Location: Milan, Italy.

Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects.

Generali Tower is a 44-storey building located in Milan’s CityLife masterplan, which has redeveloped the city’s abandoned trade fair grounds. The tower is aligned with three of the city’s primary axes and connects with surrounding public piazzas and parks. The tower’s curvilinear geometries are defined by the perceived centripetal forces generated from the staggered intersection of these three city axes at the tower’s base. The tower houses up to 3,900 employees and excels in all international benchmarks for efficiency while respecting Milan’s rigorous local building codes. Its double-façade of sun-deflecting louvers flanked by glazing provides extremely efficient environmental control for each floor and ensures excellent energy performance, contributing to Generali Tower’s LEED Platinum certification by the US Green Building Council. The tower’s inclined perimeter columns follow the twisting geometry of the tower to mirror the inclined alignment of its external façade units. These perimeter columns also maximise usable office space within the tower’s coherent formal envelope. The tower is an integral element of the CityLife redevelopment that has created a new civic, residential and business district near the centre of Milan. It is the largest new civic space and public park created in the city since Parco Sempione opened 130 years ago.

Photo credit: Hufton+Crow, Luke Hayes, Jacopo Spilimbergo.