Just outside the city border of Milan lies the construction site for the Universal EXPO 2015. Across the highway, south of the EXPO site stands one of the largest developement areas of the city of Milan: Cascina Merlata.

The masterplan that has been approved for this site plans the con- struction of many residential buildings, a huge mall and a tower that should al- locate some office spaces and a hotel. We were asked to design a proposal for such a tower, with the main challenges being that the building needed to be quite high (roughly 170m) while part of the hotel had to stay low cost.

Therefore we envisioned a tower where the lower blocks hosting the office spaces react with the surround- ings and allow the activities of the ground floor to flow upwards towards the upper levels of the building through a tall escala- tor that would link the ground floor to the heart of the building.

The hotel tower itself bears a rationalist shape while accomodating innovative room typologies, thus attracting a wider public and preserving the economical proficiency of the building.