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Bianca Maria 31 is a historic Milanese building in the Liberty style, featuring rich decorative elements marked by a distinctive simplicity and clarity of design.
Over the years, the building has undergone various interventions that have, to some extent, compromised some of its valuable architectural elements, although the façade as a whole has been preserved.
The design concept was therefore developed around the restoration of the building, which required extensive cleaning and the recovery of its main decorative elements, both interior and exterior, along with the upgrading of several technical components to improve the building’s performance and comfort.
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Bianca Maria 31 is located in a strategic position, well connected to points of interest in Milan’s historic center. It features elegant architecture characterized by refined elements, present both on the façades and in the interiors. Its stylistic imprint is typical of many neighboring buildings, ranging from Neoclassical to Milanese Liberty.
The building is part of a compact urban fabric, marked by moderate building heights, situated within the old city walls known as the “Bastioni.” It overlooks a wide, tree-lined avenue with a pleasant promenade that allows a more relaxed view of the building, away from the fast pace of traffic.
Intervening on a historic building always presents numerous challenges and requires great care in determining the type of work to be carried out.
To improve energy performance and ensure a high level of living comfort, it was decided to install internal insulation within the residential units, thereby preserving the historic façade. Similarly, where possible, deteriorated elements were replaced with high-performance new components while maintaining the original style—for example, the external window frames and the roof, which was completely rebuilt with a new wooden structure.
The project includes the overall renovation of the interior spaces of the residential units and the building’s common areas, the conservation and restoration of both the street-facing and internal courtyard façades, and the complete reconstruction of the roof. In order to preserve the building’s original character, the existing wooden window and door frames were replaced with new elements faithfully reproducing the originals in design and material. The common interior areas—especially the entrance hall, the porter’s lodge, and the elevator—were carefully restored, aiming to retain as many original finishes and decorative details as possible, with selective intervention only where elements were in poor condition. The residential units on the upper floors were fully stripped of finishes and non-load-bearing walls. Several original features (such as window frames and shutters, interior door frames and doors, and period radiators) were catalogued, restored, and reinstalled in the renovated apartments. The design also includes coordinated kitchen and bathroom furnishings to maintain a consistent style. Internal insulation was added to enhance energy efficiency and allowed for the conversion of attic space into new habitable rooms connected to the units below.
Bianca Maria 31 was an opportunity for careful, almost artisanal, design, attending to every single detail to restore vitality to a historic building. In addition to configuring the residential units so that each had adequate and optimized spaces, an important part of the work involved researching products that could be integrated into new environments while respecting the original decor and style.
Tectoo is a creative hub of architects whose partners’ background experience spans across many countries and continents: Europe, North America, Middle East and Far East, Australia and Africa.
Tectoo has been established by the Architect Susanna Scarabicchi, former partner of Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW). Her expertise, sensitivity and competence have been highly recognized around the world throughout the projects she led and designed over the past 30 years. Tectoo’s cutting-edge approach is also enhanced by the expertise of Architect Andrea Peschiera, with whom Architect Scarabicchi has had a productive collaboration at RPBW and who joined the firm as partner and director since its foundation, sharing the common focus on technical excellence and experimentation, developed through his international experience.
Tectoo is deeply rooted by architectural, environmental and social convictions while the best building concepts grow by means of a rigorous and innovative approach.
