renzo piano: masterplan for the ex falck area, milan

visualization of renzo piano’s masterplan for the ex-falck area in milanrendering by frédéric terreaux © renzo piano building workshop

milan has historically been home to some of the world’s most recognized brands. being the hub of fabrication for many of them, the city now finds itself with decommissioned factories, closed, abandoned and often times forgotten, leaving a considerable amount of space unusable and often times unsightly. the falck steel plant of sesto san giovani in northern milan is one such place, leaving behind many aged social housing units, an industrial skeleton, and a greying landscape. renzo piano has recently been given legal rights to the 1.3 million square-meter site where he plans to restore it as a vibrant place for the community, complete with a museum, library, research centers, universities, homes, shops, and a 1 million square-meter park tying it all together – slated for completion by 2018. the master plan follows a bi-axial concept whereby the north-south axis (dubbed the ‘rambla’) will contain commercial and residential program and will add approximately 1270 new housing units. the east-west datum will host the public functions mentioned above, merged with a newly green landscape. the rambla will feature a series of towers ranging between 40 and 90 meters tall, elevated on columns above the ground with hanging green gardens clad in terracotta-colored tiles.

a project of this size must also take energy use and infrastructure into account if it is to be successful. the entire campus is designed to be autonomouslypowered, relieving the grid of more energy loads. connections with various parts of the city will also be improved; a redesigned train station will better linkto existing public transport services and the ‘elf’ – alternative energy vehicles – will be introduced as a new means of low-capacity mobility.

street view visualization of commercial and residential buildingsrendering by frédéric terreaux © renzo piano building workshop