architecture

Thursday, March 31, 2005

Half Dose #10: New Milan Trade Fair Complex

A couple days ago, Milan's new Trade Fair opened in a massive (750,000 sm) new complex by Massimiliano Fuksas.

Missing image - HD10a.jpg

An aerial view of the complex illustrates the simple plan: a central spine feeds long-span exhibition halls on either side. This spine is the project's most dramatic element, an undulating, glass-covered walkway at the scale of an airport concourse.

Missing image - HD10b.jpg

Clearly Fuksas is embracing the computer technology that allows him to create these blobby surfaces, ones that read that much stronger by the adjacent boxy structures. Although reminiscent of Peter Cook and Colin Fournier's Kunsthaus Graz, structures like this will become more and more common as construction catches up with the architect's computer designs. Perhaps we'll see designs like this built in that largely bereft area between purely surface (Milan's elongated canopy) and institutional designs (Graz's attention-seeking museum). Is a blobby office or residential high-rise in the near future?

(via noticias arquitectura)

Links:
- Official page of M fuksas ARCH.
- New Milan Fair System, the English homepage of the new building.
- Floor Nature's page on the project with images.
- Images at Skyscraper City.

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