Borgo del Bramante

The complex that once hosted the Institute of the Canossians in Via Bramante in Milan is a place with which few people are familiar, camouflaged as it is behind a compact urban façade and well integrated into the architectural fabric of the Sarpi-Canonica district. In reality, it is a set of buildings and courtyards, gardens and orchards, structured and differentiated in terms of volume and typology, characterised by a significant stylistic unity but with different features; it has been modified over the years due to functional requirements with interventions that have partially concealed its unobtrusive and harmonious appearance. The complex was originally built in a peripheral zone of the city, Borgo degli Ortolani, which later became central and was subject to significant transformations, and it has now once again found those simple and noble characteristics of the “old Milan” that are so sought-after today, thanks to the quality of the open spaces, the pitched roofs, the regular cadence of the windows and the materials used for the walls, floors and galleries. The whole structure is subject to restrictions covering monuments, except for two zones that were subject to the construction of excrescences in the last century, in which it has been possible to knit the architectural fabric back together with new interventions to be delicately integrated into the context. Preliminary morphological historical considerations have led to the natural definition of a planning intention to release the late-19^th-century historical structure while leaving a “trace” of the subsequent modificatory aspects through the rethinking of the excrescences as new architectural volumes for the purpose of knitting the structure together. The project has been developed in four directions: first of all, the building volumes subject to restrictions have been restored, conserved and reused without significant external volumetric alterations, creating internal works with limited modifications to the building systems, the horizontal structures, the roofs and the connections to allow the functional and technological adjustments without alterations to the original technical construction characteristics. The excrescences were then removed and new architectures formed within the grounds capable of knitting together the building fabric of the complex, devoting particular attention to the redefinition of the courtyard through completion on the south side with an architecture with a façade created with bricks typical of the Lombard tradition. We also proceeded to upgrade the internal courtyard with the designing of the flooring with cobblestone frames, maintaining the central band of slabs and using materials from the tradition. The creation of underground car parks within the excavatable area (following archaeological indications) has not brought about any alteration to the continuity of the surface of the courtyard and the garden above. Finally, the fragmentary volumes on the west side beside the boundary wall have been demolished, a new design of the garden has been defined as a unitary environment with large trees and bushes and the memory of the former use as a garden and orchard has been maintained, with the conservation of the votive shrine of the Madonna and the insertion of a small brook.