Milan: The Latest Architecture and News

Bosco Verticale, by Boeri Studio (now recognized as Barreca & La Varra and Stefano Boeri Architetti), is a high-density tower block that experiments with the integration of a lush landscape within the facade of the architecture. The Vertical Forest, currently in construction in Milan, Italy, deal with the concept of regenerating the lost forests on the ground within the inhabitable space of buildings. The towers are 80 metres and 112 metres tall. Together they will have the capacity to hold 480 big and medium sized trees, 250 small size trees, 11,000 groundcover plants and 5,000 shrubs – the equivalent of a hectare of forest. For more on this project, follow us after the break.

Architects: Boeri Studio (Stefano Boeri, Gianandrea Barreca, Giovanni La Varra) Location: Milan, Italy Design Phase: 2006 – 2008 Construction Phase: 2008 – 2013

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The aim of the sustainable residential complex, designed by Morfearch, is not only the production of new buildings able to satisfy living space requests, but the will to offer public services to the new settlement and open to the “outer” population. The project area, crossed north to south by divergent paths, generates trapezoidal spaces that become the generating principle of the different parts of the whole complex: every secondary parcel is indeed composed by different size tanks, 30 to 120cm high, open to different uses, materials, and patterns: green areas, water, paved spaces, vegetation and gardens, available for residents with a leisure, but also social, function. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Architect Piero Ceratti shared with us his concept design, titled ‘Eagle Nest Hut’, for a mountain hut/shelter powered by wind turbines. This alpine hut can be installed in very extreme sites while minimizing the point of contact with the rocky ground. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Revealed earlier this month in Milan, Sawaya & Moroni‘s New Collection 2011 includes pieces from high profile architects Daniel Libeskind, Zaha Hadid, and Dominique Perrault. William Sawaya and Paolo Moroni, founding partners of Sawaya & Moroni, focus the production of their furniture on contemporary designs intertwined with differing cultural backgrounds, resulting in unique pieces and a selective group of architects and artists.

Ben van Berkel of UNStudio also presented new furniture this month in Milan.

More about the chairs after the break.

This year, I Saloni of Milan will be celebrating its 50th year! The cultural institution has grown dramatically over the years from an initial 328 exhibitors featured in 11,000 square meters to over 2,500 in an area now measuring over 200,000 square meters. The Salone Internazionale del Mobile is almost here and several architects will be presenting new furniture. Ben van Berkel of UNStudio has shared three new seating designs that will be featured this month: My Lounge Chair for Walter Knoll, the New Amsterdam Chair for Wilde+Spieth and the SitTable for PROOFF. “The architectural approach to furniture is different from that of the industrial designer as the architect begins with the space and the environment that the chair will become a part of. All the details of the chair are considered for their spatial effects. This architectural approach to furniture is connected to a very personal ideology of space,” explained Ben van Berkel.

More about the chairs after the break.