Milan Fair Masterplan

In 2004, the Milan Fiera held an international competition for architectural proposals to develop its existing site, which has proved too limited to host large-scale exhibitions. The Foster studio collaborated with Frank Gehry, Rafael Moneo and Cino Zucchi on the design of a scheme that sets new standards for urban living in the twenty-first century. A high-density development with a wide range of mixed uses, the defining feature of the plan is a new type of living-park or greenfrastructure - with architectural and landscape components that are enmeshed with the ecology of the city. It creates a new urban quarter where occupants can live, work, go to school, dine in a restaurant or visit the cinema, all in close proximity. If implemented, it would be the most advanced sustainable development in the world.

The scheme is woven into the existing urban fabric through a number of strands: the reinstatement of historical axial views across the site; the integration and rationalisation of transportation systems; the promotion of on-site residential, commercial and educational activities; and the design of buildings that are sympathetic to the historical built vocabulary. The forms of the buildings themselves are designed to reinforce the environmental strategy, guiding wind movement, directing solar heating, providing passive cooling and shading, and controlling water flows.

Combining shaded, densely planted zones with open lawns, and laced through with streams and pools, the park is envisaged as the venue for a wide variety of recreational activities, from open-air concerts to ball games. Tree-shaded avenues structure and give scale to the gardens and stretch out to connect with Milans existing park system. At the heart of the site, at the edge of a new lake, is an elongated piazza. Here, a cluster of tall buildings marks the new development on the city skyline. Working within the development guidelines, it is the concentrated footprint of these towers that allows a remarkable 80 per cent of the 25-hectare site to be used as green space. Leading from the piazza is a new entrance arcade for the remaining Fiera facilities, a space that promises as rich an urban experience as Milans famous Galleria Vittorio Emanuele.

Client: Cordata (joint venture)
Consultants: Halvorson Kaye & Partners / BMS Progetti, Technion S.r.l , Olin Partnership, Battle McCarthy, Enterprise LSE Cities, Manens Intertecnica, SC Sembenelli Consulting, Sinesis, Space Syntax, Studio Ermanno Casasco, Studio TRM, Systematica, Urbam