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With its 207 m (actual height from the road surface) Isozaki Tower (nicknamed The Straight) is one of the tallest buildings in Italy and the highest in roof.
Designed by Japanese architect Arata Isozaki & Italian architect Andrea Maffei, is part of the redevelopment of the historic district of the city fair, in Milan, managed by City Life. Although initially there was talk of a future occupation by Assicurazioni Generali, it will be bought by the German company Allianz, for this reason is called Allianz Tower.
The building is distributed vertically over 50 floors of which 46 are expected to use as office space. The tower will be able to accommodate up to 3,800 people. And ‘characterized by plans completely illuminated by natural light, with panoramic views. Through a lobby on two levels, the Isozaki Tower is connected directly with the central square of CityLife (site of the former Fair in redevelopment) and the square below where he planned stop Tre Torri of underground M5.
The project is inspired mainly by the Endless Column of Constantin Brancusi installed in 1937 in the park of Targu-Jiu, Romania, which suggests creating systems endlessly repeatable and Futurism, not surprisingly a movement that developed in Milan, created to respond to the issues of the contemporary city, in its aspiration to maximum verticality, this Infinite Tower is a reflection on the themes of the contemporary city.
“In our archipelago of forms we found interesting to develop the idea of a skyscraper without end, a sort of endless tower. Wanted to find a concept to be applied to high-rise, even before imagining its aesthetics. Aspiration at maximum verticality, we chose to apply the concept of a modular system that can be repeated indefinitely, without interruption. “
Andrea Maffei
To give shape to the concepts of verticality and voltage up you chose a module that consists of 6 floors for offices, with a very narrow and elongated to 21 × 58 meters.
The choice of these proportions is aimed at streamlining of the volume to accentuate the verticality and makes it structurally provocative view the slenderness of a shape so high.
The facades are characterized by curved glass panels cold that create large curvature of the modules. This solution has been obtained through the techniques of cold-bending, or cold bending of the glass only via its bonding to the uprights in aluminum with a curved side.
At either end are three panoramic elevators with glass walls, climbing toward the top of the skyscraper, will allow you to admire the landscape and create the effect of machine-building dear to Futurism Milan.
Other reference to futurism are the four buttresses that have the function of reducing the oscillations of the tower in the last floors to allow for maximum comfort. The structures have been brought outside, so that they become a strong architectural character. So far it has never been made this engineering solution.