Photographer: Andrea Martiradonna | ArchDaily

Milan Architecture City Guide: 43 Projects from Historic Landmarks to Contemporary Designs

Hana Abdel — Thu, 02 Apr 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Milan, a global hub of fashion and finance, increasingly asserts itself as a leading center for architecture and design. Its status as Italy's second-largest city underpins its vibrant cultural scene, attracting both established and emerging creative talent. Additionally, Milan is home to esteemed educational institutions recognized for their focus on heritage preservation and conservation. Its cultural and design significance is increasingly pronounced, as a growing number of creators are relocating to establish their presence in this vibrant creative hub.

Valtorta 52 Offices / Park Associati

Bianca Valentina Roșescu — Mon, 01 Aug 2022 12:00:00 +0000

Hard retrofitting for new flexible workplaces characterized by innovative materials. The project salvages and regenerates part of an office complex dating back to the 1960s. Thanks to a complete rethinking of the facade and the internal layout, the strong retrofitting intervention manages to create a flexible, elegant building characterized by refined materials that establish a connection with the surrounding context — a district in the north of Milan that is undergoing significant transformation.

WPP Campus Milano / 967arch + BDG

Valeria Silva — Sat, 09 Jul 2022 11:00:00 +0000

967arch and BDG architecture + design unveil the latest Campus for WPP in Milan, a modern and innovative hub bringing together 35 WPP agencies and 2,000 people into a single location. The Campus provides unique spaces for co-creation and has been designed to specifically enable greater collaboration and encourage creativity across teams for the benefit of clients.

Luxottica Digital Factory / Park Associati

Bianca Valentina Roșescu — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 12:00:00 +0000

From energy to technology through architectural quality and experimentation. Milan is enhanced by a new intervention of industrial architectural restoration aimed at accommodating the Digital Factory of Luxottica, a world leader in the eyewear market. Thanks to Park Associati's retrofitting intervention, in collaboration with storagemilano the complex becomes an open and flexible container where history, change and creativity find the ideal convergence ground.

Recipe for Success: The Architecture of Michelin Restaurants

Eric Baldwin — Thu, 19 May 2022 07:30:00 +0000

Cooking and architecture parallel one another. Combining ingredients to make a whole, both processes are tied to cultural context, creativity and meaning. While we can understand how cultures have changed over time by looking at how their cuisine has changed, the same can be said of architecture. In both cases, the end products are based around human interaction and are brought to life through experience.

Accenture People Hub / Park Associati

Andreas Luco — Fri, 06 May 2022 12:00:00 +0000

The alternation of transparency and opacity on the façade provides the double function of protection and perception of the external space. A blade of glass and steel, resembling a prow pointing north-west, acts as the fulcrum of the Accenture People Hub building’s architectural composition, one of Accenture's offices in Italy, a project by Park Associati for Milanofiori Sviluppo (Gruppo Brioschi Sviluppo Immobiliare).

Villa in Noto / Westway Architects

Valeria Silva — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 02:00:00 +0000

Westway architects has recently completed a project for a new holiday home on a hillside overlooking the Vendicari Natural Reserve a few kilometers away from Noto. The house is though for a Milan family and is organized in three large distinct geometrical bodies that are visually connected by an itinerary of views that tether the interior and the exterior; embedded in an olive garden, the residence aims at become one with the landscape and the horizon.

Brisa 5 Complex / Park Associati

Andreas Luco — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 12:00:00 +0000

Park Associati's retrofitting project concerns both blocks of a building by Pietro Portaluppi situated in the centre of Milan. The complex consists of two buildings of three and five floors respectively, completely different in style, having been designed almost twenty years apart. Portaluppi intervened for the first time in 1919, creating smooth facade with influences of the Viennese secession, and then a second time, in the mid-thirties, when he designed a volume, enlarged with two floors in the second post war period, decidedly modernist.

Villa Geef / Damilano Studio Architects

Clara Ott — Wed, 16 Jan 2019 03:00:00 +0000

Villa GEEF was born in a compromised context in the first outskirts of Sondrio (Italy) within a lot that was used as a relax time place by employees of an electric company. The large lot was in fact occupied by a building and playgrounds all around.

Gucci Hub / Piuarch

Cristobal Rojas — Mon, 26 Feb 2018 03:00:00 +0000

The old Caproni factory, built in 1915 in the eastern suburbs of Milan, has been brought back to life thanks to a renovation and redevelopment project transforming this old plant into the new Milan offices of the famous fashion brand Gucci. The premises in via Mecenate, which were used for designing, assembling and testing airplanes, have now been developed into a large complex holding offices, showroom and spaces for holding fashion shows and operations connected with graphics, as well as a canteen and restaurant.

Mansarda Restaurant / Piuarch

Daniel Tapia — Wed, 01 Nov 2017 11:00:00 +0000

Everything is built like a maze of canals, bridges, domes, and towers decorated in a variety of colors, artfully designed gardens, squares, and monuments. We’re not in Venice, nor in Amsterdam, but in chameleon-like St. Petersburg, which changed its name three times in less than a century – from St. Petersburg to Petrograd to Leningrad – only to go back to its historic name after the fall of the Berlin Wall. The so-called “Russian gastronomic revolution” took root in the heart of the Soviet “Second Capital,” with innovative chefs and unconventional locales running parallel to institutional propositions and providing a dynamic alternative where design is a fundamental element.

Caritas Pavilion / Piuarch

Rayen Sagredo — Thu, 03 Aug 2017 05:00:00 +0000

Designed for the Expo 2015 area in Milan, the Caritas Pavilion is based around the message: “Divide to multiply. Break the bread” or, in other words, the idea of sharing wealth. The Edicola, this is the name of the small pavilion, has the appearance of a fragmented cube that translates into architectural terms the idea of crating wealth by sharing. The structure has been designed keeping simplicity at the core of its composition and the unadorned nature of its appearance.

M89 Hotel / Piuarch

Cristobal Rojas — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 05:00:00 +0000

Opposite the building, there is the rhythmic series of brick blocks of the Caproni factory, with their shed roof and industrial archaeology charm: the M89 Hotel – the new four-star destination at number 89 of via Mecenate– faces the factory halls that one hundred years ago hosted one of the leading aviation companies and which are now home to Gucci, after a meticulous renovation and expansion project by Piuarch.

Wigglyhouse / ifdesign

Valentina Villa — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 02:00:00 +0000

Wiggly house is a single-family residential building located in a difficult context 50km away from Milan in Italy, characterized by multi-storey buildings that surround it.

ARCHMARATHON Announces 2016 Award Winning Projects

Eric Oh — Fri, 27 May 2016 08:00:00 +0000

After a three-day event attracting over 1,000 visitors, the 2016 ARCHMARATHON came to a close, with the presentation of its annual awards. Now in its 3rd year, the Milan-based exchange awarded projects in ten different categories, as well as an overall winner, and a “crowd award” based on voting on the event’s website. The 42 presented projects were judged by the international jury, chaired by Luca Molinari and composed of internationally famous architects and critics such as Lucy Bullivant, William Menking, Wassim Naghi, Li Brian Zhang and Elie Haddad. See all 12 awarded projects after the break.

Moreschi Walking Pleasure / Migliore+Servetto

Karen Valenzuela — Thu, 29 Oct 2015 13:00:00 +0000

The exhibit Walking Pleasure at Triennale di Milano is a tribute to the 70 years anniversary of the brand Moreschi and the project is conceived by Migliore+Servetto Architects as a multy-sensory experience.

Dolce&Gabbana Office / Piuarch

Daniel Sánchez — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 01:00:00 +0000

A new office for Dolce&Gabbana, on Viale Piave in Milan.

ENEL Pavilion / Piuarch

Cristian Aguilar — Sat, 18 Jul 2015 02:00:00 +0000

The Concept

In designing the ENEL Pavilion for Expo 2015, Piuarch wanted to express the concept of “energy sharing” in an architectural theme. Not through a “building-container,” but rather with the creation of a virtual volume: a place, generated by a grid onto which 650 polycarbonate vectors are grafted. The arrangement of these constantly changing, illuminated vertical elements defines the volume that encompasses within itself a series of other volumes and green courtyards.