The Isozaki Tower

Nicknamed ‘The Straight’, the Isozaki Tower bears the signature of Arata Isozaki, the world-famous Japanese architect who has already designed the Olympic Stadium in Turin, Italy. The tower is 209 metres high with 50 floors and overlooks the new Piazza Tre Torri together with the other two skyscrapers. The standard plan of the tower, which has vertical distribution cores on both sides of the building, with panoramic lifts, contains one sizeable central office space.

The project is inspired in its general layout and in some formal choices by an earlier project by Isozaki, dated 1989, the unrealised redevelopment project for the JR Ueno railway station in Tokyo. This project was characterised by a 300-metre tower, with damping floors every 50 metres for use in the event of fires and earthquakes. As in the Allianz Tower, four large support brackets anchored the front and back (both with an undulating profile) to the ground using cube-shaped supports.

On 5 March 2019, Allianz Italia and the Allianz UMANA MENTE Foundation were awarded the Guinness World Records title for the world’s largest mural along the stairs of a building with the social artwork Around the World in 50 Floors, created inside the Allianz Tower by Group employees. Furthermore, on 26 November 2020, it was announced that from the following 1 December, it would host the headquarters of the organising committee for the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, until then housed in the Pirelli Skyscraper.

The Isozaki Tower is currently the second tallest skyscraper in Italy, after the Unicredit skyscraper in Milan’s Gae Aulenti Square.

Hadid Tower

Nicknamed The Crooked because of its twisting form, the Hadid Tower is 177 metres high with 44 floors. The special feature of the building is its vertical development with a dynamic movement at the base. It, too, bears the name of its creator, the Anglo-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid.

The tower is based on the concepts of movement and dynamism, resulting from a twisting of the building itself, with the aim of enhancing the perception and views it offers in relation to the urban axes. The building has a typical plan with a central distribution core and offices on the perimeter crown, offering a full-horizon view of the city. The two-storey high lobby, which serves as the entrance to the square and the underground station below, is also characterised by the sinuous lines of the façade. The building stands out for its high efficiency and strong focus on containing energy costs, making the tower an example of an increasingly sought-after combination of architecture and sustainability.

Libeskind Tower

Nicknamed The Curved because of its shape, the Libeskind Tower is 175 m high and has its back to Largo Domodossola. The building is conceived as part of a perfect sphere that wraps around the Three Towers Square and can accommodate commercial and residential premises.

The three central towers are destined to become one of the new symbols of the city in the world, as has been demonstrated by the strong interest the project has aroused abroad.

The district is served by the MM5 Tre Torri station, belonging to the fourth new ‘lilac’ line of the Milan underground and the first to be built as an underground railway equipped with tunnels and reduced gauge, self-guided trains compared to the first three lines.

In short, in this area, one breathes the avant-garde of the Milanese capital, which aims to become more and more the Italian stage for innovation and technological avant-garde. Milan is a solid gateway to the international network, and its efforts to become a sustainable city need attention and promotion more than ever.

Moreover, the city offers an incredible combination of industrialisation and culture; just think of the countless cultural spots that, for various reasons, are not included in many tourist itineraries provided to millions of visitors that flood into Milan’s streets every year. Thus, Milan still represents a city with truly incredible potential that needs both development and preservation of its tangible and intangible heritage.

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