Organised by Milan Municipality and C40, the competition calls for a regenerative design of one of Milan's most complex sites; the Square. LOC (Loreto Open Community), led by the developer and co-investor Ceetrus-Nhood and managed by Arcadis Italia, boasts an Italian design team guided by Metrogramma Milano as team leader.
The LOC will transform Piazzale Loreto from a large traffic junction into a green open-air square, connected to NoLo to ensure continuity of the Corso Buenos Aires, Viale Monza, and Viale Padova axis. Inside the masterplan, the design of the Square and its buildings, signed by Metrogramma Milano, starts from the new footprint set strategically by Mobility In Chain; due to the optimisation of the vehicular flows, the public space, finally reconquered, is amplified on a three-level system, a new urban “head” for NoLo District, directly connected with Via Padova.
The central core of the Square is lowered to mezzanine level, in order to create a gathered space, set on a permeable ground, protected by external circulation and able to grant direct access to the metro station. At the same time the perimetral buildings, set at the very same level, surface one floor from the ground and open their rooftops as accessible terraces. The identity of the Square of LOC is defined by subtraction. We cleaned up, optimised, open to light the space, avoiding any unnecessary addition and over-design. LOC wants to demonstrate that the new post-pandemic era should start from this principle: the body shrinks but the soul expands.
Andrea Boschetti, Architect, Founder, Head of Design, MetrogrammaThe need to plant trees and recreate green areas inside the city is one of the main objectives of the LOC, in line with the Milan City Council's programmes. The Loreto Open Community will recuperate more than 10,000 sq m of green public space with canopy trees planted directly in the ground, enabling the new piazza to establish a local natural microclimate and an oasis for citizens in their free time. The public space will be divided into three levels; the ground floor square, the open-air recessed square, the rooftop square.
The ground floor square is the urban layer; here the project collects and connects the existing urban axis and the new soft mobility paths that innervate LOC (Loreto Open Community). The three buildings of the Square, with their 2,800 sq m footprint, are conceived as green glass and wood icebergs, shaped by the very same hallow heart of the public space; the architectural masses define a new boundary for vehicular mobility on the exterior side, while they direct pedestrian flows towards the core of LOC on the interior one. A fourth iceberg faces the Square, the podium of Porpora, a building signed by Studio Caputo, shares the same architectural approach of the Square, both in terms of materials palette and of openness towards the city.
The green recessed square is the social place; a 2,300 open-air area, with a lively schedule of events, rich in a commercial offer and flexible to the spontaneous activities of LOC users. Planted on fully permeable soil, this double-height square creates an unexpected environment; a protected and dynamic oasis, a light and colour kaleidoscope, under the natural canopy of the central Sky Forest. Accessible from everywhere, accessible for everyone with a widespread system of staircases, ramps and lifts, the green recessed square celebrates sociality in public space; two “amphitheatre” staircases mirror on the two sides of the Square, framing the access to the metro station, towards Corso Buenos Aires.
The cantilevered square is the terrace on LOC; the rooftops of the buildings, crowned by a perimetral vegetated stripe, screen the public space off the vehicular roads and bring the attention towards the centre of the project. Wide staircases connect this level to the ground, creating seating spaces and natural settings for free open-air activities. The rooftops offer an extraordinary perception of the space, as unexpected as the experience of the recessed oasis; here, a hanging walk gives a privileged view on the Square, just below the fronds of the Sky Forest.
Facades become the boundary and theatrical setting of the Square at all levels, a stripe that surrounds a protected, lightful and safe environment, a colourful and multifaceted architectural device that mirrors day and season flow, everyday life of people and activities on the Square.
This architectural urban system, as suggested by Metrogramma Milano for the Square of LOC and its buildings, is the tangible answer to the participation process, followed together with Temporiuso during the competition stage.
The functional programme of the three buildings of the Square, hosting mainly new commercial neighbourhood activities of approximately 8,000 sq m, and ATM offices approximately 1,200 sq m once optimised, comes straight from the requests of the territory and foresees a mix of public, semi-public and private functions meant to enhance the attractiveness of the entire indoor and outdoor system, creating a lively and safe hub, open 24/7. A web of functional clusters promotes the overlap of the activities; as an example, LOC offers sport commerce and at the same time free ping pong table on the rooftops or jogging activities throughout the gardens of the Square.
The programme of the Square of LOC is therefore developed in relation both with the existing territory and with the vision of the space; an identity and permeable place of exchange, that promotes diversification and plurality stimulating planned activities and spontaneous usages of the space.
Finally, the architecture of the Square will become a virtuous example and innovative answer to the challenges of Reinventing Cities and Agenda 2030, providing, at the same time, a new character to Loreto.
The architecture of the Square, grounded on sustainable and functional construction technologies and on certificated and performant materials, provides both passive and active strategies of energy control, thermal inertia, natural ventilation, cutting edge engineering systems, energy production devices, in order to minimise energy waste and make more efficient the entire life cycle of the buildings, according to the LCA approach of the design.
The buildings of the Square benefit from good thermal inertia; enclosed in the ground and protected by the green roof on top, the green icebergs open their widest glass facades in fact towards the vegetated heart of the Square, where they benefit from the privileged microclimate and shading of the Sky Forest.
The construction technology, based on a modular five by five-metre grid in wood, steel and concrete, is very functional, time and cost-saving oriented.
The buildings display a ventilated façade system that consists of a glass sandwich, prismatic on the external side and plain on the internal one, including in the middle a wooden brise soleil with a gradient designed density; the result is a highly energy performant shell with a fresh, dynamic and contemporary character.
Within this frame, the parterre of the Square is a natural and plain carpet, that plays with different materials according to the outdoor functional programme; resin bound, wood and permeable concrete for the recessed Square, stone for the ground floor one, finally wood and greenery for the rooftop one.
A decisive factor for Ceetrus Nhood's success was the choice of an integrated sustainability approach, achieved under the direction of Arcadis Italia who provided technical coordination for the entire project, together with environmental consulting, design and development management, and engineering.
The studio also designed the tower building on Via Porpora that will be integrated into the layout of the Square and represent an iconic new landmark for the city. MIC, Mobility in Chain, dealt with the redesign project for transport from the local urban scale up to the details of the Loreto traffic junction network. The new transport system takes a radical approach of redistribution of space in favour of active, sustainable transport.
The Team was completed with Temporiuso, Squadrati, IGP Decaux, Siemens, Helexia, Alchema CO+FABB, Miage, and Starching. All the technical coordination was achieved thanks to Arcadis Italia under the direction of Ceetrus Nhood. The LOC will be an activity incubator and hub of attraction, a new urban district for local commerce.