La Città Alta – La Città Altra
The research, presented as a bachelor’s thesis in architectural design at Politecnico di Milano, stems from the desire to intricately explore the Milanese architectural scene in the immediate post-war period, from 1946 to 1956, which was characterized by fervent design and construction activity during which architects and town planners were confronted with the challenges of reconstruction and the new needs of society. The aim is restructuring the theme of housing through the study of four representative buildings, selected for their historical and architectural relevance, with which an attempt is made to understand how post-war architecture reflected and influenced the changes taking place in Milanese society: Casa Alta by Pietro Lingeri and Luigi Zuccoli, the INA skyscraper by Piero Bottoni, the Casa Albergo on Via Corridoni designed by Luigi Moretti and Ettore Rossi and the Corso Italia complex, also designed by Luigi Moretti.
As the research traverses time and space, it closely examines the traces left by the Modern Movement and seeks to understand how these influences were reflected in the period’s architecture. The multidisciplinary approach combining architectural analysis, historical research, and sociological interpretation, has led to the identification of three interesting conclusions, each acting on a different architectural scale, declined in various ways in each of the four buildings, but part of a common design code. The title, La Città Alta, La Città Altra (The Upper Town, The Other Town), underlines the complexity of this analysis. The architectures are not just imposing volumes, like blades that hurl themselves like urban backdrops into the Milanese landscape, but contain within them an ‘other city’, made up of spatial and social innovations that redefine the concept of living. A hidden city, the one that develops inside the buildings, in the neighborhoods, in the houses; it is made up of human relationships, needs and desires, hopes and dreams.
The book is realized in 18×25.5 cm format, wire-bound and printed on 120 g/m² Fedrigoni paper. Each drawing was realized by the author from the original project plans, where available, as well as all photographs of the buildings, captured between January and February 2024.
