Piazzale Cadorna

Once an unstructured space between Castello Sforzesco and the Magenta district, Piazzale Cadorna has become a new port of entry to the city. Now it is dominated by the ugly mass of the Cadorna station where thousands... More »

Once an unstructured space between Castello Sforzesco and the Magenta district, Piazzale Cadorna has become a new port of entry to the city. Now it is dominated by the ugly mass of the Cadorna station where thousands of commuters are disgorged into the city each morning. In 1998, the railway company and Milan City Council commissioned Gae Aulenti to reorganise the area. The operation rationalised the road system with traffic dividers created by water tanks, and created a vast pedestrian area for train passengers partly covered by aluminium and glass structures joined to the station facade. The attractive forest of red pillars, the water that flows from the beams of the platform roof, and the transparent covers bring to mind a 19th century covered market. They are part of a courageous an interesting architectural project initiated by the city and crowned by the majestic sculpture of Claes Oldenburg and Coosije van Bruggen. It is an enormous steel needle 18 meters tall wrapped in a highly colored glass resin that gives a new vital identity to the square and around which the life of the square revolves.