Peter Eisenman's firm Eisenman Architects, in conjunction with Degli Esposti Architetti and AZstudio, have completed new residences in Milan, Italy, with s-formed structure that gently penetrates within the city fabric.

Named Residenze Carlo Erba, the 14,000-square-metre building sits on a triangular site bounded by non-descript buildings. 

This project attempts to create a symbolic contemporary apartment building with the number of units required for commercial viability while responding to the context, particularly to the adjacent public garden, by continuing the garden onto the site. 

Restricted by the height limit due to the local regulations, the studio designed a series of horizontal bands stacked with slight offsets that create four different layers in the nine-story building.

The first three floors constitute a base course similar to historic urban palazzi with travertine cladding and punched window openings of similar size, with inset balconies. 

The fourth floor, or second layer, is like a traditional piano nobile; it is set back from both the face of the travertine base and the marble face above, and its glazing contrasts with the stone surfaces. 

The third layer, floors five and six, is articulated by enameled metal frames that create a horizontal band running the length of the façade. 

These frames are set forward of the actual west face of the building. On the east facade, they excavate the mass of the building in a carving lattice. The fourth and topmost layer, floors seven through nine, is in one sense not a horizontal layer but, in its stepped profile and volumetric mass, a series of “urban villas” with large planting terraces. 

"The whole ensemble of distinct layers slightly shifted off center produces a dynamic effect, which, combined with traditional materials and window openings, marks the project as being of Milan today," said Eisenman Architects. 

"The S-form of the building was determined through a series of studies seen in  diagrams that show how it meets both program and zoning requirements and also incorporates an early 20th-century classicist building on the site," the firm added.

This building becomes part of the condominium, as well as its formal entrance. The public garden to the west now "ends" in the curve of the condominium’s west elevation.

Eisenman Architects worked with local architecture firm Degli Esposti Architetti and AZstudio on the project. 

Image © Marco de Bigontina

Image © Marco de Bigontina

Image © Marco de Bigontina

Image © Marco de Bigontina

Image © Marco de Bigontina

Site plan

Floor plan

Floor plan

Floor plan

Project facts

Project name: Residenze Carlo Erba

Location of building: Milan, Italy

Completion date: July 2019

Gross square footage: 14,000 sqmeters / 150,000 sqfeet

Total construction cost: 40 million euro (40,000,000.00 euro)

Client: Pinerba s.r.l., a company of Morelli Group

General contractor: 

Italiana Costruzioni (Rome): phase 2 and completion

CLE Cooperativa Lavoratori Edili (Bolzano): phase 1

Engineers

Structural: Studio d’Ingegneria Associato Ardolino, Bolzano;

Mechanical and electrical: Sistema Group Engineering, Montichiari (BS)

(preliminary phase); A.T. Advanced Tecnologies, Rome (execution phase); Studio

MGM, Gallarate (execution phase)

Other

Supervision of construction:

Arch. Lorenzo Degli Esposti

Arch. Paolo Lazza

Arch. Stefano De Vita

Project surveillance

Geom. Giorgio Marocchi - Sherpa Engineering, Mantova (Phase 1);

Geom. Tristano Barroccu, Milan (Phase 2).

All images © Maurizio Montagna unless otherwise stated.

All drawings © Eisenman Architects

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