School and research

Bovisa-Goccia Campus of the Politecnico di Milano

PROJECT DETAILS

City
Milan
Country
Italy
Customer
Polytechnic University of Milan
Architectural design
RPBW Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Period
2022 - ongoing
Services Provided
Structure Design | BIM
Sector
School and research
Dimensions
Land area: 32 ha
Total area: 105,000 m2
Construction technique
wood, steel, reinforced concrete

A green neighborhood, hub of innovation

In the Bovisa gasometers park, in the northwest area of Milan, rises the new Politecnico campus signed by Arch. Renzo Piano. Twenty new buildings intended for classrooms, residences, conferences and startups: a new neighborhood, a hub of innovation, that stitches the former Goccia industrial area to the city. A project characterized by energy-efficient wooden structures that will flank the redeveloped and refunctionalized elements of industrial archaeology.

A green neighborhood, hub of innovation

In the Bovisa gasometers park, in the northwest area of Milan, rises the new Politecnico campus signed by Arch. Renzo Piano. Twenty new buildings intended for classrooms, residences, conferences and startups: a new neighborhood, a hub of innovation, that stitches the former Goccia industrial area to the city. A project characterized by energy-efficient wooden structures that will flank the redeveloped and refunctionalized elements of industrial archaeology.

Rendering New Campus Bovisa Drop by Politecnico di Milano
Rendering Campus Bovisa Drop - glass and steel walkways
Masterplan new Campus Bovisa-Goccia of Politecnico di Milano

Open, green and permeable campus

The Bovisa-Goccia master plan covers a total area of 32 hectares, owned by the city and the Milan Polytechnic. The plan to expand the college's space includes the construction of three classroom buildings, five startup buildings, an underground conference hall, two university residences with about 500 accommodations, and the redevelopment of a historic industrial building, converted to a food and beverage area for campus guests. In addition to the twenty new 16-meter-high buildings envisaged by the project, totaling about 105,000 square meters, there will be two facilities for the Milan Civic Schools and a space dedicated to sports, open to the city. The area will be crisscrossed by tree-lined avenues, including a major bicycle and pedestrian axis that will reconnect through the Campus the two stations of Milano-Bovisa and Milano-Villapizzone, which will also undergo renovation.

The intervention also includes the redevelopment of the area of the former gasometers, a vestige of industrial archaeology and a symbol of the neighborhood, which will be recovered to house an Innovation Hub with laboratories of excellence and spaces for start-ups.
The wooden structures and high-efficiency facilities will make the project energy-independent, carbon-neutral, while the 'Drop Forest,' 24 hectares of vegetation north of the campus, will be preserved without undergoing any architectural intervention. Finally, compared with the structures made mainly of wood, the new trees that will be planted in the green areas will return within 30 years the wood mass used for the construction of the buildings included in the intervention.

A modular system made of steel and wood

Regardless of the intended use, all buildings were designed following the load and structural importance requirements stipulated for the design of university classrooms, in a logic of total space flexibility.
Newly constructed buildings are characterized by concrete foundations, from which steel framed structures, beams and columns stand out. These structures, in turn, support cross-laminated timber panels, which form the floors of the various floors. A collaborating reinforced concrete hood makes the floor rigid and improves sound insulation between floors.

The roofs are spatial lattice structures with a pyramidal module formed by tubular beams and diagonals joined at the nodes with a multidirectional connection formed by casting, which will be pre-assembled on the ground, raised and anchored to the structures of the buildings. As for the gasometers, new buildings will be built within the existing steel skeletons with mixed wood, steel and concrete structures. The roof will be a large wooden dome formed by curved radial beams connected at the center, while the pre-industrial structures will be retained and restored, restoring all damaged knots and profiles and sandblasting, treating and repainting the entire woodwork.

Exploded steel framing fittings New Campus Bovisa-Goccia Politecnico di Milano
Exploded steel fittings details new Campus Bovisa-Goccia Politecnico di Milano
Detail of roofing composition of the new Campus Bovisa-Goccia Politecnico di Milano
Detail structures project New Campus Bovisa-Goccia Politecnico di Milano
Wood is an excellent building material, the use of which, in the face of a long and ancient tradition, still remains in constant evolution. Glued in cross-laminated layers, X-lam achieves dimensions that enable it to withstand the ordinary loads to which structures are intended. The components belong to the prefabrication chain and can be disassembled and recycled at the end of its life. It is also a material that comes from renewable sources and from certified forests that adhere to FSC (Forest stewardship Council) protocols for responsible forest management. Finally, it is a material that does not need to dissipate high amounts of energy in its process of transformation and adaptation to structural functions.
All of Italy is now classified as earthquake-prone territory. Specifically, Milan is classified in zone 3, an area with low seismic hazard that may be subject to modest shaking. The use of low-weight materials, such as XLam, 450 kg/m3, results in reduced mass to which corresponds greater safety in the event of earthquakes.
Contrary to what many people believe, wood is highly resistant to fire. In fact, surface burning self-protects structural components, preventing instantaneous collapse without warning. It is also a good thermal and acoustic insulator, easy to work with, and if properly treated is capable of resisting weathering, biological attack and xylophagous agents. Finally, it possesses valuable aesthetic qualities, creating the feeling of a warm and welcoming environment.
The North Campus of the Milan Polytechnic will be Zero Energy - and therefore energy independent - and Zero Carbon - meaning zero C02 emissions into the atmosphere during its operation. Great attention to the latest criteria for respecting sustainability has led to the choice of wood as the structural type, which has been accompanied by a plan to plant new trees to compensate, in the long run, for its use.
"The essence of this project was already written there. The idea was already there waiting for nothing else. First, the forest with those majestic trees. Then the traces of the factory on the ground, those old buildings bearing witness to the memory of the places and their DNA."
Renzo Piano

Related Projects

Milan Ingegneria SpA

info@buromilan.com
stampa@buromilan.com
C.F./P.I. 08122220968
C.D. M5UXCR1

Milan

Via Thaon di Revel, 21
20159 Milan - Italy
T +39 02 36798890

Venice

Santa Croce 458/A
30135 Venice - Italy
T +39 041 5200158