Don't keep an eye on it, because the Milan skyline will change again. In fact, the Unicredit Tower, the tallest in Italy with its 231 meters, was not enough, nor were the skyscrapers of CityLife, for now two out of three waiting for the "Curvo" by Libeskind, which will host the Pwc offices within this year . Not even the futuristic was enough Vertical Forest, the green building designed by the architect Stefano Boeri, which however marked the trend: the new jewel on the way, not far from Piazza Gae Aulenti where the Unicredit headquarters are located, designed by the Argentine architect Cesar Pelli (who died last year in 92 years old), it's called Joy 22 (from via Melchiorre Gioia, Porta Nuova area) and will be a champion of energy efficiency.
SPLINTER OF GLASS
Indeed, more: the skyscraper, already nicknamed "Shard of Glass", on its 26 floors (120 meters high) will have six thousand square meters of photovoltaic panels installed. With its large windows, it will make the most of natural light, it will be energetically self-sufficient thanks to the energy produced by the panels (it will also contribute in part to the needs of the surrounding buildings) and able to avoid the production of carbon dioxide as 10 hectares of forest. It is the first building of this type in the world, for offices, and the first in Italy to comply with the NZEB standard, acronym for Nearly Zero Energy Building, i.e. a building with high energy performance and almost zero environmental impact.
For both heating and cooling, the skyscraper will use a groundwater system, with a free cooling system which will exploit only the difference in temperature with the external environment. In addition to the responsible use of water and energy, the Gioia 22 project chooses materials that are safe for the environment, with a defined approach cradle to cradle (sometimes abbreviated to C2C, in Italian from cradle to cradle): that is, it adapts industry models to nature, or rather converts production processes by assimilating the materials used to natural elements, which must therefore regenerate. This modus operandi will earn him the prestigious US classification LEED, acronym of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design.
Splinter of glass cost 150 million euros and will house the new headquarters of the Coima Sgr group: it will be inaugurated by 2020 and was designed by architect Gregg Jones, also from the Pelli studio. Its ecological value is double, if you think that the structure takes the place of the former INPS building, demolished in 2018 but in disuse since 2012: built in 1961, it contained over 200 tons of asbestos. Before even starting work on Gioia 22, the area was completely reclaimed. The project also envisages the redevelopment of the entire district: it is designed for the integration of cycle paths and pedestrian areas and there will also be stations for recharging electric cars.
VELASCA TOWER
Gioia 22 will not be the only novelty. It will take some more time, but a skyscraper is also about to be reborn which has actually been there for over half a century: Torre Velasca, a symbol of Milan's economic boom, an avant-garde structure for the time and built in record time (292 days, ahead of schedule), was bought by the American colossus Hines, which wants to revalue that jewel, until now largely uninhabited or occupied by tenants and private offices. It will take, is Hines's ambition, 24 months to complete the relaunch by 2022 with a plan to be presented first to the Superintendency that bound the skyscraper and then to the Municipality.
The operation is worth 200 million and in the words of CEO Mario Abbadessa it wants to "enter the future of Milan, while respecting history". A story that hasn't been exactly glorious in recent years, given that the Torre Velasca had ended up in the hands of Unipol after the bankruptcy of Salvatore Ligresti, who owned the property, and had entrusted the disposal process to an advisor like Jll. The Stars and Stripes revolution predicts that private homes will remain on certain floors, even if with rents obviously not for everyone, while the bulk they will be commercial venues dedicated above all to food and design. In the basement, here is the idea of a wellness area, with a spa and who knows what else.
It will be curious to see what face a historic building will take on, from which it seems to touch the Madonnina (even if it is a few meters lower, because once in Milan no building could surpass the Duomo) and which in cinematographic fiction it hosted actors such as Alberto Sordi and Franca Valeri, the couple in the film Il Vedovo by Dino Risi, while in reality Gino Bramieri or, more recently, the parliamentarian Bruno Tabacci lived there.
