Mixed-use complex in Corso Buenos Aires

Several independent city functions are freely composed in this block measuring 40 metres per side, delimited by 4 streets. It was one of the first complexes of its kind to be built during the reconstruction of Milan.

The three-storey base contains a cross-shaped shopping mall, covered by glass-block skylights, that runs between the cinema (by the architects Cavallè and Fratino), the department store, a club and the apartment block. The latter is eleven storeys high and each floor has from two to four apartments comprising five or ten rooms, plus a large terrace. 

The designers did not intend the roof to be visible from the street. The original design was also conditioned by the absence of external materials on the tower – concrete instead of ceramic tiles – and the lack of control over the shop signs.

Other significant buildings by Piero Bottoni: Via Mercadante residential building, 1934-1935, Via Saverio Mercadante 7
Corso Genova building, 1949-1950, Corso Genova 4
INA-Casa houses, 1949-1953, Via Felice Orsini 80 in Vialba district
INA-Casa building (with M. Morini and C. Villa), 1952-1953, Via San Giusto 37
INCIS building in QT8 district, 1953-1956, Via Bertinoro 9
Monte Stella, 1953-1967, QT8 district