Il Maestoso hypermarket and restaurant

Il Maestoso is a new urban market in Monza. Located in a residential district, it is built on the plot of the former Maestoso movie theatre, behind the park of Villa Reale. The abandoned area has therefore been upgraded and enlivened with an attractive location, designed to favour human social relations. The metal and glass profile is inspired by the iconic nineteenth-century structures used for various services. Stations, pavilions, galleries and, indeed, covered markets, were built during the Industrial Revolution as new centres for social and commercial meetings, clearly recognisable for their activities from the outside. Il Maestoso is seemingly simple. Its pure form is brought out by the large glazed surfaces marked by the rhythm of the “iron window”, which lighten the visual weight of the architecture. Two large escalators in the façade are the technical element of vertical distribution that becomes an aesthetic detail and highlights the entrance frontage. The perimeter walls wind their way around four central pillars, almost absent from impact, obtaining large open spaces on the three levels above ground. The ground floor is used for sales and is conceived as a piazza for displaying products and for people to meet. A gourmet gallery enlivens the first floor, entirely curated in terms of graphics and interior design by AMDL CIRCLE. It is a space for refreshments, where the dishes prepared then and there in the open kitchens can be tasted on the wooden tables based on designs. The various food and wine departments are defined by a treillage structure suspended from the ceiling and characterised by the various colours of the signs and furnishings; an external terrace with trees completes the level. The second level is structured into a display ring devoted to exhibitions and conferences on the world of food. From the ground floor visitors can see the whole architecture. A large void traverses all the spaces and culminates in a skylight turret with four pitches, glass walls and coffered ceiling. The aperture in the floors allows natural light to spread inside as a complement to the space. Outside in the evening the artificial lighting develops that force of attraction typical of markets. The choice – not an obvious one – of the colour green for the metal parts emphasises the forms of the structure, creating an architecture that is new yet capable of connecting with history. The absence of barriers encourages the human exchange typical of markets, where there are no boundaries to separate seller and buyer, and the colours and aromas are left to circulate throughout the space.