In 2011, Hines Italia sgr, together with the municipality of Milan, held a competition in which 80 variants were proposed for the design of a building that tells, shows and stores the history of the struggle for freedom and the establishment of democracy in Italy. It should be noted that at first the project was carried out by Stefano Boeri's studio, but then it was decided to choose an architect on a competitive basis. A prerequisite was the age limit: the participants had to be less than 40 years old.
Boeri himself became the chairman of the jury, which also included architects Lides Canaia and Cesar Pelli, CEO of Hines Italia sgr Manfredi Catella, politician Pier Vito Antoniazzi. The first place went to the project of the Genoese studio
baukuh, who now have a Milan office.
The baukuh project is a simple brick volume with a height of 17 meters and an area of 20 by 35 meters. Eight archival photographs of events in Milan's recent history are applied to the facade of the building: the sending of residents to concentration camps, the liberation of the city from the Nazis, the terrorist attack on Piazza Fontana in 1969 and others, as well as 19 portraits of unnamed Milanese, demonstrating the diversity of the population of the metropolis in the postwar period. All images are made of 6-shade bricks, 5.5 / 5.5 / 12 cm in size: near the bricks seem to be just “pixels”, while at a distance they form a mosaic. The choice of this particular material is due to the rich Milanese tradition of brick building, which began in the Renaissance.
In the interior, the architects also sought maximum simplicity in both decoration and color scheme, since the building had to be as flexible as possible in use. The only accent is the massive yellow staircase leading visitors from the first floor to the last - directly to the archives (they completely occupy the entire southern wall of the "House of Memory", but, unfortunately, are not open to the public). And what is on the other floors? Behind the glass doors with signs, the Association of Italian Partisans, the Institute for the Study of the Italian Resistance Movement, the Association of Former Deportees, the Association of Victims of Terrorism and other organizations dealing with the topic of freedom and democracy are based. The Memorial House was built not only for the purpose of collecting and processing information, but also for holding various events: the first floor is supposed to be used as an exhibition and lecture space.
The architects were faced with the difficult task of creating a project that should “pass through time” and remain relevant from the point of view of an architectural image both in the near and in the distant future. Of course, it is still difficult to say for sure whether the authors managed to achieve this, but, from my point of view, the architectural solution turned out to be so simple, capacious and universal that there is every reason to believe that it will be perceived this way in many years.
It is no coincidence that the name "House of Memory" was given: this place is not a museum, not a library, not a cultural center, but a space where the inhabitants of Milan will be able to preserve memories of events that are especially important to them.
As for the financial side, the project is very “budgetary”: 3.6 million euros were allocated for its implementation. It turns out that one square meter cost 1,500 euros - a very modest amount for a public building in the very center of Milan, especially considering the budget of the entire complex being implemented here by Hines Italia sgr - with modern offices, residential skyscrapers and the Riccardo Catella Foundation building. It is sad that incomparably less funds are allocated for a house dedicated to democracy and the memory of those events that cannot be forgotten than for elite skyscrapers. But the Milan commune generally agreed on this development project largely thanks to the promise to include the "House of Memory" in it. On the other hand, it is good that the developer nevertheless kept his word - after all, we are mostly aware of the opposite cases.
Be that as it may, the "House of Memory", albeit in the shadow of skyscrapers, but exists, which means that important memories for the Milanese and all of Italy are preserved for posterity.
