Westfield Milano
Italy
Client: Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield
Architect: Westfield/Crew IT
Main Contractor: Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield
Project Value: €650m
Set to be Italy’s largest and most iconic retail, dining and leisure destination, Westfield Milano is strategically positioned in Segrate, on the main train line between Milan and Venice, just 10 minutes from Linate airport and 25 minutes from Milan city centre.
The former industrial site, occupying an area of about 60 hectares, is on a flood plain adjacent to the Milan-Venezia railway line. The Milan region, being subject to Category 3 seismic activity levels requires the development to remain fully functional or, depending on the hazard level considered, with only minor repairable damages in accordance with both local and European design codes.
The triangular shaped development comprises 16 individual building blocks and provides car parking spaces generally across the majority of the footprint at lower ground floor level, with 155,000m² of retail above, a multiplex cinema consisting of 16 multi-screens located over two levels on top of the retail structure’s roof and a further 8 blocks of silo car parks, up to 4 levels high and located around the 3 elevations, providing space for about 10,000 cars.
The retail structure is subdivided into 7 separate building blocks, being typically arranged on an 8.0m x 8.0m grid and is designed as a steel frame with composite metal deck with some transfer structures arranged at high level ground floor over the retail car park. There are also major transfer structures at upper ground level of one of the Anchor store buildings to facilitate the large grid requirement of a supermarket located at the lower ground floor and at roof level to host the spaces dedicated to the Cinema block. In addition there are two single level landscaped terrace structures at the north and south sides of the development, which provide the main access points to the building including the taxi drop off on the north side and a future connection to a proposed train station on the south side.
Stability is provided by a combination of reinforced concrete circulation cores with discrete braced elevations and movement resisting frames where required, to each of the individual blocks. Whereas traditionally movement joints in steel frame building would be provided by a double column structure, MPN have developed an innovative corbeled outrigger system with elastomeric bearings, such as only a single column line is required along the movement joint. This arrangement has been developed to satisfy the architectural demand for minimal column zone within the retail areas, as well as to reduce the cost of providing a considerable number of extra steel columns.
Reinforced concrete foundations typically consist of pads to the columns and rafts to the cores, founded in a remediated and engineered soil using material already existing on the site, over the natural alluvial sand and gravel beds to depth.
MPN have provided full structural design services for the retail development including the lower ground floor car park, the link bridges to the silo carparks and the northern landscaped terrace, taking into account all the Italian seismic design code requirements. The precast concrete silo car park structures design has been done in conjunction with our Italian design partner Redesco.
