This project, located in Milan, provides 9000 sq.mts of subsidised Housing and Community services, including apartments for 110 families, social infrastructure, commercial and social areas, playgrounds and urban farms. 

The proposal stems from a belief that in order to protect and nurture the natural and built environment, we must look for solutions beyond engineering: instead, a ‘new sustainability’ proposes to mix urban density and social variety with natural phenomenon. 

Landscapes, weather patterns and the metropolis combine to create truly liveable environments.

Our proposal is a significant intervention deliberately emphasizing a great mass, as if it were as much part of the natural environment as it is of the urban environment. It is in fact a micro eco-system which focuses equally on social interaction and nature as it does on architecture and the urban environment. It’s insertion into the city balances the multivalent needs of its inhabitants with the existing urban fabric of Milan. The individual housing units are oriented towards the south, each with an‘oversized’ semi-collective terrace, and are placed along a vertical expanse like a precipice rising above alpine pastures below. Crossing the facade are tree-lined paths, connecting the sloping grasslands and the collective functions below to the peaked green roof above iva ascending trails. 

With this project, Tim Power Architects was awarded Third-Prize in an International Competition to Design ‘Housing Sociale’ in Via Cenni, Milano, Italy.

The three winning projects were selected by an international jury, composed of 11 experts in Social Housing from 5 European countries, from 140 registered participating practices.