Symbiosis is the only significant area of transformation in Milan that has not focused on housing. Offices, schools, art centers, services, public spaces make up this district of future work. This is a relevant, original fact and it seems to us to be the real challenge to be met in the completion of the area that is also implemented with the building that is the object of this contest. Unlike other existing buildings, the multitenant character has led us to imagine a specifically urban building, with a strong volumetric articulation, which transmits to the outside the idea of a coexistence between different companies, tenants, subjects.
Our proposal focuses on some salient points. First of all, in fact, the idea of a building for different companies, has pushed us to strongly articulate its volumetry, almost a "house for companies", with a traversable and open ground floor, a more compact body (floors 1-5) and a more jagged top, with terraces, hanging gardens and loggias that "dig" the building and allow for a great articulation of internal spaces, different points of view and flexibility of use.
The work space today must be simultaneously flexible and attractive, it must be capable of providing those performances of versatility of use that ensure that our work is no longer a static presence at a desk and that, over the course of a typical day, sees the possibility of different geometries and configurations. But a second objective is added to this. Flexibility and quality of space are elements of identity and affection that can produce identification for those who work in these spaces, but also interest and pleasantness for those who, from the outside, interact with the structure hosted inside. The workspace is increasingly a
"hub" that is asked to perform certain tasks: from time to time a workspace suited to the needs of the task that I have to perform (a meeting, a communication, a group focus, etc.). The hub must welcome me and must provide me with the space I require with efficiency and simplicity. Traditional work remains but is articulated. The typical day is fragmented into a sequence of moments that require different environments. All this leads to a fluid, polycentric,a-hierarchical space.
Secondly, however, the building we propose is also part of the larger Symbiosis district. In order for it to make a positive and progressive contribution to the whole of the environment under construction, the intervention is a large filter screen with respect to via Adamello, a sort of "gap" towards the internal collective space that, towards the north, will connect with piazza Olivetti and towards the south with the other open spaces being defined. In this way, the architecture is articulated, especially on the ground floor, to produce those visual glimpses necessary to communicate to the outside the richness of the open and collective space enclosed between the buildings. The life of the Symbiosis community also takes place in this open space. Between the greenery and the bodies of water, the subjects who "reside" in the different buildings,
can find that space for coexistence, exchange and interaction that will make it even more interesting to "live" Symbiosis to work, learn, exchange ideas and projects. This attention to open space is reflected in the standard plans. The body parallel to via Adamello is in fact a quintuple body that, from west to east, sees a sequence of a) open space work spaces; b) corridor; c) central core with services (stairs, storage, meetings, services); d) corridor; e) informal work spaces (lounge, meeting, focus groups) alternating with loggias and spaces overlooking the greenery. This last part of the quintuple body characterizes each floor differently and, on the upper floors, is articulated with green terraces directly accessible from the work spaces. On the same floor, therefore, it will be possible to move from hyper-determined space (desk, single work) to more informal work spaces with variable geometry. The meaning of the work hub lies in this immediate and available presence of spaces available to workers, spaces that are easily accessible and understandable, full of light and with an interesting view (the greenery, the water square). This condition responds, in our opinion, fully to a request for a contemporary work space that sees its profound meaning in versatility rather than
flexibility. Finally, to articulate this open space overlooking, the ground floor of the proposed building opens up by building two large passages (of different heights) that will connect via Adamello to the internal open spaces. The two gates run alongside the three lobbies that will contain the accesses, the atriums, the landing of the stairs and elevators, commercial spaces facing outwards (restaurants, bars, which in the summer can occupy the public land), co-working spaces and meeting rooms in case one wishes to receive external personnel on the ground floor. This is a shared "condominium" space, which will represent the different tenants, but which will also allow a possible partition of the building both vertically and horizontally, so as to guarantee maximum adaptability to future market demands.
The three vertical bodies (stairs and elevators) that cross the lobbies also lead to the 2 underground parking floors where the presence of 265 cars is expected.
This relationship with the public space introduces a further general theme. Thirdly, in fact, this double value of the building (its via Adamello on one side and the collective space on the other) has led us to imagine two very different facades. The one on Adamello is more compact and tight (with windows and uprights that punctuate a constant internal lighting from the west) and the one on the inside is more open and “aerial”, with large windows and loggias, terraces and views that take in the landscape of the green space in front and introduce it into the building. If for the facade on via Adamello we have imagined an aluminum cladding that characterizes the uprights and crosspieces of the front, the glass effect on the internal courtyard will be obtained with highly efficient mirrors and with a regular scansion that will allow the front to be interrupted with loggias (on the lower floors) and large terraces (on the upper floors). In some ways, it is as if the open space between the buildings took possession of the new intervention and “ascended” it to the point of strongly characterising the internal work spaces which, by looking out onto the greenery of the terraces or by accessing them, can further compose the offer of informal work spaces