largely destroyed and uninhabited. Then there

was born the idea of the formation of this new large artery by organizing the competition for

the solution of the first building. The competition was opened, free by the standards of the

building regulations and codes, a proposal for the resolution of the viability and the entrance

to the new and expanded road towards Milan, the fast road crossing the city.

After a complex series of proposals, the single project has been drawn. The present building

was built with some exceptions from the main idea: the exception of the terminal part,

which should be completed with a large heliport-terrace, and the basement area where the

column structure was planned in more evidence of what can be seen today.

The building, in the minimum portion being realized, could be seen with the construction

volume being clean and precise, without balconies and with spacious lodges for outdoor

living. The designer had fought to revive the classic colours of Turin, that the yellow-ocher

façades and gray for the skirting. Unfortunately, for common needs, but in particular a

misunderstanding intervention of the municipal administration which has expressed itself in

36

the use of materials and colours, the choice is oriented on a coating that is not nice (because

it gets dirty) and that structurally does not give any big expectations of durability.

The Casa Alta of piazza Solferino is set on a limited area of land, in a central part of the city,

in the vicinity of courses and busy thoroughfares and in the heart of the shopping, banking

and professional life. The privileged urban situation of the building has recommended the

total exploitation of every smallest available surface of the area, to which the building

complex has been particularly an object of repeated studies to achieve the exploitation

prefix (for example, fourteen different types of stairs).

The building has 16 floors above ground and two underground floors. On the first floor are

arranged seven shops, all independently associated with many storages and services on the

first floor of the lowered courtyard.

The area is crossed by an open colonnade to pedestrian traffic on which it will open the

continuous windows of the shops. In the second floor underground, the rooms are intended

for accommodation purposes, such as the boiler room, the smoke cleaner, the place where

is located the fuel tank for the storage and the local pumps and autoclaves.

In the first six floors are arranged

various technical and commercial

office complexes, while the upper

ones are intended for mixed

housing. The combined real

estate is ranging from two to five

per floor, thereby determining

accommodations which consist of

two to seven rooms plus the

services. The housing areas are

given the particular position of

centrality of the building and

provided for a mixed use. That

means proper accommodation

with good distribution of services,

complete with the entrance,

elevator, loggia and laundry. The

night zone is composed of two or

three bedrooms with bathroom,

the dining and living rooms are

large and enjoy a lot of sun. There

is also a study group in the Building in piazza Solferino (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

37

apartments for a professional activity which can, if desired, have a separate entrance, in that

way without interfering with the total layout of the living areas of the apartment. The top

floor apartment is set back and forms a unique villa which benefits from the large garden

terrace and enjoys a panoramic view really lovely.

The service of vertical communication to individual floors is guaranteed by the group of

three elevators (one which has the use of lifts). There has also been provided the technical

equipment for the fire, with the arrangement on each floor and with the construction of an

iron staircase on the outside with independent access to all floors. The thermo-acoustic

insulation of the building was achieved with the application of, in the substrate of the floors,

a concrete closed cell structure which is very light and with the use of vermiculite plasters.

The facades on the street and the square are covered partly with glass mosaic tiles and

partly with marble Chiampo. The plinth is constructed from small plates of dark green

serpentine, cut horizontally, in untreated surface. Access to the building is placed on the

colonnade where there is a column, coated with copper and with sculptures of professor

Quaglino. It represents the unique building work particular only for Casa Alta.

3.2.3. Corso Sclopis

Site plan (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

In a plot of triangular shape, bound by municipal regulations to the construction of three

isolated houses on three floors, with a height not more than 14 meters and which do not

cover more than a third of the total area, the architect Casalegno was given a task to

construct one lot; the two others were designed by architects Amedeo Claverino, Renato

Ferrero and Bruno Foa. Therefore the collaboration between different professionals was

38

necessary in order to settle the three buildings so that each one of them was independent

from the others to be sure to enjoy the advantage of common services despite being linked

to each other in a unified architectural form.

The need to reach a solution was also postulated by the shape of the block: the longest side

of the triangle is overlooking

the Parco del Valentino, the Po

and the hill: the two main

villas, arranged at this side had

to allow the more meaningful

view for a third building built

between the two other.

However, in the context of this

complex unit, each villa was

designed as a single unit,

whose problems were solved

without excessive constraints

of uniformity with the other.

Therefore the three buildings

became different in the end,

with the different size of

housing units that compose

them, also, for example, in

windows and in coating

materials where, always within

the limits of the beginning

colour scheme, different

marble and stone were used,

as well as ceramics and

mosaics, metal and wooden

frames etc.

The villa designed by Casalegno, in privileged location, unified with the site itself by using a

base whose continuity is not broken even by the windows. The large balconies and loggias

and the atrium project the life from the outdoor to the environment already rich in green

and are made wealthier by the planned roof garden with the play of solids and voids that are

put into volumetric formulation that does not exempt itself from post-rationalism.

To avoid the oppression by the buildings behind and to give them a volumetric evidence for

those who observe them from Parco Valentino, as well as to enhance the beautiful view that

Building of Casalegno in corso Sclopis (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero

Casalegno architetto, 1972)

39

you can enjoy from them, the three villas are elevated on a high stone base. The land free

from buildings has been divided, in order to allow to each villa a clear zone arranged as a

private garden, while an additional space above some garages has been used as a communal

garden. (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, 1972)

3.2.4. Sestriere

In this type of design, Casalegno thought of a new type of architecture, which has both the

characteristics of the hotel and of the family house, in order to integrate two different forms

of the traditional holiday escape settlement. This hotel and villa type of vacation, according

to an orientation that has been increasingly manifesting, was used the most during the war,

especially in France.

Elevation and section (Giuseppe Luigi

Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno

architetto, 1972)

The ideal environment for this type of construction was Sestriere where this settlement

could be joined within this vocabulary of old, formal and independent with the traditional

techniques and traditional types, making it in that way a unique building and folklore free. It

was just an ideal site for putting a residential centre of this new model. This unique

component was breaking the strong vertical pattern of the existing buildings. The hotel

Possetto on the square, standing alone, did not constitute any precise type of architecture,

denouncing rather its modern appearance that clearly documented the expression of

successive enlargements of an old house.

40

As soon as the mandate for this project has been received and the first idea has been

supervised by a careful inspection, the main idea was brought: the organization of an alpine

village of detached towers, with covered routes. This project has had a long process: from

studies and repeated revisions, translated into ideas and graphics, which in the end were

materialized in a project proposal which was not accepted by the municipality. The designer

then tried with another type, this time invoking regulations strictly not to give any possible

waste. Whilst protecting some initial concepts and fundamentals in the drawing of a studio

flat in which life was not proposing the existence type of project, but also in different ways

and at different times to point out the different meanings of this place of refuge from a

mechanized and stressful way of living.

Interior examples (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

Even if it was not the first building with studio flats and apartments built in the mountains,

the building of Casalegno should certainly be counted among the forerunners of a new

housing orientation, at least in the valleys of Piedmont. The proof for this advance has

unfortunately had the negative sense under the commercial aspect because the public has

not been ready yet ready for this type of construction and this new dimension for tourism

use, although many already had the availability to own a second mountain house. Of course

this building, in its intense emotionality, combines the features that the designer had

41

devised, even in the forced translation of regulations that were turned into new solutions

and more articulated meanings.

The main volume is formed from in a low

parallelepiped base, built by the garages in

direct communication with the indoor, with

the housing, with the bar and with the

games room for the kids. Over the base,

after a few solutions took place, an

irregular cube was built where the

apartments can be found. There can also be

seen a restaurant, lodging garden and a

concierge. Behind this block one can find a

long parallelepiped block connected by a

staircase between them, in which smaller

accommodations have been placed.

Parallelepiped base (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

The orientation of the apartments is done in a way that bigger apartments enjoy the best

orientation: the east for the bedrooms, noon for sitting and dining with a large continuous

colonnade and west with a big terrace for outdoor dining, kitchen and bathroom and for

midnight baths. The smaller apartments are instead placed partly to the east and partly to

the west. Even though, they still differ among themselves because split-levels are sometimes

a veranda, sometimes a loggia. The restaurant has two large terraces facing the rising and

setting of the sun, accessible at various times of the day and in different seasons.

The building roof is a flat roof to obtain the space for solar panels. Unfortunately, the main

idea of the project has undergone, during the implementation a few modifications such as:

the changing in protective timber of the side walls which are now sticking out verandas have

been reduced to a panel, changing the proportions of the design. Even though the slopes

have been deleted and the plans, edges and joints have been modified, the building of

Sestriere retains the connotations of a miniature village, in the combination of diverse blocks

that make the part of it.

It could be seen as a point of reference in the subsequent developments in the macroscopic

centre of the Alps, where the initial freedom of expression had not been progressively

affected by new entries, progressively more and more spoiled by the presence of each other.

In this way it has destroyed a mutual dialogue and made discordant orchestration between

the buildings itself, destroying in that way the first successful implementation of one of the

first urbanized alpine landscapes of that time. (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, 1972)

42

3.2.5. Corso Alberto Picco

Sketch (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

This building is built in the countryside, in a side of grass and trees. The desire of the client to

have direct access to the villa from the street, which was motivated by the previous desire

and previous positive experiences in this regard, has prevailed on the proposal of the

designer to put it in a countryside. Acceptance of the client's requirements did not insist on

the rules of any kind. In fact, the suggestion was taken only by one fencing setting which was

unusual and least likely to respond to the requests and desire of the user and of the

architect.

Building in corso Alberto Picco (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

The front part towards the road block is set up as a completely closed block, almost as a

fortress from which protrudes a single shelter, guiding and protecting the entrance, while

43

the wall surfaces are held in rough hewn stone treated according to local customs of

common traditional rustic architecture. The view of the building, on the contrary, takes place

in the west, towards the green and the city, but especially the green garden that comes

inside and makes it more intimate space.

The building has such a dialogue between inside and outside, which projects the living

environments of living to those of the leisure (even in prolonged contact with nature)

through a broad and sustained colonnade that opens like a slot within the structure. It points

out the effect of nature with contrast to the architectural envelope built around with an

aerial ladder leading down to the garden. The front of the building is also characterized by

the use of the traditional materials, such as wood and stone, with its warmest touch of

colour, this differs completely from the remaining part of the building, underlining and

highlighting the leitmotif of the design and functions. This part of the building opens into a

colonnade that exploits the degradation of the terraces in reaching out to the garden.

3.2.6. Via Papacino

The land on which the building rises

is in a form of regular geometric

shape, located in the central area of

the city of Turin. This district has

stately character, with palaces and

buildings intended only for housing

purposes, not for shops and leisure

activities. The building is built on

the corner formed by the via

Papacino and the via Promis and

rises 5 floors above ground of via

Papacino and 6 floors above ground

of via Promis, with the total volume

of approximately 8000m3.

The raised ground floor is accessed

from via Papacino in the middle of a

building with a large green

serpentine marble staircase. One

can find a various locals used as the

Building in via Papacino (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero

Casalegno architetto, 1972)

44

offices, the portiere accommodation, the gatehouse and a large garden. In the basement

there are some small rooms used as storage and the hall used as a garage, which is accessed

from via Promis by means of a ramp. Below was also built a partial floor, with the cellars

made for individual housing, the boiler and the storage tank for fuel. The upper floors are all

intended for dwelling and on each floor are divided into two stately accommodations. On

the top floor, facing via Promis, has been built one apartment, which benefits from the large

terrace and a magnificent view bound to 5 floors above ground.

Upper floors plan (left) and raised ground floor (right), (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto,

1972)

Each apartment is arranged within the concept of dividing the areas for distribution and

orientation. There are easily identifiable groupings of the services for day and night (in

addition to the two apartments on each floor have the possibility of mutually sharing of a

room). The service of the kitchen to the dining and living rooms is done through an office

forming an own compartment, with the possibility to include in a specific location a piece of

furniture. The bedrooms are designed with bathrooms and wardrobe.

The living and dining room is one large and spacious room and, in the case of

accommodation towards via Promis, they enjoy dual-orientation, with the possibility of

outdoor dining on the covered terrace. The apartments are all equipped with two or three

bathrooms.

The roof slab of the building was insulated with layers of glass-wool and cork slabs.

The exterior doors are all made of wood with double glass interposed with venetian blinds

made of aluminium. The openings which are of great scenic effect and open horizontally

45

(windows) and vertically (balcony doors) are fitted at the top to the ceiling with a wood, with

air filter and grill to protect against insects, and with external shutter for dimming. The

ventilation of the environment, thus obtained, has already been tested in some other

applications with full responsiveness to the needs and results of full satisfaction.

The main staircase with the access to the apartments is composed of steps with a view to

raising green serpentine marble treads and rubber sheeting. This accommodation has been

recommended in order to obtain a clear demarcation of the steps, which are therefore

visible even in low light environment and for the quietness of the use. At the side of the

staircase is placed an elevator with automatic doors and metal cabinet reaching down to the

basement in order to serve the people who use the stores and garage.

The facades to the via Papacino and Promis are covered partly with pieces of ceramics

placed as the Venetian scheme and partly with strips of stone (4x40cm). At the top, which

looks towards via Papacino, has been placed a ceramic composition, of considerable size, by

the sculptor Chissotti. The main entrance by the via Papacino, except the staircase already

mentioned, takes place in a large atrium bordered per day by large windows, with green

serpentine marble floors and rubber runners. (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, 1972)

3.2.7. Corso Matteotti (1958)

It represents the seat of an industrial complex which serves all the northern Italy and is one

of the most important in the industry, if not even the most important. There were numerous

and obvious problems. First of all, the realization of an office building, with the plurality and

differentiation of the employments, the internal routes all being different and inside-outside

paths which make the overall connection through the building. It was complicated to fulfil all

the functions and requirements: administration, technical offices, commercial offices,

financial offices, legal offices, a big secretary, large variety of rooms and halls.

From the beginning, the architect tried to achieve a balanced design in a bigger scale with

the coordination of nearby areas making it the heart and the centre of the area. It was

difficult to respond to higher and more complex needs and to make the building more

architectural destination with use and function which will make it more identical and unique.

The complex is calibrated and proportionate to the needs of the surrounding buildings,

designed in stellar escape with the central part as the big column that gathers all the

elements of vertical communication together and service to internal staff and external

visitors. Therefore, the stairs, fast elevators and a complex system of communication

adequately withstand the peaks of frequency of the input and output of the services, goods

and people flows without causing any confusion.

46

Building in corso Matteotti (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

Served by this vertical axis of communication, from the early drafts and sketches were

revealed three different paths to surfaces, volumes and structures being completely

different: a long body with a central zone that could and should serve a number of rooms

which could be found on the left and on the right from the traditional corridor and an

intermediate arm which could be served both by the centre or by one side.

This project was followed by a series of sketches and ideas that were composed into final

solution which seemed as a closed box, the concept almost opposite to the first draft on the

site plan sketch. It included narrow continuous cuts through the office lighting was realized,

which sometimes came down to preserve the possibility of overlooking. The middle and the

upper part of the first idea were drawn back and the front consisted of a cage of vertical sun

shadings suggesting an impression of air floating, contrasting with the robust solidity of the

strong base. This solution represented (in a way of formal characterization) a continuous

frame corresponding to the high-end at the top of the settlements, protected by a shelter

that would allow the ventilation of the offices along with proper lighting and permitting,

occasionally, with a recess, the exterior facing, not eliminating in a sense of constrictive

closure the negative legacy of the American experience.

Even this building, with most of the solution implemented and, in some cases, most of the

first idea formulated, solved in the best way a whole range of different issues: from the

hierarchy of the distribution of the internal space to the possibility of a plurality usage of the

47

same. However, even this final study (sixth or seventh proposed solution), as carried forward

and developed in the end, met the approval of the client. Yet another formulation,

characterized and less original than those that preceded it, resembled more closely the type

and appearance (certainly not unusual) a normal type of office building: external structure

with matte metal band and continuous glazing strip. There was no lack even in the original

elements, such as devices, partly already clarified, for ventilation, lighting, structural

elements, in the end were solved technically fine.

In the final drafting, on the ground floor the large space was given for areas used as

exhibition spaces, meeting offices and storage spaces. Keeping the building in parts not

closed completely, but in glass-screens that reflect the surrounding greenery, the

implementation of a roof garden above the ground floor seems like a clever trick to transfer

the actual building quote from 0 to apparent reference of 4.5 meters.

Examples of interior (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

The characteristic shape of the pillars (like an angled cookie) rise to a series of solar panels

whose usefulness is particularly evident on the east and west elevations of the building,

oriented on north-south axis. This feature of the structure is properly integrated with the

system of opening of vertically pivoting windows, with frames with double glazing and

venetian shading device, creating a system easily adjustable in response to the different

incidence of the solar rays.

48

Among other features the choice of the materials seems also interesting. Aside from the

number of red granite portals of South Africa, with which the building rises from the street

level going up and squaring up to the windows of the first floor, the building is entirely

covered in a tough material that does not undergo degradation and should not require

maintenance: yellowish stone of quartzite of Barge (tone fits perfectly with the traditional

yellow of Piedmont). The windows are kind of profiled with bronze bars. The floors are made

of marble or wood, with rubber and resin for the joints in order to promote the sound

proofing of the rooms, with a predisposition to fixed cabinets (forerunners of the modern

separation of the offices) and the adoption of a new material, flex.

The structure is completely isolated from the viable plans, on the whole perimeter, by

means of a wide gap that is not rigidly connected and goes directly to ground, allowing

together to ventilate and to illuminate very well the underground offices. For the two

underground floors that take advantage of the entire area, the second one is used as a

thermal power plant, maintenance rooms and archives while the first one has localized the

stands, laboratory and semi-industrial processing centre.

On the first floor are located the presidency, the general director, the assembly hall and the

secretary. The upper floors are housing the administrative and technical services and on the

eighth, can be found the experimental laboratory. The heating system for integral

conditioning is of induction type and the air can be qualitatively and quantitatively regulated

in any environment by acting directly on the device which is placed in all rooms under the

windows. (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, 1972)

3.2.8. Corso Duca d’Aosta

This project evokes only in its name the only relic of an interesting project idea that was the

great fountain (like the true platform of water) which would be used as a reflection. When

the designer had addressed the issue of the building, for this project he has proposed to the

customer the replacement of traditional gardens, which gladden the buildings in the area,

with the large expanse of water which would had completely fill the space within the

enclosure of the area and the building itself. The building would be built on arches bordering

the area from one side to another.

The idea, at first time being accepted, found its immediate implementation in the work of

digging and preparing the foundations, the armature and the arches of the building. But,

having reached the top of the shuttering of these great pillars on which the building was to

49

Building in corso Duca d’Aosta (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

be placed, stepped in negotiations for a major sale, the proposed acquirer had worries and

perplexities on the unique setting of the building, in characterization with precise

individuality, might have made him less

attractive, so he decided to change the

primary idea.

Therefore, the following decision was

gained on the contrary to the first setting,

the idea of water reflection was

abandoned and replaced by the more

peaceful version of the garden, the one

being implemented. Although the

necessity reduced to very different

parameters from those at the beginning of

the primary site plan setting, the project

was standing out compared to the

surrounding architecture, for certain

singularities as furniture in the garden.

Gardens in the interior of corso Duca d’Aosta

(Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno

architetto, 1972)

50

The entrance, for example, takes place in an lowered altitude, making in that way the

ground floor less enjoyment of the gardens, even with the assignment of a space amply

dimensioned according to the instances representation intended by the user.

The entrance at lower quote was done into organization of a space during the

implementation of the first idea. The access to the building should have been through a

passageway into the water, shielded from it by two walls made of glass with high resistance;

the actual staircase, going down to a height of about one meter lower than the level of the

pavement, would permit, through the transparent barrier of crystals, the view of the fish and

the aquatic landscape. The floodlighting would have shielded enhanced colours and

increased the suggestion. (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, 1972)

The final building is made of: the ground floor, in order to ease the configuration and layout

of all three floors, is easily accessible and has a colour of dark chocolate. Its layout is broken

by a number of columns that support the two upper floors, which are coated in travertine.

The travertine was chosen in the first idea and executed in large slabs of about 5 m2 of

mirror plays with a crucial role in both the epidermal talk of facades and in the development

of architecture as volume where the lodges of considerable size have found their place.

3.2.9. Via Vico (1956)

The area was the site of a former villa that has been demolished, in whose garden numerous

pines and other types of trees have survived, all dominated by a huge oak tree to which it

was easy to recognize the role of protagonist that has taken on, until about a building has

been named and referred to as the palace of the oak. It was difficult to operate in an

environment characterized by pre-existing history which was not very significant and

homogeneous, but marked on the outside by a beautiful construction engineer Morelli and

by green, on the inside, where the most important layout of the building had to be placed.

This important projection towards the garden has perhaps increasingly suggested some sort

of reversal of the meter distribution, which was so dear to Casalegno, here found its role

largely on the nature of a site. The usual type of work of architect from Turin, adopted in

many buildings, was the internal courtyard which is overlooked by the services. The clear

division of the day and night areas, the architect placed the sleeping area all the way to the

street, oriented north-east in order to receive the first sun, while allowing the exposition of

the inside to overlook the beautiful garden, the rooms of everyday life: dining room, living

room and even the services, because even the kitchen has the active life.

51

Facade facing courtyard (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

The front which is facing the courtyard is the most important result, treated with the large

balconies that allow the unfolding of a life pushed further outwards, confirming the intense

frequency of grand lodges where you play and spend the various moments of the lunch,

after lunch, dinner, wakefulness, children's games, so that they are indeed enjoyed and used

the most of the time. At the same time the services, on the main façade, are shielded to

enable them to be overlooked.

Also in this work, as in the others, the fruit of the collaboration between the architect and

the sculptor Garelli are positively evident, especially in the preparation of the glass screens

that closes the windows. The ground floor is raised and preserves the integrity of the

entrance function to the building through the beautiful garden, of course with hosting of

portiere services but not for living purposes.

Three sculptures by Mastroianni assign to the atrium an extraordinarily important function,

not only for the intrinsic value of the artifacts, but for the projection which leads out to the

garden where other sculptures of an artist, who has used for many years the low end of the

building border in the garden as a study, making more lively this green with the shows which

happened occasionally. (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, 1972)

52

3.2.10. Corso Cairoli (1957)

Among the many buildings designed by Casalegno

on sites favoured by the richness of the green and

especially lucky for the view, this one of corso

Cairoli enjoys even more favourable conditions,

almost exceptional. In fact, while the numerous

construction projects in corso Massimo d'Azeglio

and the in corso Vittorio Emanuele benefit from

views over the green, the most exciting scenes for

the view of the hills has the building of corso

Cairoli, at all levels. It provides the ability to fully

grasp the vision of the collinear importance, almost

comforting to one of his most characteristic and

closest poles to the city, the Monte dei Cappuccini.

While arranging the design, for the group of

collinear villas designed by Casalegno, he had to

mimic the hug to the city, to emphasize the panoramic office which has been completely

delegated to a proper distribution of livable environments in each room, each on one floor.

The living area enjoys a panoramic view; the night zone only captures the foreshortened

while the group of services is collected towards the yard. In addition, the living rooms have a

wall which is completely transparent, with a door which leads into a large loggia, almost an

extension outside the premises, specifically designed for outdoor living purposes.

The walls are wood-paneled and part is the screen grid of ceramic that partially coats the

sides. Much more closed is instead the view perpendicular to the corso Cairoli, where the

value is based mainly on the game combination between coating clinker and ceramic grate.

The ground floor represents the home to a professional studio that overlooks the base of the

building, just set back compared to the upper floors to connect the band of the sidewalks on

which stands this architecture, in marked rhythms of vertical access. (Giuseppe Luigi Marini,

1972)

3.2.11. Corso Vittorio Emanuele

This particular type of client (an insurance company in Turin) required a building that did

what it needs to well emphasize the appearance, use and function of the building. It was not

the building which was a normal type of buildings for income, also because the building, for

the lease, had the provided cost that would guarantee its balanced and proper use. Given a

particular category of building providing public functions and offering vast choices

dimensioned to large range of different needs, the study is directed to a dimensional

Building in corso Cairoli (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

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classification of the site area before the research and formulation of hypothetical building

type. So the starting point has been the identification of the distribution of the maximum

characters also because the building is not more than the insertion in the environment (not

in the historical sense) and characterized in formal terms and rather gratified to a

considerable wealth of green, just in the study and the development of housing types found

its most real ideas of interest.

Building in corso Vittorio Emanuele (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

The design of the building is made of the creation of three types of residential units,

respectively, for the three groups on family basis. A staircase was destined to serve two

apartments in the usual setting with services that face each other, i.e. the living room which

is used as pass-through, with the sleeping area developed on the one side and on the other

the group of services in connection with the rooms for everyday life, living and dining. A

second staircase served the vertical column of only one accommodation, with sizes much

larger and more important than the given trace in normal type lease.

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Finally, two other staircase allow access to minimal housing units composed of 2 rooms: a

bedroom with dressing room and bathroom and a living-dining room with kitchen, plus, of

course, the element of an outward projection, so characteristic of the whole architecture of

Casalegno, which is the covered loggia which, as a rule, replace the traditional balcony

overlooking and extending the concept of the staging area to fully habitable and fit for use

for a long time.

In the lobby of this building, unlike many others previously being made, the designer has

always had recourse to the collaboration of an artist for the detection of some figurative

element, the centre of interest which will make this place special. Casalegno has planned to

place real furniture made up of old furniture of large sizes, such as the furniture for

pharmacy and sacristy, which found and settled the character to the further common access

to different housing units. (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, 1972)

3.2.12. Via Ventimiglia

Sketch (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

A residential complex with fifteen residential buildings, offices, garages, a large shopping

complex with shops under a colonnade (therefore with the covered path), all immersed in

natural greenery and equipped with gardens.

Formal features common to all the buildings are the adoption of brick, prepared seen

vestment, integrated, emphasized and structured with concrete elements which are

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sometimes seen and sometimes hidden. Instead the covers are heterogeneous. They are

partly tiled with normal or coloured terracotta or partly in painted and glazed aluminium.

The four buildings of via Genova end with a continuous colonnade that fosters an inviting

path which is also covered in a pink colour, which causes reflections with pleasing effect. The

other buildings, however, reproduce the decision brought by the architect in different

materials which are chosen depending on the hierarchy and the importance of individual

buildings.

This type of the complex meets almost all the requirements of a satellite centre that could

be completely autonomous, with the possibility of a wide range of housing possibilities: from

the one and two bedroom apartments to those with nine rooms. The complex is practically

divided in two parts by via Genova and the nucleus in north-west which is constructed of five

buildings, with the two buildings that face via Genova with a colonnade that faces similar

construction in order to create complex residential and commercial vitality, with the services

of neighbourhood which can also be seen in via Millefronti with a certain continuity. Car and

pedestrian paths are clearly differentiated and organized with green spaces generously

sized.

Plan type of one of the buildings (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

The first buildings have risen in this area (which in that time was periphery), with no real pre-

existing architectural space and with the character of agricultural land all around which had

already been cancelled and irrevocably alerted. A series of small houses were occasionally

inserted randomly into a grassy expanse crossed by tracking the primary viability which gave

the urban transition between the green and the city which was going to replace it. But it was

not in pre-sorted decisions, because the road conditions were indefinite, even though this

area was standing in between the municipalities of Turin and Moncalleri.

In this remote corner of the capital expansion in Turin, the buildings have been studied

differently between them in terms of plans and characterization, with the stress on a

housing situation of the moment in which they arose. Almost all of them have been changed

or underwent changes in the design compared to the first setting according to the changing

needs of the construction market. The building Valga could be taken as an example building

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of via Ventimiglia, born in a time when immigration from the countryside to the city

assumed considerable proportions, which offered to potential users everything what they

asked for. One can observe that, almost all building were not traditionally closed, because

they were accustomed to a way of life more free and only encoded by the laws of weather

and storms. The users were venting to the way of living more suited to the courtyard, with

the grand lodge and the kitchen with dilated space of dining room, transformed in living

room as a place of leisure where, without awe of the city, one could eat, talk and stay well

with the privacy which could not be obstructed. (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, 1972)

Entrance to one of the buildings (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

The different types have been reduced in terms of the surface because the architect had

thought of a homogeneous layout which had the effect on the whole building. However,

there were three lots and the first one was built with a type that had found its favourable

acceptance for its actuality. The work was accompanied by an inevitable passing of the

primitive responses in the organization which had caused the need for the change (even

slightly) in the plans. The plans were extended with the sizes that did not fit more

harmoniously into what was the outer loggia area with zones equipped with sunscreens for

the indoor-outdoor living in all conditions: isolation, major protection, the view, greater

exposure etc. Then it became necessary to modify this type of plan with a set of changes

that found provide a certain relationship, a justification with the previous layout, but which,

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as the final result denounced some expressive dissonance that would leave the designer

dissatisfied.

Site area of residential complex (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

Indeed, the architect Casalegno, in subsequent times (as documented on the results

proposed) sent groups of people periodically with a questionnaire to interview the residents,

to see if the types, thoughts, concepts that were put in the design were still valid and to

draw all the suggestions not only for systems design, but also to current conditions, always

have collected responses in which the percentage of appreciation was flattering. Perhaps it

is one of the buildings in which the results of enjoyment was recorded with the highest

success and where the users have adapted to that new ‘evolution’ that transferred a custom

population from the countryside and inserted it into the city, and to change radically kind of

habits and occupations and finally the way of life.

In fact, the evolution of the project types have influenced and helped in a significant extent,

with a distribution which was differentiated by 2, 3, 4 or 5 bedrooms. With the help of

periodic interviews the conformation of a customary programmatic feature of Casalegno has

also emerged: the more positive notes were to lodges, with the enjoyment which (with the

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area covered by a minimum of 4m2 to a maximum of nearly double) actually allows the

outward project of domestic life.

The second building has risen unified to a concept that already included all the possible

types: from studio apartments, via average ones, to the big apartments composed of 6-7

rooms, with the possibility to satisfy all the needs. The design of this building provided the

broadest possibilities for the characterization of individual housing according to the desires

of the future user. In fact, the completed construction would have to be completely released

on the size and location of the windows, in order to adapt each apartment to the needs of

the owner or tenant. This solution is interesting, but clashed with the concern that the

entrepreneur has only partially accepted the suggestion. It limited the development of the

central building, while on the sides and on the implications it is folded in the traditional

layout of the stacked or not stacked frames, prefigured and without the possibility of sizing

or positioning and consequent breakdown of the different indoor ambient. (Giuseppe Luigi

Marini, 1972)

This concept of the building with a facade with a protection against heat, cold, noise and

smog is especially the element that allows maximum freedom to the user which allows him

to move and set up the openings of accommodation, combining its convenient results in a

correct layout that corresponds to the user itself. However, it did not find the positive

One of the buildings

(Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero

Casalegno architetto, 1972)

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application as it could be seen elsewhere and especially in the Milanese buildings in the

neighbourhood Milnosa.

The ground floor of this Turin’s building was supposed to be an expanse of greenery dotted

with tall trees in the ground. It has not been achieved because the entrepreneur, for obvious

speculative reasons, wanted to expand the basement areas and lower the courtyard.

Afterwards, the administration has blocked the work and the construction has not been

completed for a longer period of time which was a large waste for this residential complex.

Buildings of via Ventimiglia (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

The third building on via Ventimiglia has grown later in a moment when the housing market

has experienced its biggest fortunes and was consequently designing rich types of

accommodation and with multiple services. Constant reference, also in this case were the

great outdoors-covered lodges, completely furnished by the tenant in order to satisfy its

needs.

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4. The District and its historical development

4.1. The “Zone 2”

In order to understand better the scale of the district and its significance and role in the total

layout of the city, one has to go from a bigger scale (city scale) and lower to the scale of the

neighbourhood and, in the end, to the scale of the buildings and the human scale. This

chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the district itself through a series of cartography and

its development through time.

The Milnosa district is located in the north-east part of the city of Milan (Zone 2). Zone 2 is

one of 9 subdivision zones of Milan, with the surface of 12.58km2 and with 163932

inhabitants (as of 31 December 2006). This area has a great position in city of Milan, not

being far from the city centre and being connected to the main roads leading outside the

city, and it is enriched with the vicinity of Milano Centrale railway station, which is the most

important landmark of this area.

Position of the ”Zone 2” in Milan

This zone is also characterized by a highest number of immigrants in Milan, which led to the

development of distinctively multi-ethnic neighbourhoods (such as viale Padova, in Loreto

district). The complex history of Zone 2 is witnessed by its diverse landscape, which includes

such constraining elements as modern skyscrapers, old-fashioned popular Milanese

neighbourhoods, luxury villas on the banks of the Naviglio Martesana, abandoned factories

and modern residential complexes.

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The zone is also subdivided into more districts, which were independent municipalities up

until the first decades of the 20th century, before being annexed to Milan. This is reflected,

among other things, in the fact that many of them are evidently structured as small towns

rather as typical metropolitan areas.

4.2. The urban development of the area through cartography (late 19th – 21st

century)

4.2.1. Milnosa district at the end of 19th century

When it comes to the analysis of 19th century cartography, one can see that the area has not

changed significantly during the years. The main roads remained almost the same, with

separation of the land similarly to what can be seen today. From Beruto plan, of 1889, one

can understand that the area of Milnosa district was not even included in the Milan’s plan, it

was separated between two municipalities, one part belonging to Milan and the other to

Greco (which became part of Milan in 1923). The land was divided by roads which

represented main connection axes with vast green areas which remained empty at this time.

This area was not developed in terms of buildings, but it was largely subdivided into small

plots which helped later in defining the shape and use of the land. Settlements were mostly

situated inside the borders of Spanish walls and later started spreading towards the city

borders. (Cartography material)

The zone has been largely influenced by its valuable position near important routes leading

from Milan to major nearby places (such as Monza) and other bigger Italian cities. The

inclusion of Milano Centrale railway station, which is the most important railway station in

Milan (and one of the most important railway nodes in Italy), gave to this zone a valuable

position in the layout of the city.

This zone was developed through time thanks to the Naviglio Martesana canal, which

transverses most of Zone 2 and was largely used in past as one of the important

transportation systems, together with Navigli canals. This transportation role of the canal

has been taken away by the construction of Milano Centrale railway station, but still, it had

the influence in the development of the city. Nowadays, the canal is surrounded by villas and

residential buildings from one side, and on the other side the leisure area is created, which

follows the route of canal.

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Plan of 1889. In blue is the Milano Centrale railway station and in red the area of the district, divided between

two municipalities. (Cartography material)

4.2.2. Milnosa district in the first half of 20th century

As a consequence of the development of the railway system, in the early 20th century, the

Milanese north-east area changed quickly from rural area to a mostly industrial city outskirt,

experiencing, at the same time the dramatic increase in population. The Milano Centrale

railway station developed, becoming bigger and making the border to the area from the east

side. At the time of Albertini plan (1934), the area still remained green, with the same road

separation as of 1889. The surrounding areas became more populated and new buildings

started to emerge. Via Gioia was built at this time, giving the separation of the plot which

can be seen today. The area around Milano Centrale developed with the construction of new

buildings which followed the traditional Italian closed shape with internal private courtyards.

As the city started to change, factories were gradually dismantled as a consequence of the

expansion of the city and the zone became mostly residential and tertiary area.

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Plan of the area in 1934. (Cartography material)

At the end of 19th century, Spanish walls were affected by intense activity of redesign and

densification of road construction, due to gradual demolition of old walls and the

implementation of Beruto Plan, transformations which continue during the period between

two wars, as a result of numerous interventions of private investors to the individual

building lots on the basis of the Building Regulations.

The presence of housing estate is intensifying after the meeting between the main radial

outbound from the city centre and the belt itself, in correspondence of the ancient gates. In

fact, these joints open squares or plazas that allow adjacent buildings to take particular

character representation and visibility, as well as to be able to rise above the average of the

surrounding blocks because of the more open spaces that overlook. (Cartography material)

At the end of 1940s and the beginning of 1950s, the building sector of Milan got an

extraordinary growing. This growth is caused by a growing tension between the demand and

supply for housing, which is a result of city bombings in World War II and the upcoming

reconstruction processes. After the end of World War II the reconstruction process started.

Visible from the map of 1946 of Municipality of Milan, it is perceived the further subdivision

of the lots to the west and to the east of the railway, with more buildings covering, until

then empty lots. The agricultural land which existed in this area was pushed away to the

outskirts of the city and new buildings and urban units started to get their place. The area of

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Plan of the area in 1946. (Cartography material)

Milnosa district still remained empty, but the area north of the district started to host new

people. The change in Milanese way of buildings, which until this time could not be seen in

the city, here started to emerge. The building fabric, so far characterized by closed

courtyards, started to open itself with subdivisions that interrupt the continuous fronts of

the blocks and allow the exploitation of inland areas, which were until then occupied by

buildings of lesser quality. For these new forms corresponded a new human environment

and characterization. These interventions that occurred, triggered a progressive social

transformation with the expulsion of the lower classes. (Federico Zanfi, 2013)

There was the need for the total build-up of the area and the emergence for new areas was

generated by a strong internal migration that begins to affect Milan these years. Milan was

supposed to become ‘the largest Italian property market’, which was in particular the role of

companies and private operators, whose activity was mainly devoted to the construction of

homes of civil character.

4.2.3. Milnosa district in the second half of 20th century

In the aftermath of the Second World War, the heavy war damage and the presence of

numerous insanitary buildings in the central areas of the city create the conditions for a

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widespread replacement operation and construction of new buildings, including many

buildings and residential segments intended for middle class. These new buildings were built

on existing block (by a reconstruction process) or by replacing completely the buildings

which existed there before, raising the street fronts and saturating the space of inner

courtyards. In this way the total volume of buildings increased significantly and everything

thanks to the possibilities brought by the building regulations of 1921 and the reconstruction

plans of 1949 and 1950.

Plan of the area in 1953 (General City Plan). In red is marked the district with its mixed use. (Cartography

material)

From the City Plan of 1953, the area got designed completely, without leaving any empty

spaces undefined. Considering Milnosa district, the mixed use zone was predicted for this

area (in red) with public services (in blue), in accordance with the new urban planning

regulations and division of zones. The main east-west axis was created (via Cagliero) in 1956

around which buildings started to emerge. At the north of the area, which is in orange, the

residential zone was defined in with some green spaces in between. Also to the north and

east of piazza Carbonari, the green areas and public spaces got their place in this City Plan.

One can see that the surrounding areas were mostly built, with some free lots in the west

part of Milano Centrale railway station. The part of river Seveso and Naviglio Martesana was

covered on the regulations of new urban agreement for the area. (Cartography material)

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In this Lombard capital, in those years there was a demand for housing that is not only for

the classes of low-income immigrants, but more for the middle and upper classes

(particularly employees and managers). These categories of people were more and more

attracted to the city thanks to the strengthening of the commercial, financial and directional

attributes, which represented a great potential for richer people to populate this area. One

can see that more extensive tax breaks and subsidies were implemented by the state in

order to encourage the purchase of the house properties, in parallel with the major

programs of public buildings which were addressed to stimulate the middle class and attract

them to buy a property.

Following the new urban regulations brought by General City Plan of 1953, the area was

completely built with high settlements including green spaces in between them. The Milnosa

district got its school, church and large supermarket, and by providing commercial zones at

ground floor of some buildings, it became a zone where one could find everything without

having the need to leave the area. It got its final shape which can be seen today. As already

stated, also the parts around the zone got heavily urbanized with completion of main roads,

around which new urban blocks emerged with smaller roads filling in the urban puzzle.

At that time, in Milan also started a process of transferring the existing production activities

from the central areas of the city to the outer boundaries, more towards the neighbouring

municipalities. The structural transformations of the industrial sector, which came with

General City Plan of 1953, had among its prospects the reduction of pollution and urban

congestion through the decentralization of production. Between the mid of 1950s and the

end of 1970s, the city was abandoned by buildings which varied in size, from small, medium-

sized, to large complexes which released significant portion of urban land.

The factor that unites these different areas is a chance to enhance the surface released

through the construction of new residential and tertiary interventions. Through subdivision

plans and detailed plans were realized a number of new residential islands of medium-high

level with modern features, quite different from the surrounding blocks from the

nineteenth-century and guided by the maximum use of the volume built.

The belt began to assume a homogeneous appearance, not only for the characters of the

arrangement of road, but also to the character of the houses that surround it, the preserve

of middle and upper classes. This aspect increases after the Second World War, due to the

replacement building operations and completion of the isolated areas, where the General

City Plan of 1953 allowed actions which depended on the sector, still according to the

provisions of the building code or within the parameters of intensive and semi-intensive

density.

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Plan of the area in 1965. The district is completely built by this time. (Cartography material)

In these years, both economic and political factors, starting from the 1950s , took shape in

Milan as a new residential landscape that makes the space in the city through the modalities

that vary according to urban areas where interventions took part and which were defined in

their characters by agreements between the municipality and the individual owners and

private developers.

The differences in the negotiation and realization that every intervention reveals is the

variety of the types of space products that show how articulated is the living space. That

shows (as the result of agreements between government and private entities), however, in

almost all cases lower quality and insufficient quantity with respect to the new living spaces,

and that is in some cases literally replaced facilities and private spaces. Both of these

aspects, after some decades of peace kept within the category of the consolidated city,

return today to be a theme for reflection because of the profound changes affecting the

social aggregate of the middle class and its housing practices. (Federico Zanfi, 2013)

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4.2.4. The present situation

The city has had a building boom during the last half of 20th century and spread in almost all

areas which were not filled. The biggest development occurred in the zone around the

Centrale station, with new settlements which emerged, having different use and character.

From one side, a dimension of living at this time became increasingly irreducible to the

sphere of the private which translates into a different and multiple application of collective

space, and that is to be measured with the general scarcity and poverty of traditional public

space that such parts can offer.

New City Plan of 2004. The district is in the same condition as in the time of its construction. (Cartography

material)

The area itself did not quite changed through years, besides being more divided and

developed, completing in that way the urban fabric which nowadays cannot be drastically

changed. The new City Plan of 2004 shows slightly changes when compared to the City Plan

of 1953. The buildings in front of the school are demolished, in order to provide more space

for children’ playgrounds. Also the buildings changed in terms of functions which can be

perceived from the interview with Isabella Farina (70 years old): “Once there was a cinema,

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but a long time ago. It was at a place where the supermarket was constructed, which is now

closed unfortunately. But I remember, there was the cinema, but it did not last long, 10

years, 15 maximum.”

The district kept its organization, with the potential of developing the Naviglio Martesana

canal, which can become a new public attraction in this part of Milan, with nice walking

paths and benches which follow the canal. Already from one side of the canal, the area is

built as ’park’ zone, where one can see many people during day, (especially sunset) spending

their time walking or running. “Near here, there is the old Martesana, a beautiful zone, and

this zone was remade in last couple of years, everything was renovated. This is the zone

where one lives nicely.” thinks Angela Bianchi (54 years old), the interviewee who came in

this area when she was 14 years old. People use a lot of green spaces through the district

itself, either being a private part of the building or a public zone. “At piazza Carbonari one

can find also the area for dogs. I have a dog myself and I spend a lot of time there.” said

Angela Bianchi.

Pictures showing Martesana canal.

Moreover, residential space is considered relatively stable and that today, depending on the

context, finds itself rose in the high-end real estate market, is affected by the processes of

filtering perhaps irreversible. That is a space that is progressively less able to accommodate

the plural forms of being together, a space that proves expensive exercise, in need of a

special maintenance that in many cases seems difficult to sustain.

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5. The history of Milnosa district through archival material This final chapter is dedicated to the analysis of Milnosa district through different phases of

construction, going from the scale of the district to the details of buildings and the human

scale perspective. It is important to understand the role of the architect and his way of

designing through the history of the district, which will be analyzed from very beginning until

today.

Using different methodologies, such as archival materials, maps, building licences, urban

agreements, architectural details and interviews with the inhabitants it is possible to

construct the story from the preliminary design, through construction to what we can see

today. Thanks to the previous chapters in which I described the development of the district

through history and the approach of architect Gualtiero Casalegno to the similar projects

(especially residential complex in via Ventimiglia) it is possible to conclude the story with this

final approach.

In the Milnosa district there are 46 residential buildings which make a huge complex, and my

focus will be on 5 residential buildings which face via Cagliero. Thanks to the archival

materials where I found many information regarding this buildings (maps, plans, sections,

elevations, urban agreements, building licences) and to the interview with the inhabitants of

via Cagliero, I could understand the life of this district and its significance to inhabitants. As

mentioned before, the architect Gualtiero Casalegno paid a lot attention to the satisfaction

of the users who lived in his buildings because in that way he could perceive the strengths

and weaknesses of his design. It helped me to write the story of this district and to

understand what is the influence and impression it left to the people, moreover because the

best way to understand architecture is to observe the users and their satisfaction and

experience with the design and to hear different opinions on what might be changed

through time.

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5.1. The construction of a new residential district in an area of expansion In the previous chapter the introduction was made to the middle class who started

populating the areas after the end of the war. In the process of reconstruction after the

World War II, came also in a first place the significant expansions towards city borders, with

construction of residential complexes. With the expulsion of lower class people to the

outskirts of Milan, more and more projects were made in order to attract middle class

people to buy a property and to invest money. The Milnosa district is the example of this

kind of district, built for the middle class. It rises about 800 meters from Milano Centrale

railway station. On the initiative of the Society Milnosa it has been designed to

accommodate 20000 inhabitants, full of amenities: schools, churches, shopping centres etc.

(Giuseppe Luigi Marini, 1972)

The Milanese General City Plan approved in 1953 is presented as the most significant

experience in post-war Italian planning. There were numerous agreements signed with

private administration in the 1930s and 1940s related to land which was a part of a big

expansion envisaged in the Plan of 1934 (Albertini plan). For various reasons it remained

unimplemented during the war than at the end of the 1940s where it had effect on the

choices of reconstruction plans as on the perimeters and the density of the expansion areas

provided with the reconstruction plan of 1953. From the 1950s these building projects and

residential complexes, designed twenty years ago on the basis of rules and density

constrains allowed by the plan then being in force, were to be implemented within the

urban, social and housing market, requiring a complex adaptation to the changed conditions.

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5.2. Convenzioni urbanistiche (“Urban agreements”) 5.2.1. First urban agreement of 1943 (Convenzione urbanistica) In the work of architect Gualtiero, in the area to the east of piazza Carbonari, compressed

between the corso Torrente Saveso and via Melchiorre Gioia, one can find a huge residential

complex with public spaces and green private zones. On this area the Municipality of Milan

in 1943 already signed an agreement with the owners Heinritzi and Ferreri in variation to the

plan of 1934 to build a new neighbourhood along one of the main axis of development of

the city. The initial design included a rigid system of closed residential blocks with 23 meters

high street fronts, courtyards partially covered by a garages and commercial activities on the

ground floor along the main east-west axis distribution in the neighbourhood. The buildings

facing via Gioia were supposed to rise up to 30 meters, while at the west of the area, at the

passage of the railway line Milano-Monza was supposed to be located a tower of more than

50 meters. This solution was later changed in a variant of modernist imprint, in which the

closed isolates were replaced by a series of residential blocks tall over 30m, isolated or

connected by low commercial buildings, still overlooking the main east-west axis, and in

which the tower building at the west of the area was raised to 60m. This new solution

remained unchanged with the two main terms of the agreement:

1. the creation of a high-density building zone;

2. the sale of private land for about 31700m2 on which the municipality intended to

build roads and technical networks.

The process of approval stopped during the conflict and the beginning of the 1950s and the

convention, not yet implemented, was no longer corresponded with the predictions for the

same area contained in the General City Plan of 1953 in the approval process. New

negotiations with the properties are therefore necessary in order to adapt to the parcelling

requirements, in particular to decrease the index of overall utilization of the area up to

become part of the intensive density zone, while lowering the transfer of areas for public

spaces. (Federico Zanfi, 2013)

5.2.2. Second urban agreement of 1952 (Convenzione urbanistica) More organic and rational development plan upon which a second agreement (1 October

1952), offered a system with big opened isolated areas in which there are located numerous

residential buildings of two different heights (24m and 30m, depending on the street they

are facing) combined with linear volumes with a ground floor intended for commercial

activities. The seriality of the system was interrupted by three objects: a tower of 60m with a

base of clover plant (remained at the passage of the railway line Milano-Monza), a school

complex and a neighbourhood church. These buildings were to be carried out respectively at

the initiative of the municipality, in two areas of 6000m2 each, sold by the owners Adelchis

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Heinritzi and Joseph Ferreri Bartolomeno for the realization of services provided for the

neighbourhood.

Even this plan, however, had to wait until it reaches its implementation. Different points in

this master plan distribution were inconsistent with the provisions of General City Plan and it

was necessary to development project that satisfies the regulations of urban planning at that

moment, hence it was not realized. (Federico Zanfi, 2013)

5.2.3. Third urban agreement of 1954 (Convenzione urbanistica)

District Milnosa after the constrution (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto, 1972)

The proposal was made for new development plan (with roads, squares, kindergarten, new

school and new parish church) to be built on the property of Heinritzi and Ferreri, in

accordance with the guidelines of General City Plan. A third and final agreement was signed

in 1954 based on a design by Turin architect Gualtiero Casalegno (together with architects

Eldo Ferrero, Giovanetto Edda Follis and Elena Frugoni), who retained the residential cubage

and main elements of road structure previously defined in 1952, but organized differently

and the volumes which were implemented starting in 1956.

The project includes “the organic distribution of buildings with large green private spaces

above the garages with the provision of public services making possible the life of the

neighbourhood as an autonomous entity, the formation of a road network for access to

buildings and crossing the neighbourhood; the inclusion of parochial buildings and public

parks and the underground crossing of the railway of Monza Station Varesine”.

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There were three steps until the implementation of the final project:

1. On 30 December 1954 was signed an agreement for implementation of the project

which comprehended the area between via del Progresso, via Melchiorre Gioia, the

new parallel axis to the north of via Stresa and corso del Seveso until piazza

Carbonari.

2. The Mayor has asked for the approval of the plan for the area on 19 April 1956

3. Finally, on 14 February 1958 the Decree of approval of detailed plan and its

implementation was approved by the Decree of the President of the Republic for the

area. Everything was approved except the area adjacent to the church.

Plans and elevation of buildings facing via Cagliero (Giuseppe Luigi Marini, Gualtiero Casalegno architetto,

1972)

The promoter of the work, society Milnosa signed the agreement with the proprietary

Heinritzi and Ferreri for the development of new design. Also the agreement was signed

with Opera Pia Chiese e Case parrocchiali in Milan. All members were committed to follow

the rules of General City Plan. The Municipality of Milan acquired buildings for execution and

handed them over to the society afterwards. By the 1956 the Municipality finished the

sewerage works of new routes as provided by Master Plan, road systematization, street

lighting works and culverts of springs. (Archival material)

The concept of the urban design, if compared to the time of construction, seems

revolutionary for two reasons:

1. First, the spontaneous and massive reduction in its achievable volume, at the time

when no one dared to renounce any possible grant of building regulations.

2. Secondly, the design comprehended the viability only tangential to the buildings, for

the purposes of establishment of different fronts and for replacement of the inner

courtyards. In this enormously dilated area equipped with gardens, green represents

frequently the connection parts between several buildings.

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5.3. The present situation

The neighbourhood is built around via Cagliero, which in 1956 replaced the part of Milano-

Monza railway, with the width of 22 meters with public green. The project predicted the

covering of part of Seveso and Naviglio Martesana. The via Cagliero represents the main axis

(east-west) on which group of buildings rise, arranged in rows but with successive angles,

with a green area in front of the buildings with private purposes and the green zone for

public purposes.

The residences are organized in linear buildings (30m high), isolated or welded in sequence

with a slight deviation, in order to form longer and serrated elements that give movement to

the street fronts. In groups, these buildings are then assembled into large blocks that

enclose private communal gardens planted with tall trees and underground garages.

Towards these private spaces open up long balconies and galleries which characterize the

facades of residential buildings. On the ground floor of some of these buildings, overlooking

the main east-west axis, one can find commercial and office rooms, but the main element of

novelty in the project of Casalegno is the realization of an isolated mixture of services and

residences on private land, in a central position, in which commercial, offices and services

were placed, in addition to the school building and the church made by the administration

Master Plan of the Milnosa district of 30 July 1953. In red are residential buildings, blue represents shops and commercial activities, orange is the cinema, green is the school, yellow is the church, stripes represent garages and purple are 5 buildings facing via Cagliero, which represents the main axis east-west of the development of the district. (Archival drawings)

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and the Curia, already present in the convention of 1952. The result is a kind of service

centre that still characterizes the neighbourhood and its public space. (Giuseppe Luigi

Marini, 1972)

The church and school in Milnosa district.

All other buildings in the district are placed near main connection roads. The entrances to

the buildings are placed by walkways through the gardens created between two or more

buildings. For bigger enjoyment to the nature and to the outside, the apartments are dilated

with the environment by large balconies, screened by shading elements made of wooden

lattices and glass plates, equipped for outdoor living area with benches and tables. From the

Master plan of 1953, compared to today, one can see that the district change in terms of

functions. Instead of the old cinema, which only lasted around 10 years, one can see now

the supermarket which supplies the neighbourhood. Also the buildings in front of the school

are now destroyed in order to provide more space for children’ playgrounds and public

space for school purposes.

The apartments in via Cagliero no. 4, 8 and 12 are distributed 6 per one floor, 2 apartments

being accessed directly from one staircase block and in via Cagliero no. 6 and 10 are 4 per

one floor, being bigger than the other ones. On the ground floor there are 2 entrances which

lead through private garden to the interior of the buildings. One can find there also 2

apartments, but also the distribution of different services necessary for residential building

and a service of portineria. The side facing via Cagliero has the connection with the outside

done through the balconies which occupy the facade completely, without any interruptions,

just with parapets to divide the different apartments’ balconies. In that way, the architect

wanted to give more life to the buildings, by connecting them with the nature and making

them more open and light. The other side is opened to the more private green zone in terms

of lodges, with more beautiful view and enjoyment of the surroundings.

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The apartments are all big

(usually bilocale and trilocale) and

most users are satisfied with the

given functions and layout of the

apartments. Certainly, the

apartments need renovation after

all these years passed from

construction:”I did not change

anything, all the layout remained

the same. The only thing I did is

the renovation, i.e. the painting

of the interior, the changing in

current installations and

hydraulics.” said Isabela Farina

(70 years old), who spent more

than 40 years living in this

neighbourhood. In the case of

Carolina Pagano (48 years old),

one can see that she made

significant changes to the

apartments:”I changed and

united two apartments, one next

to the other. I lived in bilocale,

and meanwhile, after some time,

I bought the other apartment,

united them, made second

bathroom and double living

room.” Some entrances to the buildings.

The features of this district are also the ‘chromaticism’ of the buildings, obtained by means

of plaster and wall tiles. All flat roofs are equipped for a leisure activities, or living room,

rooms for children. The green element of the neighbourhood has been so formulated to

allow children's games, walks for the elderly, in a relationship between the garden and

lodges nearly direct, which allowed only pedestrians in these areas and quite control of

children playing in these areas because they are protected by big fence so they can enjoy

completely the nature. Hence, green areas can be understood as a beautiful daylight living

room which needs to be preserved.

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Most inhabitants are satisfied with the

living conditions in this zone. The

district is completely supplied with all

necessary shops and facilities which

are provided at ground floor of some

buildings and also with the vicinity of

supermarket (which needs to be

reopened) one does not have to leave

the district because everything is

nearby. In the vicinity there is also

Naviglio Martesana canal, with nice

walking paths. But even though it has

been redone recently, Cesare Mattiello

(32 years old), who recently came to

the area for work, thinks the area is

not developed completely:”It already

has some pedestrian zone next to the

canal itself, but it needs something

which will attract people more, new

public space which will act as a centre

of the district so everyone could go there and spend their time, meet other people”. One can

find here also schools with a lot of differentiation between scholars and more foreigners

which attend it. There are also two churches nearby, swimming pools, gyms etc. However,

Mario Fogliani (42 years old), the interviewee and the resident of the area for more than 15

years, thinks that the zone needs more life:”There are no many public places, especially for

the younger people. They need the areas for themselves to be constructed.” With him

agrees also Patrizia Benedetti (29 years old):”There should be some improvements, we are

penalized. There should be more movement, because the area is dying. But, compared to

other districts, this one is not strictly residential.”

Although there are different types of families and inhabitants living in the district Milnosa,

there is no strict division between social groups. The relationship between social groups and

the feeling of community spirit is not rare and most of the people living in this area know

each-other and spend most of their time in the zone during afternoon hours. Paolo

Martinelli (36 years old), the resident of the area says:”I am satisfied with the area of course.

The zone is quiet, well served, very good. This is a neighbourhood in which all services can be

found. One goes out in the area and usually meets the same people every day, which gives

you the feeling of living in rather small country, than in a neighbourhood. In the end, I

cannot speak badly about my neighbourhood, honestly.”

The buildings facing via Cagliero today