YEAR: 2015
TYPE OF PROJECT: Urban interiors
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PARTNERS: Belluardo Simona
Bianchi Andrea
ATLAS
RUBATTINO UNDERBRIDGE - ACTUAL STATE
Caduti di Marcinelle Street, Milan.
Below the busy bypass bridge, a desert park and a putrid small lake suffocate in a static silence. A new vitality is essential.
The Rubattino underbridge requalification project was launched promising to give back a purpose and dignity to that degraded location.
Due to the significant dimensions of the bridge, space underneath it would have welcomed four different projects, to be built one next to the other and entrusted to various working teams.
During the survey on site, cars keep hurtling fast on the long bridge, still among those great pillars nothing but few weak sounds arrive. And we feel small, supported, "like dwarfs on giants' shoulders." We start thinking about Atlas, the muscular titan of the Greek mythology who held up the sky with his shoulders. That bridge, after all, seems to resemble it: an imposing and invisible onlooker at the service of humans, trustworthy custodian of many transient stories.
We decide to make that tacit character visible, transforming it into an anthropomorphic building laying underneath the same bridge it appears to sustain. The structure interior spaces acquire a function associated with the body parts they are in correspondence with; water veins on the floor cross the rooms and highlight the symbiosis of the complex with the surrounding environment.
Located in a district full of offices, the stone giant's purpose is to welcome local workers during their lunch break, offering them a restaurant space where to go for a quick and tasty meal - with the possibility of ordering either online or on-site - and a relaxing area to lie down before going back to their offices. On the outside, a wisteria plant, which is a symbol of friendship and greeting, climbs up on the giant's arms.
THE CONCEPT
Dear giant,
I just wanted to say thank you.
Because if I go where I go, do what I do and am what I am it is also thanks to you.
Because you have been my shadow, you have quietly accompanied me, and I have grown old with you.
Because you have watched over me while my mum was driving me to school
or when I was playing football in the park.
Because here I fell in love with her, and she did with me.
Because I always brought here all my difficulties with the studies, from high school to graduation.
Because today, during my work breaks, I can stay here without feeling alone.
In conclusion, because you are here.
I also want to apologise,
because life presses and things to do are so many.
So often I forget about you, or I take for granted to have such a big friend
always on my side, tacitly.
But it is ok because when I realise all this again, it is even better, even more real.
I will not hide from you that I am a little embarrassed,
because I am not able to thank you properly.
I have nothing to offer you that could remotely be worth what you have given me.
But I donate you the dearest things I have: my fears, my worries, my doubts, my thoughts,
my memories, my joyful moments.
I entrust them to you. Tell about them to who, after me, will like to live his incredible story with you.
See you soon my dear Mr Bridge,
thank you again.
THE PROJECT
Main entrance view - the giant's head.
Right veranda external view- the giant's arm.
External waterfall view - the giant's feet.
Main entrance view - the giant's head.
Relaxing area - space located inside the giant's legs.
Resting area: circular space with chair-beds and 3d landscapes projection, located inside the relaxing area waterfall.
Cuddle, the fully-equipped chair-bed of the resting area.
Relaxing area - space located inside the giant's legs.
