Torre Velasca: history and restoration at Villa Recalcati

Context

TL;DR

• Torre Velasca at the center of a meeting at Villa Recalcati
• Conference hall of the Province of Varese packed with attendees
• Restoration took place between 2021 and 2025
• Maniglia Velasca remained in the catalog until 2005

Key facts

• Location → Villa Recalcati, Province of Varese
• Promoter → Order of Architects of Varese
• Project → Studio BBPR and engineer Arturo Danusso
• Purchase → 150 million euros
• Restoration → 2021-2025
• Handles → Olivari, catalog until 2005

The conference hall of the Province of Varese, at Villa Recalcati, hosted a meeting dedicated to Torre Velasca, the famous monumental building in Milan. The evening was promoted by the Order of Architects of Varese as part of the Olivari Openings series and attracted a substantial audience. The account followed three threads: the building's origins, the renovation project, and the history of the handle that became a symbol of the tower.

The event opened with official greetings from Giorgio Caporaso, president of the design commission, and Michela Nurra, president of the Young People and Innovative Tools commission. Then Stefano Suriano, an architectural historian, took the audience inside the project by Studio BBPR and engineer Arturo Danusso. His interpretation highlighted a dual modernity: in the construction solutions and in the building's social significance.

A housing model beyond the engineering challenge

Torre Velasca was not presented solely as a technically complex work. According to Suriano's account, the tower brought together three different structures—commercial, office, and residential—and also proposed compact residential solutions. These included 40-square-metre one-bedroom apartments, a choice described as revolutionary compared with the standards and habits of living in the city center during the postwar period.

The transition from the project to the present came with architect Giacomo Albo's contribution. Albo illustrated the phases of the renovation carried out between 2021 and 2025, documented with thousands of photographs requested by the latest purchaser. The redevelopment adapted the tower to contemporary times while respecting the original structure. The evening concluded with engineer Antonio Olivari, of the eponymous company, and with the story of the handles designed in the 1950s by Gio Ponti and Lodovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso, a member of Studio BBPR. Since then, that design has been known as «Maniglia Velasca».

Operational details

From the housing model to conservation

The most significant point in the account is not a single date, but the way the speakers connected use, construction, and conservation. Torre Velasca was considered both as a technical building and as a housing model. The presence, in the same tower, of commercial spaces, offices, and homes describes a complex structure; the 40-square-meter one-bedroom apartments add a compact residential option to this complexity. According to the account of the evening, it is this juxtaposition that makes the project innovative on the social level as well.

Philology as a working criterion

As for the restoration, the keyword is «philology». Before the works, a meticulous inventory was made of everything inside the tower. The subsequent phase did not erase that survey: it led to the restoration of most of the original elements, from the wood paneling to the historic details of the staircases. The criterion described by Giacomo Albo therefore brings together two needs: adapting the building to contemporary times and remaining faithful to the original design.

The economic dimension makes the construction site even more imposing. The redevelopment costs doubled the property's original purchase price of 150 million euros. This figure is inseparable from the documentation: the thousands of photographs requested by the last buyer recount the lengthy construction phase and accompany the transformation without replacing the existing structure.

For a cross-border worker looking for Permesso G/B, the scope is different: here there is no administrative, tax, or social security information, but a cultural account originating in the province of Varese. The distinction prevents attributing to the evening content it does not have.

The story of the handle brings the argument to a close with a concrete object. The design by Gio Ponti and Lodovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso, produced by Olivari and remaining in the catalog for nearly fifty years until 2005, brings architecture from the tower's profile to the act of opening a door. In the interpretation offered, the project thus continues to speak through a small but recognizable part of the building.

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Key points

How to read the report of the evening

The operational sequence

To use the report without confusing different levels, the reader can follow this sequence:

• Start with the location and the promoter: Villa Recalcati, the conference hall of the Province of Varese, and the Order of Architects of Varese.
• Attribute each passage to the speaker: Stefano Suriano for the origins and the project, Giacomo Albo for the construction site, and Antonio Olivari for the handles.
• Keep the three uses of the tower separate: commercial, office, and residential. The data regarding the 40-square-meter two-room apartments must be read within this combination.
• Follow the restoration as a series of operations: documentation with thousands of photos, inventory of the interiors, and restoration of boiserie and historical details of the stairs.
• Conclude with the detail: design in the fifties, attribution to Gio Ponti and Lodovico Barbiano di Belgiojoso, Olivari production, and catalog up to 2005.

This sequence allows one to move from the public framework to the technical content, from the housing model to conservation, and finally to the object that gave a name to its own category. It is a concrete path because it uses only the steps presented during the meeting and does not add dates, costs, or procedures that the report does not contain.

The first step serves not to separate the building from the place where the story was told. The second avoids attributing the content of one speaker to another: the perspective of the architectural historian, that of the architect involved in the renovation, and that of the company engineer belong to different moments of the evening. The third restores the complexity of the building without reducing it to its external image. The fourth shows why the restoration was described as a respectful readaptation operation. The fifth brings the discussion back to the scale of the daily gesture, that of opening a door.

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Source: varesenews.it