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Apartment Building
Via Giuseppe Vigoni 13, Milano
1956 - 59
Luigi Caccia Dominioni had the opportunity to realize a residential building on Via Vigoni 13 in the years 1955 to 1959.
His construction is rising between buildings of an earlier construction date, and faces the narrow street with its main elevation.
The building is laid out on a rectangular plan and features seven floors above ground, a semi-basement for flats and a basement level.
The presence of the nearby Church of San Celso seems to have strongly influenced the design of this construction.
Facing the street, the stone clad base is surmounted by six residential stories. This street façade is marked by two highly characteristic
balconies per floor, running along the entire length of the building. These balconis start at the sides with small, solid elements in Ceppo limestone,
whereas towards the central part of the façade, they meet a bow-window. At the centre, the dynamism of the terraces is interrupted, giving way
to a continuous vertical strip placed diagonally as if to slice the building. The character of the building is defined by the succession of heaviness and lightness.
These contrasts are hold together and are unified by the uniform and continous gutter running all above this composition. Another remarkable feature
is the chimney, which acts as a disruptive compositional element both for the way it penetrates the building diagonally and for its material specificity as it
traverses vertically the full height of the main façade.
In the Interior, the design of the floor plan testifies that Luigi Caccia Dominioni tried not to be influenced by contemporary tendencies.
The floor plan of this building, which is typical for Luigi Caccia Dominioni, is particularly significant since it eliminates traditional
corridors and gives room to what stand out as a vital internal space of the apartment.
The polygonal layout of the rooms, the accesses following the space diagonal and the creation of special places are more related to the salons of
the Belle Epoque as to the optimized floor plans of the architecture around 1960. Apparently, Luigi Caccia Dominioni is concerned with the generosity of
the spatial sequence, the impression of spaciousness and the elegance of the fluid motion. The creation of niches offers unexpected possibilities for
the differentiation of privacy. The result is an alternation between narrowness and wideness of opening and re-closing space.
The combination of huge circles above the doors - one of them as a real opening, another as a mirror and finally one as a ceiling light, results in an irritating
picture puzzle of at least five holes. These holes above the doors appear to expand the space to the infinite, and give the room a touch of elegance and generosity.
This detail is an expression of spatial continuity with historic origins. Despite their time of origin, the apartments seem to be thought of against the virtues of functionalism.
The materials in the apartments of Via Vigoni correspond in no way the ideas of modernity. The extensive use of wood veneers, dark wall colors and flamed tiles
contrasts with the neat brightness of the 1950 years, and seem more likely to come from the repertoire of the 19th century.
His construction is rising between buildings of an earlier construction date, and faces the narrow street with its main elevation.
The building is laid out on a rectangular plan and features seven floors above ground, a semi-basement for flats and a basement level.
The presence of the nearby Church of San Celso seems to have strongly influenced the design of this construction.
Facing the street, the stone clad base is surmounted by six residential stories. This street façade is marked by two highly characteristic
balconies per floor, running along the entire length of the building. These balconis start at the sides with small, solid elements in Ceppo limestone,
whereas towards the central part of the façade, they meet a bow-window. At the centre, the dynamism of the terraces is interrupted, giving way
to a continuous vertical strip placed diagonally as if to slice the building. The character of the building is defined by the succession of heaviness and lightness.
These contrasts are hold together and are unified by the uniform and continous gutter running all above this composition. Another remarkable feature
is the chimney, which acts as a disruptive compositional element both for the way it penetrates the building diagonally and for its material specificity as it
traverses vertically the full height of the main façade.
In the Interior, the design of the floor plan testifies that Luigi Caccia Dominioni tried not to be influenced by contemporary tendencies.
The floor plan of this building, which is typical for Luigi Caccia Dominioni, is particularly significant since it eliminates traditional
corridors and gives room to what stand out as a vital internal space of the apartment.
The polygonal layout of the rooms, the accesses following the space diagonal and the creation of special places are more related to the salons of
the Belle Epoque as to the optimized floor plans of the architecture around 1960. Apparently, Luigi Caccia Dominioni is concerned with the generosity of
the spatial sequence, the impression of spaciousness and the elegance of the fluid motion. The creation of niches offers unexpected possibilities for
the differentiation of privacy. The result is an alternation between narrowness and wideness of opening and re-closing space.
The combination of huge circles above the doors - one of them as a real opening, another as a mirror and finally one as a ceiling light, results in an irritating
picture puzzle of at least five holes. These holes above the doors appear to expand the space to the infinite, and give the room a touch of elegance and generosity.
This detail is an expression of spatial continuity with historic origins. Despite their time of origin, the apartments seem to be thought of against the virtues of functionalism.
The materials in the apartments of Via Vigoni correspond in no way the ideas of modernity. The extensive use of wood veneers, dark wall colors and flamed tiles
contrasts with the neat brightness of the 1950 years, and seem more likely to come from the repertoire of the 19th century.