Shopping center

A shopping center with a parking lot, and vice versa: ten years of projects on an archaeological piece of the most important Milanese “street market”.

The Cinisello Balsamo Shopping Center of 1974 is one of the first shopping centers in Italy. Since 2001, through a series of successive interventions, the shopping center has changed its appearance: first of all, a new façade in backlit polycarbonate panels replaced the old one, providing support for commercial communication. Later, we expanded the outdoor parking area by building two above-ground parking levels (2002) and then another three (2006).

The car park is sized on the basis of a further expansion of the commercial area started in 2008 and completed in 2011. The intent of the project is to maximize the presence of the parking lot that becomes the true landmark of the building, overlooking one of the most important roads market north Milan, where the succession of commercial brands makes the facades a continuously changing schedule. The multi-storey car park thus characterized has the role of representing an element of recognizability and identification of architecture, beyond the continuous change of colors and messages of commerce.