The Town Hall in Cusano Milanino
Giorgio Guatelli (direzione lavori)
Comune di Cusano Milanino
Load-bearing structure: beams and piers in reinforced concrete
Façade: exposed bricks; copper laminate inserts (mezzanine)
Roof: pitched roof, with copper sheeting (council chamber); half barrel vault (office stairs)
Windows: painted wood, cream (interior) and black (exterior)
The Cusamo Municipality reflects the architectural style Magistretti adopted in many of his buildings: an ensemble of different volumes. The key role in this composition is played by the council chamber designed as an agora, directly accessed from the porphyry-paved square linking the building to the urban context and designed with the more typical, anonymous features of the Milanese hinterland in the sixties. The external triangular volume with a copper laminate cladding rests on a base/ground floor open to the public. The chamber has a square plan with L-shaped tiered seating; it continues on seamlessly from the hall which can be used as an extension of the chamber when the latter is too crowded. The half barrel ceiling of the stairs leading to the offices is juxtaposed against the mass of the chamber; the offices are located in the lower block with a brickwork exterior, reminiscent of traditional Lombard constructions. Natural light floods into these rooms from the green patio cutting vertically through the whole building. The post office under the council chamber is separate from the town hall, but can also be reached from the square. The uniform marble grit floor of the town hall acts as a backdrop to the furnishings: serial-produced pieces, including the famous Carimate chair, placed in the only room designed by Magistretti: the council chamber with wooden boiserie.
Over the years the internal layout has been altered, in particular temporary partitions have been added to divide the office space. Magistretti himself had drafted an (unbuilt) enlargement project for the town hall.
L. Patetta, Alcune opere recenti del professionismo milanese, in Controspazio 1, 01 giugno 1973
C. Pauly, Le interviste di AD Vico Magistretti, in AD, dicembre 1982
C. Bellini, Il mestiere di architetto, in Habitat Ufficio 21, settembre 1986
V. Magistretti, Relazione di progetto, Municipio di Cusano Milanino, 1966-69
Un municipio, in Domus 538, settembre 1974
M. Grandi, A. Pracchi, Milano, guida all'architettura moderna, Bologna 1980, p. 335
M. Matteotti, Due palazzine comunali dell'hinterland milanese: Cusano Milanino e San Donato, in Ufficio Stile 4, 1982, p. 66
Torricelli A., Gli anni della trasformazione: nuovi paesaggi urbani, in Architetture sociali nel Milanese, Milano 1994, pp. 148-149
F. Irace, V. Pasca, Vico Magistretti, architetto e designer, Milano 1999, p. 76
