Former Falck Areas Recovery

The rehabilitation of the historic buildings is part of a larger project involving the entire vast area of the former Steelworks, where a veritable city within a city will be created to act as a hinge between the old and new Sesto San Giovanni. In the area, which is estimated to be able to accommodate about 20,000 people, five plazas connected by a network of pathways will be built, as well as residences, a new station and the health city. The newly constructed buildings will thus be integrated with the pre-existing architecture of the former steel mills, which have been recovered and re-functionalized.

As a result of the redevelopment, the historic industrial buildings will have differentiated functions, hosting commercial activities, restaurants, bars, covered markets, exhibition spaces and dedicated to entertainment. The rehabilitation of these structures is designed to integrate with the pre-existing elements without altering their nature, so that the new elements can be disassembled and removed if necessary, for further re-functionalization of the spaces.

The building OMEC - Officine Meccaniche E Costruzioni - was built in two phases starting in the early 1900s, and the current regeneration project involves its conversion to a food market and cultural center. The intervention requires first of all seismic upgrading: in the southern part of the building, which is characterized by a reinforced concrete structure, it is planned to replace the most damaged elements added to a reinforcement operation by means of fiber-reinforced materials.

In the northern portion of the building, the steel structures are recovered by sandblasting and painting, and then reinforced where necessary with coupled steel plates or elements. To increase the lateral rigidity of the building, new steel columns are coupled to the existing pillars, while the masonry infill is restored using the "scuci-cuci" technique and consolidated by fiber-reinforced mortar. Finally, the new horizons will be made of steel structure and trapezoidal sheet metal with concrete casting.

The building T3 housed the steel mill furnaces. The massive steel structure consists of welded-section columns made of thick plates resting on reinforced concrete plinths. Horizontally, longitudinal metal beams, also of welded section, formed the runways for the overhead cranes. The roof consists of corrugated sheets and panels resting on trusses, metal beams, and purlins, and is crowned by the characteristic "bull horn" chimneys. The intervention includes the conversion of the building to mixed functions, such as stores, sports, entertainment, leisure and catering, which are integrated within the T3 structure according to the "box in the box" idea.

No horizontal loads are transferred from the additions to the existing structure, while a new basement is to be excavated for use as parking and technical rooms. The new interior volumes consist of steel structures supporting CLT panels with collaborating concrete casting. These new structures are connected to each other by bridges made of steel trusses and suspended over the beams originally intended for crane sliding - designed, therefore, to carry much higher loads than the new walkways.

The building Rolling Train is a long supporting structure consisting of metal trusses supported by lattice columns set at regular intervals. The roof rests on trusses and is covered with corrugated sheet metal. Welded rigid beams, originally used as crane rails, run throughout the building, which is distinguished by its linear development.

As with the T3 building, the refunctionalization project of the Rolling Train includes the inclusion of new volumes, which in this case are made of mixed steel and wood structure and give rise to a new intermediate floor within the building.