Shopping Centre Portello

The 'Aggregato Commerciale', a mixed-use complex, is part of a larger urban plan of renovation of the former industrial area of the Portello in Milan, designed by Studio Valle Architetti Associati between 1998 and 2001. The plan proposes a series of urban spaces (with housing, offices and a park) and pedestrian paths that link two former separate sites divided by a freeway. The shopping and mixed-use center forms a square that is one of the key terminals of the urban plan, the other being a fan shaped square near the Milan Fair. The mixed-use complex is formed by five buildings with supermarkets and shops at the ground level and office space above. They are related by streets with porticoes that merge in a central plaza covered by a 14 meter high canopy that ends the Portello master plan near Piazzale Accursio. Buildings 1, 2 and 3 contain supermakets (food supermarket, Planet World and Botanic) with offices at the upper levels. Buildings 4 and 5 have shops with covred passages at the ground floor, artisanal activities and offices at the second level.

An underground public parking of 30.000 square meters connects all the buildings allowing pedestrian use to the ground level. The mixeduse complex, with 25.000 square meters of shops, offices and artisanal activities, is a city portion that extends the existing urban fabric by using elements such as streets, squares, porticoes and a loggia. It is the first shopping center in Italy that includes multiple functions and is totally characterised by public outdoor pedestrian spaces. For its value in urban renovation, it received a special mention in the Gold Medal for Italian Architecture in 2006.

The building language, characterised by prefabricated concrete panels on a concrete frame, becomes a urban presence and a neutral background to advertising and is therefore painted in three shades of grey. All the porticoes and the square canopy are instead built in a steel frame and faced in aluminum panels.