Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Best
Architecture
Milan's architectural charm lies in its mix of styles, and at the fore is Italy's 20th-
century design heritage. Wide streets are lined with elegant fin-de-siècle Liberty
apartments that merge with 1930s Rationalist rigour, while out of the postwar dev-
astation two of the world's unique skyscrapers arose in the form of BBPR's Torre
Velasca and Giò Ponti's Torre Pirelli.
Expo 2015
The Milanese often carp that despite claims they are Italy's most modern city,
they've not been able to produce a significant building for more than 50 years.
This is about to change: the sound of jackhammers around Stazione Garibaldi sig-
nifies the emergence of the Porta Nuova development, with César Pelli's shard-like
skyscraper, apartments with hanging gardens and a sunken piazza, while the
420-acre Expo site in Rho and Pero promises a futuristic new skyline from inter-
national archi-stars Zaha Hadid, Arata Isozaki, Pier Paolo Maggiora and Daniel
Libeskind (
www.expo2015.org
).
Best Exteriors
Duomo
Cloud-piercing Gothic spires in cloudy Candoglian marble. (
Click here
)
Villa Olmo
Neoclassical Olmo, with its impressive colonnaded facade, was re-
modelled in the 'modern fashion'. (
Click here
)
Stazione Centrale
Deco-tinged, neo-Babylonian architecture epitomising the na-
tionalist fervour of Fascism. (
Click here
)
Torre Pirelli
The tapered sides of Ponti's modernist icon shoot skywards with dy-
namic modernity. (
Click here
)
