Casa Eurinome in Milan organizes a trapezoidal site into a precise double-bodied mass that reconciles two slightly diverging urban orders. A five-story street-facing bay aligns with Via Piero della Francesca, while a seven-story inner bay follows the cadastral grid. The misalignment is absorbed by a compressed central corridor, freeing the dwellings to remain regular in plan. Along the street, deep loggias and a diaphragm of perpendicular walls stage an anamorphic reading tuned to the everyday oblique approach, with a slender metal frame softening the building’s edge against the sky.
Casa Eurinome Apartment Technical Information
- Architects: Degli Esposti Architetti
- Location: Via Piero della Francesca 29, Milan, Italy
- Project Years: 2020 – 2024
- Photographs: © Maurizio Montagna
We accepted the divergence between street and parcels as a generative condition, concentrating irregularity in the shared spine so domestic rooms remain measured and clear. The street front is calibrated for a foreshortened reading, where setti and a light metal order tune depth, light, and the perception of mass.
– Lorenzo Degli Esposti
Casa Eurinome Apartment Photographs
Site and Massing: Working with Misalignment
Set within a narrow right-of-way along Via Piero della Francesca, the building occupies a 33.4 by 17.4 meter parcel that skews subtly in relation to Corso Sempione. The mass answers the dual orientation with a double-bodied bar: a five-story street bay aligns to the street’s geometry, and a taller seven-story inner bay follows the parcel boundaries. The 22.2-meter overall height is not expressed as a single monolith, but as two differentiated spans, allowing the volume to register divergent urban logics without forcing a uniform orthogonal order.
Between the two bodies, a compressed distribution corridor receives the geometric discrepancy. This hinge space allows for consistent dwelling rectangles while accommodating the plan’s angle shift, and it produces a slight break in section that helps calibrate the scale toward the street. The strategy reads as a quiet urban adjustment rather than a formal gesture. The bar preserves the shared Milanese street wall while allowing the interior depth to vary, reconciling neighborhood grain with the building’s 18-unit program and two basement levels of parking.
Plan Logic and Typological Clarity
The plan prioritizes clear domestic spaces and concentrates non-orthogonal elements within the central service and circulation spine. Bedrooms and living spaces typically maintain a regular geometry, which stabilizes furniture layout, daylight penetration, and structural spans. The result is a disciplined module that is legible in plan and supports repetitive formwork, as well as efficient assembly. At the same time, tolerances for the skewed site are absorbed where flexibility is most acceptable.
A double-loaded corridor typology organizes structure and utilities between the unequal bays. Risers, shafts, and secondary storage align within the spine, enabling consistent stacking across the seven above-ground levels and two subterranean floors. Sectional differences between street and inner bays yield varied dwelling depths and orientations, striking a balance between privacy toward the interior and controlled exposure and filtered views toward the street. The corridor thus serves as both a hinge and a buffer, mediating geometry, services, and acoustics.
Façade as Optical Instrument
Along the street, the building sets back to form deep loggias. A diaphragm of perpendicular wall planes screens these recesses. It thickens the threshold, with spacing and thickness tuned anamorphically to read as equal and equidistant from a specific oblique point of view along the sidewalk. This acknowledges the impossibility of a frontal reading on a narrow Milanese street and instead privileges the everyday diagonal approach as the primary optical axis.
A secondary metal frame with a 6-centimeter square section overlays the mass in a filigree order. This light register tempers the perceived weight of the wall planes and refines the edge condition against the sky, echoing local precedents where a fine metallic grammar modulates depth and shadow. The interplay of heavy setti and delicate steel clarifies the envelope’s layered construction: structure and privacy in the thick zone; calibration and atmospheric effects in the thin one.
Thresholds, Climate, and Material Expression
Loggias, balconies, and recessed patios form a series of thresholds that filter out traffic noise, provide privacy, and manage the light typical of dense Milanese streetscapes. The diaphragm walls stabilize the microclimate of the loggias by breaking wind and admitting controlled sun, while the setback produces effective self-shading throughout the day. These deep edges encourage everyday occupation at the perimeter, making the façade a lived space rather than a flat separator.
The dual material register combines robust wall depth with a lightweight metal veil, achieving environmental performance while maintaining urban porosity. In the summer, layered shadows and cross ventilation through the loggias temper the interiors; in winter, the cavities offer solar gain and a buffer against heat loss. The stepped setback frames domestic rituals at the boundary between dwelling and city, allowing the façade to act as a climatic device, a privacy gradient, and an instrument for viewing and being seen within the public life of the street.
Casa Eurinome Plans
Casa Eurinome Image Gallery
About Degli Esposti Architetti
Degli Esposti Architetti is an architecture studio based in Milan, Italy, founded in 2005. The practice is known for its precise formal control and intellectual rigor, engaging contemporary urban conditions through typological clarity and innovative spatial strategies. Their work frequently references historical precedents, adapting architectural language to the complexities of modern urban life.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Architects: Arch. Lorenzo Degli Esposti, Arch. Paolo Lazza
- Supervision of construction: Arch. Lorenzo Degli Esposti, Arch. Paolo Lazza
- Client: Villa Petrogalli S.r.l.
- Construction company: Gregori & Lochis S.n.c.
- Awards: Nominated for the 2025 Premio italiano di architettura by MAXXI Rome and Triennale di Milano
