Monte Amiata Housing is a residential complex in the Gallaratese district of Milan, Italy, designed by architects Carlo Aymonino and Aldo Rossi in the late 1960s. [1] It is sometimes referred to as the "Red Dinosaur" in reference both to the reddish color of the buildings and the oddity of their design. The project is well known in the international architecture community, [2] and regarded as one of those that better represent Aymonino's vision of the city as a turbulent, intricate, and varied texture, [3] a paradigm that is known as "fragmentism". [4]
Gallaratese is a district ("quartiere") of Milan, Italy, part of the Zone 8 administrative division of the city. It is located about 7 km north-west of the city centre. It borders on the comune of Pero to the north and on the districts of Trenno to the west and Lampugnano to the south; to the east, its ideal border is the eponymous street, which in turn is named after Gallarate, the town it leads to.
Milan is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city in Italy after Rome, with the city proper having a population of 1,395,274 while its metropolitan city has a population of 3,245,308. Its continuously built-up urban area has a population estimated to be about 5,270,000 over 1,891 square kilometres. The wider Milan metropolitan area, known as Greater Milan, is a polycentric metropolitan region that extends over central Lombardy and eastern Piedmont and which counts an estimated total population of 7.5 million, making it by far the largest metropolitan area in Italy and the 54th largest in the world. Milan served as capital of the Western Roman Empire from 286 to 402 and the Duchy of Milan during the medieval period and early modern age.
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a European country consisting of a peninsula delimited by the Italian Alps and surrounded by several islands. Located in the middle of the Mediterranean sea and traversed along its length by the Apennines, Italy has a largely temperate seasonal climate. The country covers an area of 301,340 km2 (116,350 sq mi) and shares open land borders with France, Slovenia, Austria, Switzerland and the enclaved microstates of Vatican City and San Marino. Italy has a territorial exclave in Switzerland (Campione) and a maritime exclave in the Tunisian sea (Lampedusa). With around 60 million inhabitants, Italy is the fourth-most populous member state of the European Union.
The complex, named after Mount Amiata, extends over an area of 120,912 m² [5] enclosed between the Via Francesco Cilea and Via Enrico Falck streets. [6]
The complex comprises five red buildings: two eight-stories slabs, a long three-stories building, another three-stories slab, and an interconnecting structure; these are grouped around a central area with a yellow, open-air theater, and two smaller triangular plazas. The complexity of the skyline is enriched by a number of passages, decks, elevators, balconies, terraces and bridges connecting the buildings with each other and providing for a great variety of pedestrian walking paths. [2]
The complex was conceived as an utopian micro-city within the city, and based on Aymonino and Rossi's vision, emphasizing the interplay between housing blocks and their urban context. [2] Aymonino and Rossi explicitly mentioned the Unité d'Habitation in Marseille as one of their main sources of inspiration, although their intent was to improve on Le Corbusier's model. [2] Rossi also took inspiration from Giorgio de Chirico's paintings when designing one of the five buildings, the smaller slab.
Marseille is the second-largest city of France. The main city of the historical province of Provence, it is the prefecture of the department of Bouches-du-Rhône and region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. It is located on the Mediterranean coast near the mouth of the Rhône. The city covers an area of 241 km2 (93 sq mi) and had a population of 852,516 in 2012. Its metropolitan area, which extends over 3,173 km2 (1,225 sq mi) is the third-largest in France after Paris and Lyon, with a population of 1,831,500 as of 2010.
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, known as Le Corbusier, was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930. His career spanned five decades, and he designed buildings in Europe, Japan, India, and North and South America.
Giorgio de Chirico was an Italian artist and writer born in Greece. In the years before World War I, he founded the scuola metafisica art movement, which profoundly influenced the surrealists. His most well-known works often feature Roman arcades, long shadows, mannequins, trains, and illogical perspective. His imagery reflects his affinity for the philosophy of Nietzsche and for the mythology of his birthplace.
In the early years after its construction, the complex was abusively occupied by homeless families. In 1974 it was deserted, and was later converted into a middle-class condominium. [7]
