Palazzo Reale – Milano (MI) – Italy

Structural assessment, preliminary, final and detailed design and works supervision of structural works for adaptation to seat of art gallery, 3rd lot

 

Client: Municipality of Milano
Structural works value: 4.003.000,00 €
Design period: 2000÷2001
Works supervision: 2003÷2009

 

The building, subjected to safeguard by the Ministry for Cultural and Environmental Heritage, for its characteristics of great architectural quality has required a very careful design, respectful of the existing.
The structural organism that characterizes the various parts of which the palace is composed is rather complex and variegated, reflecting the long and troubled evolution that the building has undergone over the years, from the fourteenth century to the second post-war period, with reconstructions. rearrangements and subsequent constructions.
There are indeed very different structural typologies, typical of building systems and eras different and distant from each other.
While the vertical structures are mainly made up of masonry walls, the horizontals show considerable typological variability: there are great vaults in masonry and in timber, main structures and floors in wood, floors in steel profiles and brick vaulted ceilings, reinforced concrete structures, also of great span, realized immediately after the damages suffered during the second world war.
Preliminarily to the project, has been therefore carried out a widespread campaign of investigations and tests aimed to achieving the most accurate knowledge possible of the de facto state of the structures.
The designed structural interventions, relating to about 10.000 m2 of surface, were essentially aimed at meeting the changed needs in terms of the intended use of the building in compliance with current legislation and can be divided into three main categories:
– insertion of single works such as stairs and elevators
– reconstruction of whole structural elements, mainly floors
– repair and/or strengthening of structural elements such as masonry vaults, reinforced
concrete or timber floors, masonry walls, various reinforced concrete works.
All the interventions were carried out on the basis of the maximum possible reversibility criterion, respecting the pre-existence and using materials compatible with the original ones.
Wherever possible technologies and materials of the latest generation such as glass and carbon fiber composites have been used.