A2A Headquarters,a lighthouse transfigured, exaggerated and merged with the green spaces

A2A Headquarters (Milan, Italy) by Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel (ACPV)

The headquarters of Italian utility company A2A is a major new urban development in the rapidly changing area of southern Milan.

Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel (ACPV) won the architectural competition in 2018 for the company’s new office building and the adaptive reuse of the existing structures with a contemporary design. The new office tower of A2A alludes to the shape of a light-house – transfigured, exaggerated and merged with the surrounding green spaces. Inclined towards the city center, the asymmetrical building pays homage to the regenerative and productive potential of industrial past of this fragment of Milan, and emerges as a point of reference on the edge of the Porta Romana railway yard area. The new development will become a hinge between Milan’s historic center and peripheries by reactivating a north-south axis that runs from the central Porta Romana transport node, through Via Crema and Piazza Trento, to Fondazione Prada located just across the railway yards from the A2A headquarters.

ACPV’s design has been conceived with several aspects of sustainability in mind. The new corporate campus will not only be constructed according to the highest standards of environmental sustainability, but it will also foster social sustainability by reviving the surrounding public spaces, and by offering services and functions that both the local community and the company’s employees can use. The project will adapt the company’s office spaces to new, increasingly mobile modes of work. Principles of flexibility and informality have guided the design of the workspaces, with the aim of offering maximum comfort while at work. Green areas, conceived not only as an accessory element of the architecture but as an integrated component of the interior, redefine the idea of the office by creating a welcoming environment that facilitates social interaction. The glass-clad tower guarantees a 360° panoramic view of the city of Milan: vertically, the building is divided in the middle into two sets of office floors, framed by the spacious entrance Hall on the ground floor, the Sky Garden at mid-height, and the Belvedere on top.

The new office tower will redefine the role of the district together with the nearby Symbiosis business district, a masterplan by ACPV, that will see the transfer of major service sector operations to this part of the city, and Università Bocconi’s campus currently in expansion located just a few minutes away. The project will also continue Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel’s long line of experiences in the design of office buildings and spaces – recent works include NOVE, an office building in Munich (Germany); NEXXT – Fastweb HQ in Milan; and the restyling of Enel’s headquarters in Rome.