MORIMONDO 17 MILANO

Nature in factory

SINV Terminal is a fashion showroom that is the result of a project to convert and re-naturalise a typical industrial building from the early 20th century.

Client
Sinv Spa
Year
2000
Status
Completed
Size
10500 sqm
Team
project Flavio Albanese

Flavio Albanese
founder & partner

Flavio Albanese (1951), is founder and president of ASA studio albanese. He is a self-educated designer, by combining his passion for contemporary art with the practical experience of an artisan-architect. Having come into contact with Carlo Scarpa, he learns from him to avoid an “a priori” approach to design, adapting on a case-by-case basis to the occasions, themes and contexts. He has held courses at the École Polytechinique Fédérale in Lausanne and at the Art Institute in Chicago (1980), at Yale University (1983), at the University of Architecture in Delft (2005), at the University of Florida (2006), at the Fundacion Proa de Buenos Aires (2008) and frequently at the most important Italian universities. He has also held two workshops at the international summer school of the Architecture School in Venice in 2009 and 2010. He was a member of the Confindustria Vicenza committee from 1998 to 2001, the Domus Academy Scientific Committee (2004-2005) and the MIart Committee of Honour (2009 and 2010), director of the Officina del Porto di Palermo (2006-2008), vice president of the Andrea Palladio Architecture Firms International Centre (2011-2015) and president of the Fondazione Teatro Comunale Città di Vicenza (2010-2016). From 2007 to 2010 he was asked to head Domus, the prestigious international architecture, design and contemporary art magazine. Active since 1971, in 1987 he founds with his brother Franco ASA studio albanese. The studio's projects were published by the most most important architecture and design magazines: the Neores project was selected for the Mies van der Rohe Foundation European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture (2003), and ASA studio albanese took part in Venice's Architecture Biennial in 2004 and 2006. Flavio is an avid reader and bibliophile (his library, which is open to the rest of the firm, contains more than 15.000 volumes) and he is a connoisseur and collector of contemporary art.

Franco Albanese

Franco Albanese
partner, CEO & executive director

Franco Albanese (Vicenza, 1958) has worked in the world of architecture and design since 1976. He graduated from the Architecture School in Venice in 1986 and the year after he founded ASA studio albanese in Vicenza with his brother Flavio. Since then he has been the firm's CEO and Technical Manager, and this role has led him to playing his part in the creation, development and execution of the most important projects. As designer and operations manager he oversaw: the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Padua (1997); “Neores”, the production site and headquarters of Sinv Spa in Schio, Vicenza, (selected for the Mies van der Rohe Foundation European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture in 2003); the project for the Town Hall of the Municipality of Grumolo delle Abbadesse, Vicenza (1999); “Morimondo 17”, the industrial reconversion of the Sinv spa premises in Milan (2000); the headquarters of Margraf in Chiampo, in the province of Vicenza (2006). He also supervised the “Rocco Forte Verdura Resort” in Sciacca, in Sicily (2005), the expansion of Pantelleria Airport (2006), the new Rinascente in Palermo (2007), the reconversion project of Lindower 22 in Berlin (2011), the Hybrid Tower project in Mestre-Venice (2012), the Fope headquarter extension project in Vicenza (2016). In recent years, he has increasingly concentrated on reconverting urban industrial areas, which has become a key theme of ASA studio albanese's philosophy. In recent years, he has increasingly concentrated on reconverting urban industrial areas, which has become a key theme of ASA studio albanese's philosophy.

project administrator Andrea Marlia —

Andrea Marlia

Giulio Pugno Vanoni

Giulio Pugno Vanoni

team Simone Cordara —

Simone Cordara

Clara Riva —

Clara Riva

Susanna Rosti Rossini

Susanna Rosti Rossini

Partners
First Step: Dotti& Associati | Second Step: SCE project
Images credits
Gaia Giacomelli, Germano Borrelli, ASA studio albanese

Located in the Via Morimondo 17 area, along the Navigli canals, and previously occupied by an early 20th century industrial plant, Sinv Terminal is a particularly complex post-industrial retrofit project, due to the intersection and coexistence of two different operational plans: rapid regeneration strategies and the principle of re-naturalisation.
The Sinv Terminal project was split into two phases, with different perspectives and procedures.
In the first step, the old shed pavilions that would house the Sinv group display areas, offices and press centre were restored and redefined with light as the theme, based on the relationship between manufacturing and nature. This concept was further enhanced by a large conservatory with inverted microclimates, by plant tubs, and by large windows through which plenty of daylight streams into the interiors. Step 2 was the perfect complement to the first phase: the initial 5,000 m2 were joined by more than 5,000 m2 in the second building, connected with the first by an organic greenhouse membrane. This second phase involved restoring and refitting the existing single-level industrial buildings with their typical cast iron pillars, as well as a contemporary multilevel structure in concrete, iron and glass. Inside this second block is a large, double-height hybrid space that is also a sound stage, a fashion show space with a suspended gangway for photographers, together with an upper floor with kitchens and facilities looking out over a large terrace for outdoor events that affords a sweeping view across the city.