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Pichi 12 was never intended to be unique. Rather, it’s an example of understated architecture that harmonizes with its urban setting while reinterpreting the modernism of Milan’s residential buildings. Park Associati originally designed the building as accommodation for students and young professionals orbiting around the Bocconi and Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti campuses. However, this residential building near the city’s Navigli district soon opened to other categories of residents as well. With its light, white plastered volumes and harmonious interplay of full and empty spaces, Pichi 12 is built around a courtyard open to community life, whose role is to act as a filter between individual living and coexistence in an urban space.
The building is on three levels. At street level, there are spaces for common activities and socializing, while the upper floors house 30 apartments, with different configurations and sizes that offer a high quality of life to different resident categories. The building uses dry construction techniques, but incorporating materials that provide both lightness and solidity, with steel prominent.
The envelope plays a leading role in creating the identity of Pichi 12. The architects aimed to strike a balance between essentiality and technical performance, but without detracting from the sophisticated appearance of the building. This prompted the involvement of Alpac, a firm specialized in cutting-edge window technology.
One of the architects’ aims in designing the façade was to create clean, essential lines. Timber and aluminum windows and doors were therefore combined with folding blinds that become as good as invisible when closed. Railings were fitted along the line of the façade using fasteners that, set between the infill and external insulation, are invisible from outside. Alpac was also involved in this aspect, designing, creating, and installing a customized version of its Presystem SPS monoblock product. Besides offering window assemblies with high thermal and acoustic performance, the product is suitable for use with different types of blinds and shutters, including roller and side-hung designs.
The custom version created for Pichi 12 has a shutter box incorporated into the assembly. Alpac installed the windows and shutters before the dry construction of the walls using a self-supporting system. This made it possible to speed up construction times, while also making an important contribution to efficiency, and thermal and acoustic insulation without compromising the aesthetics of the building.
Park Associati described Pichi 12 as democratic architecture designed for a cooperative whose aim was quality accessible living in all its common spaces, apartments, and garden.
More info: www.alpac.it
Location: Milan, Italy
Architect: Park Associati
Completion: 2023
Photography by Michela Laudadio, courtesy of Alpac
