Since Expo 2015 onwards, Milan has been undergoing a series of significant transformations that have profoundly changed, and are changing, its urban layout at the most disparate scales, but according to a common denominator: the regeneration of the built environment, in a period when the consumption of land is less and less feasible for reasons that are not only spatial but above all ethical. From the regeneration of railway terminals, huge former industrial suburbs and unresolved urban nodes to the renovation and valorization of historic buildings, parks and roads epitomizing Milan’s urbanitas, Milan is projecting itself towards the future as an international capital, outstanding in services, culture, sustainability and, last but not least, territorial marketing, beckoning the world’s leading designers to redefine the city's profile. From BIG to SOM, from Renzo Piano to Snøhetta and David Chipperfield, through epicentres such as the Scalo di Porta Romana, the CityLife and Porta Nuova areas, and the historic centre, Domus explores the building sites currently underway that are expected to be completed by 2025 and for the 2026 Winter Olympics. In the hope that the metamorphic mechanism underway will not leave behind parts of the society (as well as of the city) that are often marginalized by the implacable logics and strategies of markets.
The landmarks that will transform Milan for the Olympic Games
From Big to Renzo Piano, from CityLife to Porta Romana, Domus takes a look at the work in progress in Milan, with projects expected to be completed by 2025, or by the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Photo Onirism
Photo Onirism
Photo Onirism
Photo Onirism
Render courtesy Covivio
Render courtesy Covivio
Render courtesy Covivio
Render courtesy Covivio
Photo Courtesy Nhood Services Italy SpA
Photo Courtesy Nhood Services Italy SpA
Photo Courtesy Nhood Services Italy SpA
Photo Alberto Fanelli
Photo Alberto Fanelli
Image courtesy of Attilio Stocchi
Image courtesy of Attilio Stocchi
Photo Giacomo Albo
Photo Giacomo Albo
Photo Giacomo Albo
Photo Giacomo Albo
Render Courtesy of RPBW - Ottavio di Blasi & Partners
Render Courtesy of RPBW - Ottavio di Blasi & Partners
Render Courtesy of RPBW - Ottavio di Blasi & Partners
Photo Threeditions - Alberto Fanelli
Photo Threeditions - Alberto Fanelli
Photo Threeditions - Alberto Fanelli
Photo
Photo
Courtesy BIG Architects
Courtesy BIG Architects
Courtesy BIG Architects
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Photo
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- Chiara Testoni
- 26 February 2025
Within the Santa Giulia district regeneration program, a masterplan by Mario Cucinella Architects, David Chipperfield Architects has designed Arena Milano. The facility, which will host the men’s hockey competitions during the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and which, with 16,000 seats and a 10,000 sqm plaza for summer festivals and open-air events, will be Italy's largest arena, is now completed in its structural aspects. Just over a year after the laying of the foundation stone (October 2023), the construction site is on its way to definite completion, scheduled for 15 December 2025.
At Corso Italia 19, in the heart of Milan, Asti Architetti has breathed new life into Palazzo Beretta, a classicist building (Luigi Tatti, 1840-45) rebuilt in the post-war period and acquired in 2015 by Covivio, which has begun its redevelopment for tertiary use. The fulcrum of the complex is the evocative internal courtyard, from which the project takes its name, conceived as a unified welcoming place and illuminated by a scenographic glass roof. If the historic exterior façade has been preserved, the interiors have been completely re-imagined in the name of comfort, efficiency and environmental sustainability. Work is scheduled for completion in 2025. The project will continue with the redesign of Piazza Santa Eufemia.
After several delays, the Piazzale Loreto junction seems about to unravel. The requalification works, promoted by NHOOD Services Italy SpA and CEETRUS Italy SpA (developers) and designed by the project team Metrogramma Milano srl, Andrea Caputo, MIC-HUB, LAND, Temporiuso, FROM, should start in 2025 and concern the transformation of the square from a vehicular widening into a green square with an amphitheatre, shops, offices and the traffic relocated outside. Meanwhile, the restyling of Corso Buenos Aires, connecting Piazzale Loreto to Porta Venezia, is underway. The works, which will be completed in 2025, include improving pedestrian spaces, eliminating architectural barriers, creating green flowerbeds, consolidating the existing cycle route and building new ones.
The Padel Pavilion designed by Novembre Studio in the CityLife Park, 12 metres high, with a mixed steel and timber structure and polycarbonate shell, is characterized by a dramatic 17 m curvilinear overhang that invites to the entrance. The building will include seven padel courts, a wellness area for athletes, a store, a rest area and a raised multifunctional space, in an area of 2,800 sqm. Construction is scheduled to be completed by 2025.
Currently unknown and difficult to access, the archaeological park in the Colonne di San Lorenzo area houses the remains of the Amphitheatre from the Julio-Claudian period, one of the largest in the country. The Pan project, Parco Amphitheatrum Naturae (first lot), designed by architect Attilio Stocchi takes up the traces of the ancient amphitheater, reinterpreting them as a natural bas-relief through an impressive landscape design.
Launched in 2021, the project, by Asti Architetti for Hines (a global real estate investment, development and management company), involved both the conservative restoration of the iconic Torre Velasca (BBPR, 1958) and the redevelopment of the surrounding urban context, previously anonymous, through the design of a pedestrian square enriched with benches and olive trees, magnolia trees and green areas, under the banner of environmental sustainability. The construction site is now nearing completion.
The new railway station is the most distinctive symbol of MilanoSesto, one of the largest urban redevelopment projects in Europe. The work, which serves as a connection between two parts of the municipality of Sesto San Giovanni now separated by the tracks, is characterized by a 90 metres long and 18 metres wide glass walkway crossing the Milan-Monza railway line, with covered stairs connecting the platforms, and housing bars and shops inside, offering a panoramic view of the new Unione urban park. Completion is scheduled for August 2025, with operability starting in December 2025.
Historically a crack in the urban fabric, the Scalo di Porta Romana (railway facilities) is now an area undergoing a major urban regeneration process. The transformation started with the purchase of the area by Fondo Porta Romana, promoted and managed by COIMA SGR and participated in by Covivio, Prada Holding and COIMA ESG City Impact Fund, which launched an international competition in 2022 for the redesign of the area, awarded to the team formed by OUTCOMIST, Diller Scofidio + Renfro, PLP Architecture, Carlo Ratti et al. The masterplan envisages a mixed use (residences, offices, social housing, student housing) and services, as well as the redevelopment of 190,000 sqm of the Scalo into a car-free area, more than 50% of which will be dedicated to equipped public green spaces. The Olympic Village designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), which will be the first completed work in the area (delivery is scheduled for 31 July 2025), is part of the park: the two blocks, made up of three essential aligned slabs, will host the athletes during the Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic Games and will then be converted, at the end of the sport event, into a student residence with 1,700 beds. The public green and equipped spaces of the Olympic Village were designed by architect Michel Desvigne, in coordination with OUTCOMIST’s general masterplan, which was overseen for the landscaping part by Elizabeth Diller (Diller Scofidio + Renfro).
Since June 2024, work has been underway on the redevelopment of the former Pavilion 3 of the Milan Fiera, built in 2023 as a sports hall designed by Paolo Vietti Violi, transformed over the years in its uses and “revitalized” in its external facades. The building will become the CityOval, a vast arena for large public events, measuring 4,085 square metres by 32 metres in height, articulated around a large central void and a newly built lobby with an external staircase. Structural work on the interior is underway.
CityWave, designed by Big-Bjarke Ingels Group, is a large wave-shaped office complex, a new access to the Ex Fiera Tre Torri area. It is the fourth large building to join the skyscrapers by Isozaki, Hadid and Libeskind, and contrasts with them with the horizontal arrangement of its masses, which extend over a length of 200 metres. The two main volumes, united by a curvilinear roof, echo the still existing entrance gates of the City’s Fair (Fiera Campionaria) and are intended to resume their role as a monumental entrance, no longer a trade fair but CityLife. Completion is scheduled for 2026.
In the Porta Nuova area, which for years has been undergoing massive transformation processes, Coima Sgr, in agreement with the City of Milan, is developing an urban regeneration project involving new public spaces, new buildings and important redevelopments. These include the complex at 35 Via Pirelli, dating back to the 1960s, redesigned by Snøhetta and Park Associati. Besides the retrofit of the original building, the project includes a six-storey extension, connected to the main volume by a bridge building, chromatically contrasting with the existing one. The work is scheduled to open by 2025.