The City Life project
In 2001 fashion stylist Giorgio Armani bought a former Nestlé chocolate factory in the industrial district Porta Genova in Milan. Armani moved most activities of his successful holding from the prestigious ‘Quadrilatero d’Oro’ (Golden Square), Milan’s the expensive fashion district, to Porta Genova. This anticonventional act heralded a new mood in Milan which was presented in the race to host Expo 2015.
Who had made it in Milan used to buy one of the prestigious historic palaces in down town Milan. Preferably in the chic Quadrilatero d’Oro, the ‘Golden Square’ of fashion. Armani bought an old factory in a declining industrial area around Porta Genova outside of the centre. He had it converted into a sleek, minimalist and modernist glass building around a square pond by the Japanese architect Tadao Ando.
Trendy Porta Genova
Armani’s controversial move was like a surge for the old industrial district which, after most of the industry had moved out of town, mainly housed novice designers and other low-budget creatives who were in need of cheap workspace. With Armani the old warehouses and factories became popular among big and small names in the design world. The area evolved into the epicentre of the Fuorisalone, an annual design event during Milan’s Salone Internazionale del Mobile, the world’s largest furniture exhibition. The area with a mix of old industry, design and art galleries now is one of Milan’s most trendy districts.
New mood
Armani’s move stood as a symbol of a new general mood in Milan: a desire to escape from the clutches of the conservative and grey industrial city and a longing for the new, the modern and the minimalist. A mood that subcutaneously was already bubbling in the numerous small design studios in town and that Armani gave a chance to come out. The final turn came with the assignment of the Expo 2015.
Innovative projects
One of the most talked-about projects that was presented for Expo 2015 is the ‘Vertical Forest’. The project consists of two towers of about 100 meters high with nine hundred trees on it which equals one hectare of forest in down town Milan. Another innovative project is City Life which transforms the old fair of Milan into an ultra-modern residential and business area. The project evolves around three curved towers that will be visible from far outside of the city.
Eiffel Tower
In the race to host the Expo 2015 Milan not only presented a new city but also a new mindset. It managed to set a new image as an ultra-modern, trendy and green design city with the City Life towers as the symbol of the new Milan just like the Eiffel Tower was for Paris at the Expo 1889.
