History

Giuseppe Sommaruga’s Palazzo Castiglioni (Corso Venezia 47, 1903) was the first major Liberty building in Milan and caused an immediate public scandal: two female caryatids on the entrance pilasters were considered obscene and removed within weeks of completion. The episode accelerated the Liberty movement’s reception in the city — within five years Corso Venezia, Corso Buenos Aires and the surrounding streets were lined with Liberty apartment blocks whose ornamental programmes referenced the Viennese Secession, French Art Nouveau and Italian Renaissance simultaneously.

Gio Ponti — architect, designer, journalist, polymath — spent almost his entire career in Milan. He founded the magazine Domus in 1928 and edited it for most of the following fifty years, making it the primary international platform for Italian design culture. His Pirelli Tower (1956–1958), designed with structural engineer Pier Luigi Nervi, stood as the tallest building in Italy until 1960 and remains the most elegant Italian skyscraper: its plan tapers to pointed ends at both narrow faces, eliminating the need for a corner column and giving the curtain wall a continuous uninterrupted surface. The BBPR studio’s Torre Velasca (1956–1958), completed the same year, chose the opposite approach — a reference to the medieval fortress tower, with upper floors that overhang the base — making the two buildings the defining poles of the Italian high-rise debate.

Villa Necchi Campiglio (Via Mozart 14, 1932–1935), designed by Piero Portaluppi for the industrial Necchi-Campiglio family, is the most complete surviving Art Déco domestic interior in Milan: its swimming pool, tennis court and furnished rooms are preserved under FAI (Fondo Ambiente Italiano) guardianship and open to the public.