A symbolic intervention that paves the way for renewal

An intervention with strong symbolic significance This project involves the demolition of the RCS Media Group S.p.A. building on Via Rizzoli in Milan, as part of a broader redevelopment of the entire area. The works lasted one year and concerned a total area divided into six lots, with an overall volume of 161,500 cubic metres.

From a technical standpoint, this was not a straightforward intervention: part of the buildings had to remain fully operational throughout all demolition phases.

In particular, Lot 6 – “Martinelli Project” – housed not only offices but also the staff canteen and other corporate services. For this reason, the intervention plan was developed in several phases, allowing the relocation of ongoing activities without limiting or slowing down RCS’s normal business operations.

The particularly robust structures and the height of the buildings—exceeding 30 metres in some areas—required the use of specialised equipment suitable for complex high-level operations, including a 120-tonne excavator equipped with a 50-metre long-reach boom.

EQUIPMENT

120-tonne excavator equipped with a long-reach boom and, depending on the height of the buildings to be demolished, fitted with a hydraulic crusher;
No. 2 × 40-tonne excavators equipped with hydraulic crushers and hydraulic grapples;
Mobile crushing plant for on-site volume reduction of demolition debris;
Wheel loader;
Trucks.

SPECIAL CONDITIONS

Demolition works were carried out concurrently with the construction of new buildings on the same footprint as the demolished structures. All operations were executed without limiting or slowing down RCS’s normal business activities.

Deindustrialisation and redevelopment in the city of Milan

The intervention in Via Cadolini is not only the demolition of a disused industrial building, but can be configured as an intervention of recovery and regeneration. The former Plasmon factory, which had in the fabric of Milan one of its focal points, was built in the late 1950s and represented, for decades, one of the most important production sites in northern Italy.

The area, spread over an area of just over 25,000 square meters, consists of four main buildings and will be the subject of a major and bold redevelopment. This operation, which will see the rise of new buildings purely for residential/commercial use, will bring with it multiple advantages: the recovery of an area now in disuse, without occupying new land, and the restitution of a large urban space to the city of Milan, while at the same time giving rise to a more livable and human-scale place.

An initiative against urban decay

The demolition of the Zingonia Towers entrusted to the Vitali Group by ILSPA (Infrastrutture Lombarde) saw us at work between May and June 2019.

In a month and a half, the 6 buildings that had been places marked by decay and squatting for years were demolished. Only 50 days to make a clean slate of the Anna and Athena complexes. Rubble removal works are underway now, but we can still speak of a real record if we consider that the timeframe, from the announcement, was 270 days to carry out the works. The construction site covered an area of about 20,000 sq. m. A total of 6 buildings of 9 floors each for a height of about 30 mt. In total, this is about 53,700 cu m above ground and 8,300 cu m within ground.

Torre Tintoretto: making way for a new concept of home

A new way of living: more inclusive, more sustainable, more collaborative. It is inspired by these values that the demolition and subsequent reconstruction of the so-called Tintoretto Tower is grafted on.

Kicking off in July 2022, the construction site has seen the gradual demolition of the building and redevelopment of the area, and marks a historic moment for the entire city. Redo Sgr’s project envisions that the 18 floors of the Tower will give way to six buildings with 270 newly designed apartments: class A, partly rented in social housing, which will become an expression of a new living culture, with common spaces available to tenants, two semi-public courtyards open to the neighborhood, stores and services, green areas, children’s playgrounds, paths and fitness areas.