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= Residenze Carlo Erba =

Introduction
Residenze Carlo Erba is a residential complex in Milan standing 3 blocks away from Politecnico di Milano campus, and facing a historical plaza,  Piazza Carlo Erba. This building  is inserted into this Novecento Neighborhood as a testament that architecture can be highly contextual echoes the spirit of the place, and still stands out with an exciting character.

For a triangular site, this project attempts to create a symbolic contemporary building which fulfills the commercial viability while responding to the context. Restricted by the local height restrictions, the architects designed a nine-story building with 4 distinct layers through horizontally stacked and offset bands.

History
The design of Residenze Carlo Erba started in 2009 and the construction work is completed in July 2019. There was a large block on the site, which until the 1970s was the headquarters of Rizzoli publishers and later housed offices of Zurich insurance. The block was largely demolished except its early 20th-century neoclassical front facing the piazza, which becomes part of the residential complex and its formal entrance.

Design
Residenze Carlo Erba, blending urban and architectural design with attention to detail, is a controversial yet welcome addition to Milanese panorama.

This nine-story residential block is served by six lifts that provided access to two flats on each floor, and extends through slippages and vertical and horizontal shifts. The planimetric S-shape maximizes the number of residential units and makes room for a private garden on Via Pinturicchio, which visually continues to the adjacent public garden.

The composition of lines on the façade is organized in a delicate way and is never heterogeneous and random, each group has its specific rhythm. The steel structure from floor five to six is subdivided on the basis of a golden section; from floor five to nine, there is another gigantic order also made by metallic frames, slightly stepped back from the golden section. The building's dynamic design underscores the irony in Peter Eisenman's claim, "After all, I am a traditionalist."

Another play throughout the building is the relation between structure and volume, solid and void, which is created by the syntax of the metallic frame together with the switch and offset of mass of the building. The series of straight lines are the elements that unites everything: on the east face of the building, the lines carve into the mass; on the opposite, the mass recede. “On one side the grid prevails, on the other it is excavated.” Explains Degli Esposti.

Material
Residenze Carlo Erba features a three-part façade design: begins with a travertine cladding base with punched window openings, then changes into a mix of solid and transparent walls on piano nobile,  and finishes with Carrara marble slabs on the top part. The lines on the façade is further reiterated by the beams and posts of the steel structure on the upper floors. The subtle transition from the warm, rough travertine to cool, glazing marble recalls the typical layered character of Milanese building, as Eisenman says, “Milan has a layered look.”

Architects
Residene Carlo Erba is a work by Peter Eisenman in New York, Degli Esposti Architetti in Milan, and another Italian architect Guido Zuliani.

Peter David Eisenman (born August 11, 1932): an American architect, writer, and professor. Considered one of the New York Five, Eisenman is known for his high modernist and deconstructive designs, as well as for his authorship of several architectural books. In 1980, Eisenman established the architecture practice with the unique approach to design projects considering the layers of physical and cultural archaeologies at each site. Eisenman Architects doesn't focus on specific types of buildings; instead, the firm excels in tackling challenging projects including residential developments, urban planning initiatives, as well as educational, cultural, and commercial buildings. The firm's portfolio is diverse and globally recognized, encompassing an array of award-winning works like the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, City of Culture of Galicia in Galicia and and many other masterworks.

Degli Esposti Architetti: Founded in 2006 by Lorenzo Degli Esposti and Paolo Lazza, active practicing architecture, masterplanning and infrastructure design. Degli Esposti Architetti’s refined approach to design is the outcome of continuous research and practice, from early works in collaboration with the primary figures of the XX Century architecture up to the current projects in the private and public sector, such as Cesena Sport City and Nuove Scuole – Futura (Ministero dell’istruzione, PNRR).

Guido Zuliani: an architect and an educator graduated from the Università IUAV di Venezia who founded AZstudio, collaborated with different firms in the United States and Italy.

Significance
As Peter Eisenman’s latest project and his first completed project in Italy — a country where he studied its architecture for years — Residenze Carlo Erba carries significant meaning. Among the most important architects Eisenman explored was Giuseppe Terragni, whose masterpiece Casa del Fascio in Como might be echoed in the gigantic frame of the Carlo Erba Building. “Eisenman reintroduced Terragni to a generation of Italian architects.” Says Lorenzo Degli Esposti, one of the architects of Residenze Carlo Erba. One can find an obsessive research in Eisenman’s 2003 book Giuseppe Terragni: Transformations, Decompositions, Critiques.

Among all of Eisenman’s projects, Residenze Carlo Erba stands out with simplicity in some aspects and daring in others, indicating an evolution as a “mature” work, as the architect himself described it.