Hasta La Ideas

Dezeen and MINI World Tour: architect, designer and keen footballer Fabio Novembre takes us to the San Siro Stadium and tells us how he’s rethinking the brand of soccer club AC Milan, the second most-famous Italian brand after Ferrari (+ movie).

“I’m doing an interesting job about rethinking the brand of the soccer team,” says Novembre. “We’re trying to think about a soccer team that represents a new Italy.”

The San Siro stadium is home to both AC Milan and FC Internazionale (Inter Milan). It was originally built in 1926 by architect Ulisse Stacchini, who also designed Milan’s grand Centrale railway terminus.

It was extensively remodelled for the 1990 World Cup by architects Ragazzi and Partners and now has a capacity of 80,000.

“It’s probably the most well-known place in Milan,” says Novembre. “It’s like a pagan dome, and pagan temple. Definitely stadiums are the new domes, the new piazzas. People meet in stadiums.”

Novembre is working with AC Milan to help reposition the club as a symbol of modern Italy. “After Ferrari, the most famous Italian brand in the world is AC Milan,” he says. “It is a very special soccer team because it’s got the city in its name. So it carries with it a lot of responsibility.”

He was invited to work with the club by its director, Barbara Berlusconi, daughter of tycoon and former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who owns AC Milan. One of the ideas is to make the stadium more family-friendly.

Above: image of Mario Balottelli courtesy of the Press Association

“What we want to try to achieve is to take families into stadiums again,” Novembre says. “I mean not any more crazy supporters like hooligans but to give back the most important sport in the world to the best people – to children and families.”

Novembre also thinks the club, which features the black striker Mario Balotelli and Muslim goalscorer Stephan El Shaarawy among its star players, can help forge a new identity for the whole country.

Above: image of Stephan El Shaarawy courtesy of the Press Association

“I mean think about Mario Balotelli [who was born to Ghanaian parents in Sicily but later fostered by an Italian family]. Mario Balotelli was adopted by an Italian family from Bergamo. He speaks the Bergamo dialect. Or Stephan El Shaarawy, the child of Egyptian parents, but he was born in Milano, he speaks the Milanese dialect. That’s a new Italy that we’re trying to imagine, to represent this country.”

We drove out to the stadium in our MINI Cooper S Paceman. Last week we published a tour of Milan with Novembre, who talked about the importance of the annual furniture fair to the city.

The post “It’s probably the most
well-known place in Milan” appeared first on Dezeen.

Dezeen and MINI World Tour: we kick off the second leg of our Dezeen and MINI World Tour in Milan, with a tour of the city from architect, designer and proud resident Fabio Novembre.

As we drive around the city in our MINI Paceman during the movie, Novembre explains that despite being relatively small, with just 1.3 million inhabitants, Milan has a global profile. “It belongs to the network of important international cities, but it’s probably the smallest one.”

Fabio Novembre is from the south of Italy but moved north to study architecture at the Politecnico di Milano – a design school which was, and still is, regarded as the best in Italy. “I moved to Milano when I was 17,” Novembre says. “I’ve been living here more or less for the last 29 years.”

The designer points out that three of Italy’s biggest industries – finance, fashion and design – are all based in Milan. Unlike many other Italian cities, Milan is a place where things tend to work, he says: “I can tell you as an Italian this is really an exception. It’s not as beautiful a city as Rome but the only things that work in Italy are based here.”

Our tour of the city takes in the famous Duomo cathedral, the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II shopping arcade (above) and the Torre Velasca (below), a pioneering skyscraper built in the 1950s by architects BBPR.

This interview was filmed as the city geared up for the Salone Internazionale del Mobile, the world’s biggest design fair, which, together with hundreds of events that take place across the city, transforms Milan for a week each April.

“500,000 people are involved in the Salone del Mobile,” says Novembre. “It’s a very democratic event. All areas of Milan are colonised by people who want to show their projects.”

The sheer number of people, shows and parties mean that the week is unparalleled in the design world. “Anything can happen in Milano during this week,” Novembre concludes.

Over the coming days we’ll be posting more movies from Milan, including visits with Novembre to some of the places he feels best reflect the changing city, plus interviews with many of the leading figures taking part in the design festivities.

See all our coverage of Milan’s design week or check out more stories about Fabio Novembre.

This movie features a MINI Cooper S Paceman.

The post “Anything can happen in
Milano this week” appeared first on Dezeen.