The customers were the Feltrinelli group and the fund of the same name, on the one hand, and the city authorities, on the other. The plot for construction was formed from the possessions of both initiators of the plan, and the Feltrinelli family owned this property since the end of the 19th century. The peculiarity of this area lies in the fact that the "Spanish" walls, the outer ring of the fortifications of Milan, built in the 16th and destroyed in the 19th century, passed here. Until now, an undeveloped space remains in their place, partly testifying to the destruction caused in the city by the Second World War.
At the historic gate of Porta Volpi, two streets from the south merge from the center of Milan. The architects plan to place new buildings at an angle to each other, on the sections of these streets closest to the “vanishing point”. While all the buildings will look the same - glass structures slightly reminiscent of an archetypal house with a gable roof - they form a two-part ensemble marking the entrance to the "inner" city. But this is only at first glance: in reality there will be three buildings. Two of them, the office building of the Feltrinelli group, and the representative office of the Feltrinelli foundation, which deals with the history of ideas (mainly the labor and socialist movement of the 18-20 centuries) and has a unique archive of historical documents, will line up in one line more than 250 m long east of the central axis … To the west of it, a much shorter municipal administrative building will appear (58 m). The height of all buildings will be the same (28 m), and cafes and shops will be located on the ground floors of all three. A 1.2-hectare park will be laid out behind the new buildings, which will keep the remains of the foundations of the "Spanish" walls intact.
