CAMERA DI COMMERCIO, INDUSTRIA E AGRICOLTURA

Headquarters in 11 Via Meravigli, Milan

Project: Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni

1958 Client: Milan Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture

A 19th century Milanese building partially destroyed during WW II was reconstructed to host the new seat of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture. The facade was restored and the interior redone.

The project involved tackling numerous constraints regarding the dimensions and volume of the area, the presence of windows in the old facade and the need for access to the nearby Stock Exchange and Grain Market.

The distinctive feature of this notably large and difficult project is how the lighting was resolved: from lamps specifically designed for the various spaces to ceilings equipped with special lighting; technically and visually the lighting was the most important element in the interiors

The entrance led to a large lobby backed by a courtyard and encompassed the volume of a new staircase (ground floor to first floor); the entrance wall and the one facing the courtyard consisted entirely of two large windows; the floors were paved in porphyry and Montorfano granite and the walls faced with Lasa marble. The offices, with carefully researched technological equipment, were located on the first floor.

In addition to offices for the president, vice-president and secretary general, there were a series of rooms of various sizes for meetings, conferences and congresses, served by vestibules and ante-rooms so that a number of events could be held simultaneously.

The presidential office overlooking Via Meravigli had a mosaic floor made of large sections of red Levant marble and grey cloth-covered walls. A continuous teak screen (individual panels hinged by joints in the wood) divided the room into three areas: a reception area with armchairs, an office with a desk, and an area for small meetings. From the ceiling hung a white glass lamp designed by the Castiglioni brothers and executed by Venini. In 1959 Kartell produced it in plastic with the name “KD6”.

The larger rooms reserved for the board of directors and conferences were near the lobby. The first room was structured in carpeted tiers. Red velvet armchairs with a wooden tilt-up writing surface were arranged in six staggered rows and fixed to the floor with an elliptical metal base. The ceiling and walls were covered in solid waxed wood panels studied so that diffused (fluorescent) and concentrated (incandescent) light sources, air conditioning aerostats and loudspeaker clusters could be distributed in the venation. On a side wall were four cabins for simultaneous interpreters. The gallery, reserved for the press and guests, was furnished with movable chairs upholstered in red velvet.

The second room, connected directly to the reception room, was paved with Musso marble and the walls faced with granite and porphyry

The stackable padded armchairs with a metal frame, called ”Babela”, were specially produced by the Gavina company for the project.

The ceiling housed all the lights, loudspeakers and air conditioning ducts in a circular cavity.

The continuous window in the ceiling of the reception room was protected by a screen diffusing natural and artificial light.

The conference room had two large glass walls in painted iron frames which faced the courtyard and the reception room.

The meeting rooms were smaller and furnished with modular metal tables with a cloth covered wooden surface and “Urania” armchairs designed by BBPR (produced by Arflex).

The wall facing the reception room resolved the insertion of two original arched windows on the facade through a pavilion vault interrupted towards the window side by a triangular panel where the artificial light sources were concentrated; the floor was carpeted.

The second room at the back of the courtyard combined mahogany flooring and travertine covered walls. The ceiling was conceived as a single light source shedding indirect light, the convex curve of the reflecting surface designed to focus the light on the tops of the tables at the centre of the room.

Among others, two pieces of lighting equipment stood out, but they remained at the prototype stage: on the first floor in the board room, ingenious lacquered metal pulley lamps shedding direct and reflected light (made by Stilnovo), were suspended from the ceiling; the walls of the passage on the second floor leading to the administrative offices and the council room gallery were illuminated by a series of projecting lamps with an iron framework, the reflectors covered on the lower side by a convex mirror.