Milan is an industrial city. A tourist who came not for things from the latest fashion collections and not for the sake of large commercial exhibitions and design weeks risks getting bored here quickly. Milan is a city that does not open immediately: behind the gloomy Renaissance facades, picturesque courtyards with mosaic fountains hide, and the best restaurants are so well hidden that only a local resident can find them.
Milan architecture is a proud phrase. She is elegant, laconic and always adequate to the context. Designing in this city as a foreigner is not an easy task. A few years ago, an invitation to a foreign architect to work in Milan would have caused a storm of indignation among the Italian public: this would have been possible only in co-authorship with a local workshop. Italians, for all their friendliness, are very jealous of their history and culture.
However, today the situation has changed: in the city you can see the buildings of Libeskind, Hadid, Chipperfield, Koolhaas, Van Egeraat and other famous foreign architects. But all these craftsmen came to Milan not by chance, but because the commune of the city and the local union of architects developed a program for the comprehensive renovation of the now defunct industrial zones. There were a lot of such places, and a special map of the city was created, where all of them were marked. Then, competitions were announced for their architectural design, and through these competitions foreign architects came to Milanese land.
One of these "ex-industrial" sites is the Portello area, where the Alfa Romeo and Lancia factories were located in the past. Geographically, it has an excellent location: from the city center you can get there in half an hour by public transport. But upon meeting Portello did not leave a pleasant impression.
Gino Valle, one of the luminaries of Italian architecture, together with the development division Pirelli & C. developed a plan for its transformation from a factory district into a multifunctional development area. Portello was divided into five conventional zones - housing + offices, shops, square, stadium and park. The renovation of Portello was undertaken by Chino Zucchi, Guido Canali, Stefano Boeri and two foreign participants -
Charles Jenks and LAND Studio.
Portello today is a beautiful and lively area. Life here did not immediately become ideal: it obviously takes a lot of time. But they already come here specifically to go shopping, sit in a bar with friends or eat a donut at the weekend fair. It makes the area a single whole its park - it was he who was designed by foreigners in the "Portello team": Jenks, the American-British architect, philosopher, the most prominent theorist of architecture of our time, and the German-Italian landscape workshop LAND, which is headed by the German architect Andreas Kipar).
When Jenks takes on the creation of a park, one must expect incredible, metaphysical beauty. And Parc Portello, or "Park of Time", became another confirmation of the talent of the master. The park embodies the three periods of Milan's life. The first one is "Present". Embodied in the landscape, it has become a large spiral hill 22 meters high, formed by two paths diverging in different directions. It was assumed that one of them could be cycled, and the other one could be walked. But, naturally, in reality they walk and drive along the same path. At the top of the "Nastoyas" there are coniferous trees, a sculptural composition and a bench from where you can enjoy the view of the park and the city.
By the way, about the view: within walking distance from Parque Portello is the Monte Stella Park, laid out after the war by Piero Bottoni. And the hill in it, as in Portello, is artificial, and the view from it is the best in the city.
From Milanese "Present" we will move on to the remaining two hills. Their elongated contours form the letter S in the plan - Storia - "history". Smoothly flowing into each other, they symbolize the "Prehistory" and "History" of Milan. It is not easy to immediately realize that you can walk on them, but this is so: on each of the hills in the middle there are special areas where you can relax surrounded by sculptural compositions and admire the view of the city.
All three "hills of time" are united by water - a rounded pond. The architects called it "The Frog Shelter", but the frogs, however, are not visible here at all. But the pond goes around the "endless" bench.
There is a children's playground behind the "History" hill, from there you can also go to other parts of the park, including the chamber park, almost hortus conclusus, designed specifically for the elderly and people suffering from Alzheimer's disease: there is a hospital nearby specializing in the treatment of this ailment. The paths here are lined with black and white tiles, each of which, according to the authors, should symbolize the rotation of the Earth, which goes through a cycle of day and night every day.
The project also provides for the construction of an amphitheater.
A separate story is the implementation of the park project. The debris left over from the Alfa Romeo and Lancia plant was used to create a "base" for its entire area: it raises the park above street level by 3 meters. Around the perimeter, the base is supported by a concrete retaining wall. Interestingly, almost 30% of the park's budget went to this wall and metal fencing.
The technology for building artificial hills is quite simple. The previously sifted earth was collected in "mountains" using excavators. If the slope of the embankment exceeded 30 degrees, then it was reinforced with a layer of nonwoven material every 50 cm. Surveyors monitored the correspondence of all angles and curved lines to the plan. During the construction, special attention was paid to the development of a network of tracks for trucks and excavators: having finished forming the hills, they had to carefully leave, after which access to any vehicles in the park was closed forever.
At the end of the work, an irrigation system was set up in the park, and the hills were covered with a 40 cm layer of soil on a geogrid. When the construction was completed, a liquid from natural glue, filler, dye and grass seeds was sent through the irrigation system. Maples, plane trees and other trees were planted in parallel.
But Milan is still an introvert city. Parque Portello is now hidden behind a supermarket, construction site, scaffolding and parking, and the entrance to it is very difficult to find, although it should certainly become a must-see on the city's tourist route. But while Milan is in no hurry to reveal its beautiful soul: courtyards, secret restaurants and mysterious parks …
