Recovery and re-use of the former convent and school, Milan, 2014

The historic building complex is located in the heart of the ancient “Borgo degli Ortolani” (Greengrocers’ village) in an urban fabric characterized by a specific recognizable building structure. The building was founded around 1875 with the construction of the core of it and was developed in an architecturally consistent way up to the early 1900s with the completion of the long sleeve in the garden. Around 1910 the building structure appears consolidated. Between the ’50s and’ 60s the original plant was flanked by new buildings that saturate the courtyard and are based in some portions of the garden originally intended for vegetable gardens. The whole complex is under Heritage Office control

The project mainly involves the restoration, conservation and reuse of the constrained building bodies without significant external volumetric alterations and the measured insertion of new architectures with a contemporary stylistic design. The court and the internal garden are freed from non-coherent elements, for which the redesign of paving and design of the greenery is carried out preserving the ancient trees.

A project where the dominant theme is the delicate and respectful approach to the historical structure of contemporary elements in search of a measured mix between present and past.