The Garibaldi office district, undergoing at the moment several phases of restructuring, is located in an area of high construction and traffic development. The area participates to an upgrading program that includes an intervention on the Regione Lombardia premises (already concluded), the construction of a university campus and the creation of an urban garden named “La biblioteca degli alberi” (Tree's Library). The first phase of the restyling addressed Tower B with a project by Massimo Roj of Progetto CMR. The restructuring did not make any substantial change to the volumetry of the building, focusing mainly on its aesthetically and environmental impact on the existing context. The main façades feature facets with four different inclinations and are composed by interactive ventilation cells that guarantee optimal control of the internal temperature. Light coloured stone coverings and upward decreasing windows lighten the tower and project it towards the sky, while the embossed roofing is a clear reference to the 50s Milan rationalism. The new penthouse floor offers a 360 degree view of the city and features a large terrace that symbiotically fits within the context. Inside the building, environmental comfort and temperature control are optimal, thanks to the interactive ventilation façades and to the electronically controlled internal shielding of the cells. Tower B owes its high energy performances (Class B) to the thorough upgrading of its technology systems that mainly exploit renewable energy sources, hence reducing energy consumption and pollution. For instance, the geothermal air conditioning system exploits a series of groundwater-fed heat pumps that, thanks to the absence of a thermal power station, reduce CO2 emissions to zero. The south side of the building features a photovoltaic power station with solar panels installed on the vertical façades that get more sunlight while the bioclimatic greenhouses on the short sides contribute to the well-being inside the building and help reducing heating and air conditioning energy consumption. The covering of the building constitutes its technological core since it contains: the solar collectors that allow hot sanitary water self-production and reduce energy consumption; the solar chimney that uses natural ventilation for the change of air in the restrooms; and the basin for collecting the rainwater used by the water-saving toilets flushing system.

The double-skin continuous structural façade “Interactive Wall”

The building features a particular kind of façade with an independent cells system (1200 mm x 3170 mm across flats) composed of external multilayer glass, ventilated air space and internal shutter with insulating glass that can be opened for inspection. Each rectangular cell includes a supporting structure made of heat-cut aluminium profiles, extruded by METRA on the basis of a specific design. This structure supports the external frames of variable thickness, hence creating the transparent facets. The cells are made of multilayer Design Glass, screen printed along the borders / tempered HST glass 8/1,52/8 mm thick, fixed to the perimeter thanks to specific structural silicone sealants. The ventilated air space can have different measurements on the four vertexes (from 200 mm to 350 mm) between the external sheet and the internal insulating sheet and contains the motorized Venetian blinds. Inside the air space, across flats, there is an spandrel insulating panel (1200x580 mm) composed of an external varnished RAL 7040 aluminium sheet (1 mm thick), insulating mineral wool (60 mm thick) and an internal side of galvanized sheet-steel (2 mm thick) and a Promatech H sheet (20 mm thick) folded horizontally towards the external glass. The panels correspond to the technical core of the façade, composed of an aluminium sheet veil (270 mm high) with a horizontal slot and containing the air extraction ventilators and the motorized blind box. The façade features an internal frame with panels that can be opened for inspection and maintenance, insulating glass (10+16+6/0,76/6 thick), external neutral tempered float HST glass and multilayer internal safety glass with acoustic PVB.

The project

Design: Massimo Roj – Progetto CMR, Milan

Fabrication: Permasteelisa S.p.A., Vittorio Vento (Treviso)

Customer: Beni Stabili S.p.A, Milan

METRA systems: “Project-based special profile customization”

Finish: chemical oxidized silver