Project Portfolio
Cascina Merlata: the eco-sustainable social housing project in Milan designed by Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel
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Marazzi stoneware ventilated curtain walls and renewable sources for buildings: the solutions for creating healthy and safe environments
Cascina Merlata is an innovative social housing project covering a total of 900,000 square metres, developed near the Expo 2015 area in Milan. The new district, which is mainly residential, also includes facilities and services such as schools, nurseries, playgrounds and equipped areas.
The urban project was directed by the Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel firm and developed according to the most advanced environmental sustainability principles with the aim of spreading high quality standards to the whole area, with particular attention to the quality of the urban landscape through the materials used, the design of public spaces and urban furnishing elements and the design of building facades, exclusively served by renewable sources.
It was also a focus on sustainable design that led the designers to choose a ventilated curtain wall system for the buildings’ exterior which, thanks to continuous external insulation, eliminates every thermal bridge and is also the best covering system for buildings in terms of energy and thermal comfort.
One of the buildings in the Cascina Merlata project is a large 23-storey tower which, together with the underlying 9-storey building, creates a large “roof garden”.
The building is certainly characterized by its facades, the result of a careful study of geometrical designs, shapes and materials. These ventilated curtain walls are entirely covered with Marazzi porcelain stoneware in different sizes, colours and finishes.
Specifically, the designers have skilfully alternated Mystone Gris Fleury Grigio stone-effect stoneware in the 60x60, 30x120 cm and 60x120 cm sizes, combining it, in an original geometric patchwork, with SistemN, Marazzi’s high-performance technical stoneware in the dark Grafite colour in the 60x120 cm and 60x60 cm sizes. The darker stoneware was used for certain points of the facades, such as the windows, to emphasize their geometrical design with a chiaroscuro effect. Finally, the entrance was covered with the Blend collection, technical stoneware that is perfect for both indoor and outdoor use.
You can check out images of the project in the photo gallery.
