Matteo Colombo
Piazza Duomo, an iconic landmark of the city of Milan has always been at the center of a debate about the urban aesthetic and functional conformation, resulting in multiple competitions, which have never been fully realised.
While on the one hand the city grows and develops upward with new architecture, on the other hand it expands downward, underground: a Milan under Milan, another city under our feet.
Beneath the square a series of ancient and recent archaeological remains are layered: the Duomo crypt, the ruins of the basilicas, the anti-aircraft bunker, pressed by the infrastructure for the M1 and M3 lines. These places, built at different historical moments, contribute to the great underground machine. The project transforms the architectures into ruins capable of connecting and unifying into a large unified space, where different functions dialogue and merge together. A rich spatial sequence, accessible and usable from multiple directions and heights, allowing people to experience and traverse this new world. At the center of the courtyard of the Royal Palace and at the equestrian statue of Victor Emmanuel II two large openings show and anticipate the presence of an underground world that is declared through the changed positioning of the monument. Light is the guiding thread of the project: through its movement, spaces are designed that acquire different atmospheres. A large sundial that guides people inside the architecture.
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