The Feltrinelli Porta Volta complex, the first public building in Italy, signed by Herzog & de Meuron, plays

a decisive role in the wider urban reclamation process that has affected Milan this strategic area in
recent years. The project includes two twin buildings, the headquarters of the Giangiacomo Feltrinelli
Foundation and the offices of Microsoft Italia, and a large public green area with meeting points, cycle
lanes and pedestrian paths. Inspired by the simplicity and the imposing scale of the architectural
structures that characterize the historical landscape of Milan, with examples such as the Ospedale
Maggiore, the Rotonda della Besana, the Lazzaretto and the Sforzesco Castle, the buildings reproduce
the rhythmic and linear implant of typical farmhouses Lombardy, which already represented an
important point of reference for Aldo Rossi and for his project at Gallaratese. Elementary geometries,
modular repetition of structural components and transparency are the compositional elements that
identify the architectural artifact. Long and narrow, the building is characterized by the cusp roof that
integrates with the faade, defining the balanced scanning of the space, while in the layout it suits the
historical plot to consistently fit into the urban context. Conceived as a place for citizenship and research
service, at school and at university, the foundation of the Giangiacomo Feltrinelli Foundation is defined
as a place of open participation open to all and capable of hybridizing different languages and processes,
proposing a multidisciplinary vision of social transformations in effect. Its five-storey building comprises
a front desk, first-class bookstores and cafeterias, a multi-purpose meeting room and convention
facilities on the second floor, offices, meeting rooms and third and fourth co-production spaces, a
reading room and a classroom in the cusp of the fifth, while the basement receives the Foundation's
archive material.

For this important effort, UniFor has provided the latest three-storey furniture and partition systems
with serial products and elements specifically designed for this design by Studio Herzog & de Meuron in
co-operation with Coima Image. In particular, the two floors are divided into high-walled walls adapted
to the specific requirements of the project, with a natural aluminum structure made of solid wood and
floor-to-ceiling glazing panels. Likewise, the reading room on the last floor was made exclusively with
furnishings made by designers according to the shapes and geometries of the architectural structure:
the bottom wall of the room is completely covered by a large black stained oak bookcase with finishing
open pore, which resumes the cusp of the cover; with the same materials, they also produced the two
long low libraries running suspended in front of the tiled windows of the facade. Reading and
consultation tables, always executed on a design, have a painted steel and painted aluminum frame and
oval matt black matt finish, equipped with Artemide lamp. The operation was completed on the floor of
the UFOs with operating positions open space MDL System, while meeting rooms and executive
environments are furnished with Nas System tables and Nas wall cabinets. The operating spaces, the
uf fi, the meeting rooms and the waiting areas, meeting and conversation areas are complemented by
seating and Vitra sofas, while the break zones feature Dada white top laminated kitchens with top and
raised in Corian.

Here, in the extreme northern tip of the great "heart" formed by the long artifact erected by order of
the Governor of the Era Ferrante I Gonzaga between 1548 and 1562, were partly buried and partly
exposed although treated and maintained as objects of little value.
The Herzog & de Meuron project for the Feltrinelli Foundation has been re-thinking this space that will
be returned to the city at work (maybe next year). Gardens, woods and walks, embankments and long
sessions will feature this new urban space so far used as a parking lot and car wash.

The pedestrian area will be paved mainly in architectural concrete with exposed gravel while a small
part will be thrown into ordinary concrete. The latter will also be used to delimit the square with a long
session that will reclaim the development of the ancient Spanish walls. Analog material will be used for
the staircase adjacent to the toll booth and the raised bastion. The external sidewalks will be paved in
asphalt cast as it was done in Pasubio Avenue. In the vicinity of the east-slipway, a roadway for accessing
underground cars has already been built in part.