Building for apartments and shops (1953)
corso Vercelli 51 (Milano)
corso Vercelli 51 (Milano)
In a period of intense professional growth activity, Gigi Gho' designs this residential and retail building in corso Vercelli. It is a typical architecture from the 1950s, with a podium intended for commercial activities and stepped-back upper levels with apartments. The main front, based on a symmetric but not rigid design, stands out for the pleasant rhythm of the different depths and the balanced relationship between solid and void.
Some of the typical features of Gho'`s design make their appearance in this building. The logic behind the project is similar to the one he will use a few years later in a wider scale for the building of via Boscovich, where the relationship with the street is different between ground floor and upper floors. The typical trapezoidal balconies make their appearance on the front facade - in this occasion more similar to a loggia concept - and they will later define the projects of via Legnano and piazza della Repubblica, and are here placed wisely at the sides of the front facade as connection elements with the adjacent buildings. Finally, the recessed structural elements at the ground floor allow to obtain a wider and continuous on-street shop window. This is a solution which is used again in the apartment block in via Sant'Antonio Maria Zaccaria, completed two years earlier. In plan, the project is arranged around two staircase cores which lead to up to five apartment per floor, obtained thanks to a clever layout which develops towards the back of the site. At the first, fourth, and seventh floor there are generous terraces for the apartments.
Some of the typical features of Gho'`s design make their appearance in this building. The logic behind the project is similar to the one he will use a few years later in a wider scale for the building of via Boscovich, where the relationship with the street is different between ground floor and upper floors. The typical trapezoidal balconies make their appearance on the front facade - in this occasion more similar to a loggia concept - and they will later define the projects of via Legnano and piazza della Repubblica, and are here placed wisely at the sides of the front facade as connection elements with the adjacent buildings. Finally, the recessed structural elements at the ground floor allow to obtain a wider and continuous on-street shop window. This is a solution which is used again in the apartment block in via Sant'Antonio Maria Zaccaria, completed two years earlier. In plan, the project is arranged around two staircase cores which lead to up to five apartment per floor, obtained thanks to a clever layout which develops towards the back of the site. At the first, fourth, and seventh floor there are generous terraces for the apartments.
Design drawings |
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