Milan's industrial north-east: a district built around a factory, then rebuilt around a university.
At a glance
Bicocca lies in the north-east of Milan, in Municipio 9. From 1903 it was one of the largest industrial settlements in Italy: Breda, Pirelli, Falck and Marelli all moved their plants here, on about 200,000 square metres of new works.
From the mid-1980s the area was rebuilt as a university and research district. The factory halls that survived became exhibition space, and the streets around them filled with university buildings, offices and housing.
Key facts
- City: Milan, Lombardia, Italy
- Coordinates: 45.5221, 9.2201
- Industrial plants from: 1903
- Progetto Bicocca: begun 1986
- Contemporary art space: Pirelli HangarBicocca, from 2004
History
The Breda company was founded in 1886 by Ernesto Breda and moved its works to Bicocca in 1903. Pirelli, Falck and Marelli followed, and the district became one of the most important industrial settlements in Italy.
Inside the 200,000 square metres of the new plants, Breda produced railway carriages, electric and steam locomotives, boilers, agricultural machinery and tools. During the First World War aircraft, shells and other war material were added.
In the early 1980s Breda passed to the Ansaldo group and the historic industrial areas began to be dismantled. The Progetto Bicocca, started in 1986, opened the way to the redevelopment of the old Pirelli plants as a university quarter, with offices and housing arranged around the Teatro degli Arcimboldi.
What you see
Three industrial buildings survive inside what is now the Pirelli HangarBicocca art space. The Shed is the classic early-industrial hall of exposed brick, low and lit by wide skylights, already recognisable in photographs of the early 1920s.
The Cubo was added in 1955 by Breda Elettromeccanica e Locomotori, a cubic building with a barrel vault. The Navate, which joins the two, was built between 1963 and 1965 for the transformer department: 9,500 square metres and about thirty metres high, in three naves. Since 2004 one of those naves has held Anselm Kiefer's <em>Seven Heavenly Palaces</em>.
Around them, the district is a piece of city rather than a monument: the university campus, offices, housing, and the old workers' streets that the factories once organised.
Practical information
- Pirelli HangarBicocca, Via Chiese 2, Milan: contemporary art exhibitions and the permanent Kiefer installation
- The university quarter and the Teatro degli Arcimboldi are a short walk away
- Check the art space's own website for opening days and hours before travelling
Getting there
Bicocca is in the north-east of Milan, beyond the Central Station and the Stazione Lambrate. Via Chiese runs through the middle of the former industrial area.
Nearby
- University of Milano-Bicocca campus
- Teatro degli Arcimboldi
- Pirelli HangarBicocca
Sources
- Pirelli HangarBicocca, «La storia dell'edificio e il quartiere Bicocca» — https://pirellihangarbicocca.org/storia-edificio/
- Fondazione Pirelli — https://www.fondazionepirelli.org/
Find it on the map
See this place and what’s around it →Events here — now on & upcoming
- OmoGirando: a company town in Milan — Bicocca, Milan, 22 November 202622 Nov 2026See the event →
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