Mi.MA. — Milan Metropolitan Archive

An archive preserves what a city chooses not to lose. Documents, images and traces of time form a collective memory that must remain accessible if it is to stay alive. Mi.MA. begins with the idea of turning preservation into a public, everyday experience.

The project extends the Cittadella degli Archivi in Milan and brings together the existing pavilions, a new archive building and the multi-storey block through an elevated gallery. Automated storage, laboratories, a library, study areas and exhibition spaces coexist within a single system. The linear park on Via Racconigi opens the complex to the neighbourhood, while the frontage on Via Ferdinando Gregorovius continues the street’s industrial character.

The steel structure and terracotta cladding draw on the materials, rhythms and curves of the existing buildings. During the day the volume appears compact and protects what it holds; in the evening, the illuminated rooms reveal the life of the archive. The architecture stands between what the place retains and what may still become part of the city’s memory.