Madeline Brooks
Casa Moncler Headquarters, a landmark of urban regeneration. ACPV ARCHITECTS Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel presents Casa Moncler, the new headquarters of the brand, located within the Symbiosis District in Milan, a strategic area of urban regeneration in the southern quadrant of the city. The project takes the form of a complex spanning 77,000 square meters, distributed across six above-ground floors and two basement levels, reaching a total height of approximately 32 meters. Designed to accommodate over 700 employees, the building offers highly flexible workspaces and advanced environmental performance, establishing a dialogue with the site’s historical legacy. The new headquarters for Moncler reinterprets contemporary industrial architecture by evoking the morphology and materiality of the site’s original manufacturing context, transforming these references into an architectural language that is both essential and sophisticated. The main building stands out for its rigorous compositional layout and its restrained formal presence. The volumetric articulation also includes a semi-underground showroom, whose architecture features a shed roof that establishes a dialogue with the surrounding structures. This element intersects volumetrically with the main body, creating an architectural junction that defines the perimeter of the campus and reinforces its overall compositional coherence. Embracing the principles of the Building-as-a-City, the structure absorbs the complexity of an urban environment, becoming an organism capable of accommodating a wide range of functions and services, while fostering exchange and cross-contamination among different architectural typologies. Moreover, elements of industrial archaeology, such as the historic chimney, have been repurposed and integrated into the new design, reinforcing the connection between past and present and anchoring the building within Milan’s urban landscape.
“Antonio Citterio, Chairman and Co-founder of ACPV ARCHITECTS, Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel, says: “We designed a building with a manufacturing character, rigorous and measured, that represents a significant intervention in Milan’s urban development. The project comes from an ongoing dialogue between us, the architects, and the client: it is a statement of intent about the role architecture can play in shaping a contemporary corporate identity.” Patricia Viel, architect and Co-founder of ACPV ARCHITECTS Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel, adds: “Set within an urban context undergoing profound transformation, the building brings quality and vision back to a historically neglected area. The project integrates identity and innovation, people’s well-being and environmental comfort, into a coherent system that represents a new paradigm for building: architecture designed to evolve with those who inhabit it.”
The workspaces translate the company’s functional complexity into a fluid and coherent environment, where exchange, collaboration, and personal growth are supported by a high level of architectural and environmental quality. The internal organization develops according to a logic of efficiency and vertical continuity, reflecting the various stages of the creative, production, and management process. Each floor is conceived as an open and reconfigurable space, designed to adapt to evolving ways of working. The presence of transversal spaces, such as a modular auditorium, a cafeteria, a gym, and meeting areas, helps create a dynamic ecosystem that fosters the cross-pollination of ideas and the well-being of its users. The building envelope, inspired by historic multi-story manufacturing facilities, presents itself externally as a solid, compact volume that, opening inward, dissolves into a large, glazed courtyard. This deliberately introspective configuration is designed to maximize natural light intake and create a seamless visual and perceptual continuity between the workspaces and the building’s green heart. The southern façade opens onto an internal garden of approximately 7,500 square meters, designed in collaboration with Parcnouveau.
The project incorporates native tall trees and a central clearing equipped as a space for informal social interaction and outdoor activities, serving as a natural extension of the interior environments. The historic chimney, an iconic element of the site, has been repurposed as a passive device for capturing external air. Air is drawn in from a height of 60 meters and distributed within a bioclimatic greenhouse, a transitional space that serves as a buffer between indoors and outdoors. This walkable environment hosts three distinct ecosystems: steppe, Mediterranean scrub, and cold desert, with plant species selected for their resilience and adaptability to local climatic conditions. Together, the bioclimatic greenhouse and the external green area form an integrated ecological system that contributes to microclimate regulation and strengthens the dialogue between architecture and nature. The project for Casa Moncler adopts an integrated environmental strategy, where architecture and building systems work in synergy to optimize energy performance and ensure high levels of acoustic and thermo-hygrometric comfort. The building envelope, characterized by extensive high-performance glazed surfaces and integrated shading systems, minimizes thermal losses and maximizes the efficient use of natural energy. High-efficiency mechanical systems have been employed to optimize the balance between energy consumption, environmental comfort, and overall performance, ensuring the daily well-being of those living and working within the campus. The interior design reflects an approach focused on material circularity and carbon footprint reduction. The interiors are crafted using regenerated materials sourced from production offcuts and waste, transformed into finishing elements, acoustic panels, and interior claddings. The building is in the process of obtaining LEED and WELL certifications, having met the highest standards of environmental sustainability and quality in workplace environments.
“Mauro Novazzi, architect and partner of ACPV ARCHITECTS, adds: “Symbiosis is an urban laboratory that redefines the relationship between city, public space, and productive activities, transforming a peripheral area into a sustainable ecosystem. Within this context, the Moncler headquarters emerges from a collaborative project, the result of a three-way partnership: Moncler’s vision combined with Covivio’s extensive experience has provided the opportunity for a development set to become a landmark for the Milan of the future.”
Casa Moncler is situated within the Symbiosis Community District, a broader urban development designed by ACPV ARCHITECTS and developed by Covivio over a former industrial area spanning more than 125,000 square meters. The project redefines the relationship between productive settlements, public space, and environmental infrastructure through an urban grid centered on a pedestrian spine approximately 1.3 kilometers long, which serves as both an ecological corridor and a social device. The masterplan integrates green spaces, water features, plazas, and areas for temporary events, while hosting office buildings, educational facilities, commercial and hospitality functions within a coherent and multifunctional urban framework. Symbiosis represents a pioneering urban regeneration project that has transformed a marginal industrial zone into an integrated, sustainable, and multifunctional urban fabric. Through an urban design that prioritizes pedestrian connectivity, the quality of public spaces, and innovative environmental solutions, it establishes a replicable model of dialogue between public and private sectors, as well as between nature and architecture.
Project info:
Architects: ACPV ARCHITECTS Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel Country: Milan, Italy
Area: 77000 m² Photographs: Leo Torri, Davide Bozzalla Design Team: ACPV ARCHITECTS
Landscape Architects: Parcnouveau
Tags: ACPV ARCHITECTS Antonio Citterio Patricia VielCasa Moncler HeadquartersDavide BozzallaItalyLeo TorriMilan
Madeline Brooks
Madeline Brooks is a Projects Editor at Arch2O, where she has been shaping and refining architectural content since March 2024. With over a decade of experience in editorial work, she has curated, revised, and published an array of projects covering architecture, urbanism, and public space design. A graduate of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Madeline brings a strong academic foundation and a discerning editorial eye to each piece she oversees. Since joining Arch2O, she has played a pivotal role in shaping the platform’s editorial direction, with a focus on sustainability, social relevance, and cutting-edge design. Madeline excels at translating complex architectural ideas into clear, engaging stories that resonate with both industry professionals and general readers. She works closely with architects, designers, and global contributors to ensure every project is presented with clarity, depth, and compelling visual narrative. Her editorial leadership continues to elevate Arch2O’s role in global architectural dialogue.
