Iconic and monumental, the Horti residential complex development defies all preconceived notions of luxury. It is a 14,500 square meter residential complex of 82 luxury apartments, nestled in the heart of Milan, with a 10,000 square meter historic garden.
Designed by the Italian architecture firm aMDL Circle led by Michele DeLucchi, the development has been lauded as the jewel of the city of Milan.
RIMOND was appointed by the developer, BNP Paribas, as a multidisciplinary integrated design consultant for the rehabilitation of existing buildings, new construction of residential buildings, and renovation of a heritage building with a chapel built in 1800s that was used as social infrastructure into high-end luxury residential apartments. The project pushed the boundaries, employing greater collaboration with stakeholders, more advanced digital planning and design.
Working as a unified team, together with architects and specialist consultants, we managed a seamless delivery of stage-4 design. Tuning into local expertise was an important element of the project’s delivery. The excellent skills of our team helped maintaining relations with the local authorities streamlining the statutory approval process.
The development is rated with energy class A, USGBC LEED Gold target, and of exceptional quality thanks to collaborative efforts in fostering sustainable solutions from inception to delivery reducing the carbon footprint of the project.
BNP Paribas’ vision for the site was to create a high quality, sustainable residential development that celebrates its heritage, creating a new destination in the heart of Milan.
In addition to the historic building, there were many other site constraints our team had to consider carefully during the design process. This involved facilitating collaboration between the various technical specialists and the wider design team throughout the planning process.
RIMOND had a long-standing local expertise, so we were able to bring this extensive experience to support BNP Paribas with the initial due diligence for the purchase of the site, which included liaising with local authorities to establish the feasibility of the heritage building conversion into a luxury residential use, the rehabilitation of existing buildings and new residential construction within the site.
We were able to provide early-stage recommendations to the client as we were involved from very early in the project. Our team of professionals simulated the development using in-house design technologies, allowing us to create digitally coordinated detailed design drawings for structures and building services engineering, including mechanical, electrical, fire, life, and safety systems.
We used these technologies to discover incompatibilities and suggest coordinated solutions in real time during design workshops with the architects, providing quick feedback on the effects of such modifications. Our team documented the buildings’ histories and assessed the structure’s remnants, compiling a full report on the hazards, problems, and historical interventions. This provided a guide for the careful integration of heritage structures into a twenty-first-century residential construction.
This rigorous procedure instilled confidence in the conservation officer of the local council, allowing them to approve plans to convert the heritage property into residential units for future occupants.
