Grattacielo Pirelli

This skyscraper has been the home of the Regione Lombardia since 1978. It was built between 1955 and 1960 on the old Pirelli site which was bombed in 1943, in order to house the new headquarters of the Milan based... More »

This skyscraper has been the home of the Regione Lombardia since 1978. It was built between 1955 and 1960 on the old Pirelli site which was bombed in 1943, in order to house the new headquarters of the Milan based organisation. It was designed by Gio Ponti with the collaboration of Pier Luigi Nervi. It is 127m tall and is still the tallest building in the city and the most prestigious post-war work of architecture. Using a similar scheme to the comtemporary Torre velasca by the BBPR studio, Ponti combines an innovative rectangular design with sides tapering up to the narrower extremities. The building grows around a hidden core covered in reinforced concrete. The tapered style and the pointed elements which are at odds with the finished appearance of the building surface make the skyscraper a unique example of architectural lightness, dynamism and extraordinary resolution of the relationship between structures and technology.