The debate between the City of Milan and both its major football clubs, Inter and AC Milan, on the design of the new stadium has begun.
There is a specific request from the council and that is that the choice of the winning project much be transparent.
As noted by mayor Beppe Sala, this means that the project much be open to public opinion and allow the public to know all of the four projects suggested by the invited architectural firms, which will be competing to design the new stadium, and not just the winning project, which is what both Inter and AC Milan intended.
According to Milano based newspaper Corriere della Sera, there are two local firms bidding, Stefano Boeri and Progetto Cmr (in partnership with Sportium) as well as two American firms, Populous and Hok, who are two of the largest architectural firms in the world.
Hok helped to design, among other projects, Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium, whilst the Italian firm Cmr design the concepts of the stadiums for Cagliari and Padova.
Populous, however, are one of the giants of the sector and have designed over a thousand stadiums across the planet, including the new Wembley Stadium and Tottenham’s new stadium. All four firms have presented their preliminary projects and both Milanese sides are taking two weeks to decide, before sending a dossier with the chosen project to municipal councillors.
The city’s request, explained by the paper, detail that the dossier must present all four projects and open up to public opinion, with an exhibition or other forms of advertising to display the advantages and disadvantages of all four projects.
This is only the first stage of the process.
However, there are still some issues that remain. The City Council will have to decide whether to deviate from the San Siro urban rules. Both teams have chosen the law on stadiums “because it gives more certainty about the timing”, but also because it allows much more space in the urban area surrounding the current stadium than what’s currently in place.
The law grants an index of 0.70 for the area, whereas currently the urban area of the San Siro is 0.35. In recent days mayor Sala has been clear on his view: “What companies are asking for today is not in line with our rues. We will leave it to the City Council to decide whether these deviations can be accepted.”
