Milan, a City in Transformation

While it took five centuries to build the Duomo, Milan is also capable of changing its face in a mere decade. Since the early years of the 1900s, Milan has been the most dynamic testing grounds of architecture in all of Italy - from the Central Station to the Pirellone, modernity has a home here, exploring new ways of urban living. The first big revolution came after World War II. Reconstruction was a top priority, but the boom of the ‘60s was already percolating in town - architects like Gio Ponti, BBPR, Aldo Rossi, Giovanni Muzio gave shape to the “Milan Style”, creating buildings in the city such as the Pirellone, Palazzo Montecatini, Ca’ Brutta and the Torre Velasca. Creativity, education and industry were the points of a triangle that attracted the best talents of Italian architecture and more to the city. And this dynamism has come back to the fore over the last decade, riding the wave of Expo 2015. The pioneering residential projects of City Life and the Bosco Verticale, the Porta Nuova Complex, the headquarters of the Fondazione Prada, Feltrinelli and Mudec are just a few examples of a pleasurable revolution. And it is happening at the hands of internationally famed “archi-stars” with whom the city has created a preferential rapport - from Renzo Piano to Rem Koolhas, from Zaha Hadid to David Chipperfield, but also David Libeskind, Arata Isozaki, Herzog and de Meuron and Grafton Architects. And, of course, homegrown talents like Cino Zucchi and Stefano Boeri.