With the Sopralzo di Morimondo 23, the architect Giuseppe Tortato created “L’Astronave”, a new recreational space/break area for the clients and employees of a famous Italian fashion house in Milan.
The Morimondo 23 project, built in 2009 on a total area of around 8000 square meters, is a contemporary re-envisioning of Milan’s courtyard houses; the Sopralzo (or topmost element) is constructed on the top floor where there is an unobstructed view of the city and it was designed to take advantage of the area and maximize the space.
Morimondo 23 complex with the new topmost element
Spaces—featuring a variety of forms and materials – are conceived to generate well-being: they are the result of thorough and careful research into the views, the light, variations in visual input, unconventional heights, and the intense link with green spaces.
Consequently, Tortato designed a metallic sculptural object, constructed independently, suspended from a visible, external, steel structure that almost resembles the legs of a giant insect, as the architect himself said: “il Sopralzo —an additional, high-tech volume—has landed like an insect”.
This is an area of around 300 square meters, perched atop a flat roof of around 600 square meters; its distinguishing feature is the completely exposed, trapezoidal steel support structure, from which the architectural volume is suspended.
Combining aesthetics with functionality, this structure made it possible to work on the completed building below without interfering in any way with the tenant’s ability to use it, substantially simplifying the construction process.
Finally, with a trapezoidal section, even the windows of this building, angled like the walls, contribute to the exceptionally pleasing and unconventional perception of space, both inside and outside.
