Zaha Hadid Architects has completed the Genera Tower in Milan, featuring a twisted geometry within the CityLife masterplan. The masterplan transformed Milan’s abandoned trade fair grounds following the fair’s relocation to Rho Pero in 2005. The building has been photographed by architectural photographers Hufton+ Crow in detail. 

Named Generali Tower, the tower, reaching 170-metre height, will house up to 3,900 employees to meet their continued growth as one of the world’s largest financial institutions when its interiors to be completed this summer. 

The 44-storey tower is located above the new Tre Torri station on Line 5 of the city’s metro system. The CityLife masterplan opens the 90-acre site to year-round public use for the first time, providing new civic spaces, public parks and residential areas designed by Zaha Hadid, Daniel Libeskind, and Andrea Maffei, in addition to shopping districts and corporate offices. 

When fully complete in 2020, CityLife will be the largest new civic space and public park created in the city since Parco Sempione opened 130 years ago; welcoming more than seven million visitors, workers and residents each year. CityLife will include 1,000 new homes, offices for more than 11,000 staff, the new 42-acre public park, piazzas and kindergarten.

"Aligned at ground level with three of the city’s primary axes that converge within CityLife, the 170m (44-storey) Generali Tower connects with its surrounding public piazzas and park; the curvilinear geometries of its podium defined by the perceived centripetal forces generated from the staggered intersection of these three city axes at the tower’s base," stated ZHA in a press statement.

"This vortex of centripetal forces at ground level is transferred vertically through the tower by realigning successive rhomboid-shaped floor plates to twist the tower about its vertical axis. This helical twist reduces incrementally with the height of each floor above street level, giving all floors a fractionally different relationship to the floors above and below," the firm added.

"As the tower rises offering broader views across Milan, the twist orientates the tower's higher floors to the primary southeast axis leading to Bramante’s 15th Century tribune of  Santa Maria della Grazie, and beyond to the centre of the city."

The tower is designed by considering Milan’s rigorous local building codes for high-level energy efficiency. Its double-façade of sun-deflecting louvers flanked by glazing provides extremely efficient environmental control for each floor and ensures excellent energy performance, contributing to Generali Tower’s LEED Platinum certification by the US Green Building Council.

The studio uses inclined perimeter columns, following the twisting geometry of the tower, to mirror the inclined alignment of its external façade units. These perimeter columns also maximise usable office space within the tower’s coherent formal envelope.

"An integral element of the CityLife redevelopment that has created a new civic, residential and business district near the centre of Milan, Generali Tower is defined by its surrounding urban fabric to connect directly with the city," added ZHA.

CityLife connection diagram

CityLife masterplan

Geometrical rules

Lower ground floor plan

Tower ground floor plan

Rotation floors

Level 5 floor plan

Level 22 floor plan

Elevation

Project facts
Height: 170 meters (44 storeys)
Office tower: 66,785 sq.m
Retail Podium and Cinema: 39,760 sq.m (5 storeys)
Parking, Storage and Mechanical/Plant: 40,884 sq.m
Total: 147,429 sq.m GFA

Competition: 2004
Design: 2009–2012
Construction: 2014–2017
Interiors: 2017–2018

Project Team

Architects: Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA)
Design: Zaha Hadid, Patrik Schumacher
ZHA Project Director: Gianluca Racana
ZHA Project Associate: Paolo Zilli
ZHA Project Architect: Andrea Balducci Caste
ZHA Site Supervision Team: Pierandrea Angius, Vincenzo Barilari, Stefano Paiocchi
ZHA Project Team: Shahd Abdelmoneim, Santiago F. Achury, Marco Amoroso, Agata Banaszek, Gianluca Barone, Cristina Capanna, Alessandra Catello, Sara Criscenti, Kyle Dunnington, Alexandra Fisher, H. Goswin Rothenthal, Marco Guardincerri, Subharthi Guha, Luciano Letteriello, Carles S. Martinez, Marina Martinez, Mario Mattia, Peter McCarthy, Giuseppe Morando, Massimo Napoleoni, Raquel Ordas, Annarita Papeschi, Massimiliano Piccinini, Matteo Pierotti, Line Rahbek, Martha Read, Arianna Russo, Luis Miguel Samanez, Mattia Santi, Letizia Simoni, Alvin Triestanto, Roberto Vangeli, Fulvio Wirz
ZHA Competition Team: Daniel Baerlecken, Yael Brosilovski, Ana Cajiao, Tiago Correia, Adriano De Gioannis, Yang Jingwen, Simon Kim, Daniel Li, Graham Modlen, Karim Muallem, Judith Reitz.

All images © Hufton+Crow

All drawings courtesy of ZHA

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