New BEIC. Two compact and bright naves, immersed in the new greenery of Porta Vittoria
Milan, July 11 2022 – No longer a traditional library, where the treasures of an already consolidated culture are kept, rather a laboratory for producing contemporary culture.
The New European Information and Culture Library (BEIC) – intends to innovate the meanings traditionally attributed to the term, starting from the casing. Compact, simple and sober, designed for maximum energy and acoustic efficiency, it will be composed of two main volumes joined on the ground floor, two naves with a trapezoidal section entirely covered in metal and glass, to compose an explicitly industrial figure, between the greenhouse, the station and the factory, harmonious with the environment in which it is inserted.
It was presented this morning at Palazzo Marino, in the presence of the Mayor of Milan Giuseppe Sala and the President of the BEIC Foundation Francesco Paolo Tronca, the winning project of the international competition for the creation of the new generation cultural center in Porta Vittoria, which will become the functional center of the entire library system of the Milan metropolitan area. It was signed by the Italian group formed by the designers of Onsitestudio (Angelo Raffaele Lunati - Group leader, Giancarlo Floridi), Baukuh (Pier Paolo Tamburelli, Andrea Zanderigo, Giacomo Summa), Francesca Benedetto (Yellow office), Luca Gallizioli (Onsitestudio), Manuela Fantini (SCE projects), Marcello Cerea (Starching), Davide Masserini (Ab-normal) Antonio Danesi (Stain), by the consultants Silvestre Mistretta, Giuseppe Zaffino (Greenwich), Fabrizio Pignoloni (Dot-dot-dot) and by the collaborator Florencia Collo ( Atmos lab).
"The project – we read among the motivations of the Judging Commission, which carried out the work of evaluating the entries, selecting 5 among the 44 project proposals received for the single level of the Competition – responds to the urban context, to the complexity of the functional program and to the values of formal significance and environmental sustainability required by the theme with a simple and convincing solution from all points of view".
The Commission, chaired by Stefano Boeri, representative member of the BEIC Foundation, was also composed of Jocelyn Helen Froimovich Hes, representative of the Order of Architects, Planners, Landscape Architects and Conservators of the Province of Milan, Rosa Maiello and Cino Zucchi representing the Municipality of Milan, by Jhionny Pellicciotta for the Order of Engineers of the Province of Milan.
The project
The area concerned, now disused and removed from public use, is between Viale Molise to the east, Via Cervignano to the west with the railway link stop, Via Monte Ortigara to the south and a recently built residential complex to the north. . A little further on, another part of the city undergoing radical transformation, that of the former slaughterhouse.
The new building, very rational especially for the clarity of the distribution of the spaces, will have a total surface area of approximately 30.000 m2 and will be located in the southern part of the lot, towards Via Monte Ortigara, thus leaving a large part of it free for greenery for the construction of a new, large tree-lined square.
The construction project, as per the competition indications, is developed on the basis of four essential guidelines: a strong integration between the physical and digital dimensions; a new point of balance between cultural enjoyment and production; an unprecedented role for the collections; the user at the centre.
The large green corridor of the new adjacent public park of almost 30.000 m2, which the New BEIC will overlook and with which it will form a unicum of horizons and usability, will lead north to the square, from which the main accesses to the volumes branch off. At the entrance, accessible to all, what is called the Promenade and which arrives in a spacious rectangular room flooded with light, 8 meters high and populated by pavilions with exhibition and commercial spaces, a cafeteria and volume return stations , a space that runs through the building along its entire length. From here the library itself opens up for consultation, study and reading: conceived as a place of cultural production, expression of creativity, development of critical skills, it will be a sort of open platform, suitable for encouraging protagonism of citizens and to involve the community.
The ground floor will be an open space, and will support the two main identical volumes, measuring 27 x 75 meters in footprint and 33 meters in height, for 6 floors above ground plus 2 underground. Wooden elements will be added to the glass and metal of the exterior. It will connect with the third pavilion which will contain the Imaginarium, the part divided into two levels entirely dedicated to children and also designed to host games, educational experiments, performances, and the Auditorium, an underground room reachable by lifts or via a staircase cylindrical volume, which will be able to accommodate 300 people for conferences, concerts, shows and public meetings, and will guarantee the best acoustic conditions.
In one of the main volumes, the one to the north, the Forum will be developed, a place also for consulting the volumes but equipped with multipurpose rooms and therefore also open to those who do not frequent the library for study purposes. The other volume will instead house the Departments, the areas with the documentary sections, including the digital ones, divided by topic, the collections and the reading rooms, as well as the offices, the meeting rooms and the workstations.
At its top, the volume to the north will culminate with a large greenhouse, the one to the south will open onto a terrace where there will be a reading room open all day.
The robotic repository will be buried in the center of the building, designed to accommodate 2,5 million volumes and serve all parts of the library, protected from natural light and sealed to ensure fire protection and minimize dust penetration.
The urban location of the New BEIC, identified already in 2001 in the area of the former Porta Vittoria station, is central to the main university buildings, located on the Porta Vittoria stop of the railway link, close to the next Dateo stop of the new M4 underground line which it will connect the city center with Linate airport, and therefore connected with the regional metropolitan and railway lines.
The international competition, in a single level with an open procedure and in anonymous form, was published on the Concorrimi platform last March 25th and closed on June 22nd with the delivery of 44 entries. The New BEIC project relies on financing of 101,574 million already foreseen in the State budget as part of the PNRR (arranged by Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers on 8 October 2021), which can be integrated with additional public or private resources .
After the delivery of the definitive and executive projects, it will be possible to proceed with the tender and therefore the start of the actual works, scheduled to start in 2024 and finish by 2026.
Updated: 11/07/2022