Re-innovare il patrimonio del ’900. Il caso de “La Serenissima” a Milano. - Renovation of the 20th century heritage. The case of “La Serenissima” building in Milan.

In the early 1960s Eugenio and Ermenegildo Soncini designed a building for offices and dwellings placed in Via Turati, one of the main urban roads of Milan that was interested by a season of deep formal renovation. In the building, characterised by avant-gard typological layout and construction techniques, the choice of the steel structure in order to foster the flexibility for interior spaces, allowed the use of single span frames and also defined its architectural image, according to precise relationships with the urban context, through exposed twin columns and glass surfaces. The refurbishment designed by the Park studio with the engineering company General Planning, due to a necessary technological update, ensured the achievement of contemporary sustainability standards, and consistently reinterpreted the original features, in order to recognize the value of historical heritage. The paper intends to rely the two phases in the history of the building showing how the experimentation of the construction and the following restoration are strictly linked to its steel nature which conforms to constant changes of complexity parameters.