“Il Sole 24 Ore” Headquarters

By Davide Cuppini - 11 January 2010

Renzo Piano’s complex project for the new Milan headquarters of Italy’s financial daily, “Il Sole 24 Ore”, is located in the “old” trade fair district now undergoing radical transformation. This brown site comprises a three-sided, former industrial building between Viale Monterosa and Via Tempesta opening onto an inner court. The main entrance in the central Viale Monterosa block stretches the full depth of the building, allowing direct views from the road onto luxuriant inner gardens.
On the court side, the full volume entrance looks out from all storeys onto the abundant greenery of the inner enclosure - including a rolling green hill – that is echoed by a far-reaching replanting scheme on the busy Viale Monterosa, a specific requirement of the designer to provide the city with a new “urban park”. In this way the regenerated complex is literally enveloped in greenery, with beneficial effect for the surrounding micro-climate.
The rolling green hill contains a company canteen seating 500, an auditorium, warehousing and parking areas. Its anti-glare glazed roofing not only provides natural lighting for the interiors below but also breaks up the green mound. A trellis of lanceolate-shaped steel girders support the roof, cantilevering out to form a protective canopy.
The incredibly lightweight quality the building exudes is achieved by the way the building mass and frontage have been broken up with vertical services and communication blocks. The space “lost” by this architectural design has been recovered by the addition of two storeys, the topmost level set back 4 m on the road-facing side and about 2.50 m on the court side. The base of the building is clad in horizontal strips of “cotto” tiling, while the glazed frontage along Via Tempesta is articulated by three towers. The facades are reinforced by vertical glass elements and connected to the concrete floors by transparent horizonal, heat-resistant glass pannelling.
A transparent...