CityLife residences in Milan. Triple skin facades by Zaha Hadid: aluminium, wood and glass.

11 December 2013
alchimag
Architecture

The citylife project located in the heart of Milan — in the centre of the historic fiera area immersed in a park of 160,000 square metres (one of europe’s largest pedestrianized zones) — involves a group of architects rather than a single designer: Zaha Hadid, Arata Isozaki and Daniel Libeskind.

Citylife brings to the urban context a new model for work and leisure, an area to be enjoyed on foot or by bicycle, with traffic circulating only underground.

At the centre of the project is the business district — three office towers in the ‘piazza delle tre torri’: torre Isozaki (il dritto, the straight one), torre Hadid (lo storto, the twisted one) and torre Libeskind (il curvo, the curved one) — torre isozaki will be 202 meters high (663ft) with 50 floors, making it amongst the tallest in Italy by roof height. Torre Hadid will be 170 meters (558 ft) high with 44 floors, and torre libeskind will reach a height of 150 meters (492 ft) with about 30 floors. The three towers are able to accommodate ca. 10,000 people, over a total of approximately 130,000 m2.

A Contemporary Art Museum, a shopping area with bars and restaurants, and a pavilion for exhibitions, sports, entertainment and fashion shows are also part of the project.

The skyline of Zaha Hadid’s CityLife Milanohousing complex is defined and characterized by a sinuous fluid line. The residences are comprised of seven curved buildings of varying heights, from 5 to 13 floors. The distinctive architectural elements include a serpentine movement of the curved balconies and the profile of the roofs, which provide a soft and elegant shape for all of the top-floor penthouses, complete with extensive covered terraces.

Construction of the residential complex began in august 2009, with delivery of the first apartments scheduled for 2013.

Great care has been given to the site and building orientation, taking into account environmental and comfort requirements so that most apartments face south-east and at the same time allocate the best views from the terraces, towards the city or the public park.

The façade materials – fiber concrete panels and natural wood panels – emphasize the complex’s volumetric movement and at the same time give a private and domestic quality to the interior of the residential courtyard.

The interiors open onto extensive terraces. All of the apartments feature structural and plant solutions that can be easily adapted to individual needs. Each of the homes is different from the others in terms of size, exposure and layout: from two-rooms to large family apartments and twin-level penthouses. At ground level, the double-height lobbies are flooded with light by large openings stretching from floor to ceiling, designed to confer strong visual