RETHINKING THE CRYSTAL PALACE. Adaptive reuse of an abandoned warehouse

Sammanfattning: This Master Thesis work is about the rebirth of a warehouse, once part of Innocenti S.p.A. Located in the district of Lambrate, Milano, the factory used to cover an area of nearly 800.000 sqm back in the Nineties, it nowadays presents itself as a fragmented scenario. This work aims to be a testimony of the past, by first showing all the available official materials that were recovered right before everything shut down. As a second part, it suggests a proposal for one of the most iconic buildings left to a state of complete abandonment and self extinction: the warehouse now known as the Crystal Palace because of its present conditions. Accepting the conditions of one thing and enhancing them in a programmatic way, is probably a solution for dealing with our industrial archaeology, for an innovative, engaging and sustainable approach. An extension of the already existing park finds a new place under the original roof structure. In order to integrate the project in the surrounds from a sociological point of view, the community will be provided with new spaces for exhibition galleries and, moreover, the city of Milano will benefit of the first botanical garden in history.