Solid and void. From a productive scape to a life scape

The study begins with a question about the relationship between Solid and void, seeking a meaning in the tangible present and in the city history of Milan. The study is based on ‘a sensibility of place’, that it’s called ‘urban ecologies‘ by Alice and Peter Smithson. The city of Milan has arisen as a main issues in modern architecture since 20th century, however, the construction of the city present poverty with monotonic architectural solutions. Contradiction in architectural composition commonly had spread out among the Modern Architects who gave repetitive solutions for wars’ damages and city demand during economic boom period between 1930 to 1970. Especially South Milan has an impressive condition and interesting morphological aspects which included rigidity of built area, abandoned organic form, ambiguity, the notable hues dimension of blocks, surrealistic architectural combination, neighboring the city border, fragment pieces of programs, interesting street form with dynamic vehicle circulation and inactive and isolated open spaces. Overall these conditions, the study keen to understand the area and contributed to give a future vision of the city, while it aims to show a respect of the site history and its nature. This morphological approach is a crucial starting point to define the project and understand the area while leading the Architectural proposal ‘from a Productive Scape to a Life Scape’. The study intends to reach a certain scale to present the architectonic composition as an integration in which emerge a contrast between solid and void, while revitalizing the area. Emphasizing the resonance, the atmospheric in the site, which is neighbored the antic canal Vettabbia, and it use to be a place for a metal production factory “Ferninando Zanoletti” designed by Mario Asnago and Claudio Vender. The study is developed by maturing an exercise to understand the correct program, related to proper functions, which is believed to be a contribution to overcome the ambiguity of the area. The scale of the project is urban, therefore it is focused on the division and categorization of solid and void in the city. The study has progressed without a scale hierarchy, all scales work in parallel. The develop of the project depends on the issues solved in each scales, but the final presentation make an effort to introduce the work in a linear way, from a urban scale to the architectural details.