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Feltrinelli per Porta Volta

FASTFORWARD

Future perfect: Fondazione Feltrinelli in Milan


"Feltrinelli per Porta Volta" is a short film by Pepsy Romanoff for Except Agency that visualises the future Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli in Milan, using the CGI and Visual FX techniques provided by FASTFORWARD. A future perfect vision of a new building: we use the expression "future perfect" as the Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli was completed only two years after the realization of the video, in 2016; retracing its qualities now it's a useful exercise to understand how the use of visualisation techniques can help architects in conveying the ideas behind a project.

Fondazione Feltrinelli is part of a major urban redevelopment of Milan's Porta Volta district, located between Viale Pasubio and Viale Crispi. The new headquarters for the Fondazione were designed by Swiss architectural firm Herzog & De Meuron, with a scheme that includes two linear buildings, whose urban organization relates closely to the site's previously existing ancient walls. These structures were built with the intention of creating much-needed green space, featuring boulevards, bike paths, and walking trails, with cafés, restaurants, and shops activating the area at street level, in an area that measures almost 2700 sqm. Looking at the Fondazione Feltrinelli from distance, it resembles a greenhouse, a light structure which, at night, becomes illuminated like a chandelier. A place for people, a cultural centre that would renovate the urban organization of the area.

But, let's image we are in 2014 and that Fondazione Feltrinelli is still under construction: how could we tell the public about all of this? How could we present, if we were the architects, our project? It is here that the Except and FASTFOWARD step in and collaborate, under the direction of Left Loft, to create a visualisation of the project as it would be. The video, now featured on The Architecture Player, shows the space in use, creating a disorienting, yet successful effect of "post-occupancy" of a place that still doesn't exist.
So it's a sunny day in Milan, people are going to work and the Fondazione is opened: here young people have gathered in one of the conference room to hear a talk, while upstairs the employees of the Fondazione are working together on new projects. The big windows are the most striking feature of the building and a central focus for the video, the automated curtains move as the sun is setting down. The intelligent use of a pop upbeat song creates a cheerful atmosphere in the video, as flocks of birds dance in the sky.
With a simple and effecting storytelling, the video is successful in conveying the spirit and the ambience of the future Fondazione Giangiacomo Feltrinelli, transforming ideas into (virtual) reality.

(Story by Sara Marzullo, The Architecture Player)

Credits

Architect: Herzog & De Meuron
Mentioned project: Feltrinelli Porta Volta (2013-2016)
Project location: Porta Volta, Milan, Italy
Art direction: Left Loft
Film direction and production: Except
Director: Pepsy Romanoff
CGI and Visual FX: FASTFORWARD

Italy 2014
Duration: 2'27"