Mangiagalli Hospital – Milan
21 January 2026
Client:
Management of the Reggio Emilia Hospital Authority and Curare Onlus MIRE
Architectural Designer:
Binini Partners S.r.l.
Contractor:
Allodi S.r.l.
The project, developed by the group led by Binini Partners in coordination with the Hospital Authority Management and funded by Curare Onlus—which has been committed for years to fundraising and countless initiatives in support of the work—inevitably embodies this collective effort of an entire community. The result is a "new architecture" made of light and colors, itself an act of "loving care" for people: an innovative and technologically advanced building, beautiful and welcoming, open and functional, private and secure, designed to accompany the many moments of "birth" and "life" for an entire province.
The new facility will house all intensive and highly complex functions within a base platform, with services and technical rooms located in the basement. The ground floor will host the Obstetric and Gynecological Emergency Room, the Labor and Delivery Block, the Operating Block, and Neonatology. It is an extremely rational layout, built on strong organizational synergies and rapid transit routes to achieve maximum safety, efficiency, and resource optimization, alongside close integration among professionals.
The three upper floors, which are less complex as they are dedicated to Inpatient Wards and Outpatient Clinics, are developed around a covered internal courtyard. This ensures high living comfort through natural lighting and ventilation for all the spaces facing it. This volume will also serve as a precious space for collective occasions and as an additional resource for the entire Pediatric area, which directly overlooks it from the first floor. Obstetrics, including the Natural Birth Center, and Gynecology will occupy the second and third floors. The layout thus combines the efficiency of platform-based structures with the living quality of a courtyard plan, where all inpatient rooms and clinics face outward toward the green areas and the skyline of the city and hills. Meanwhile, services, relaxation, and support spaces face the interior of the complex, all featuring large openings capable of filtering and regulating natural light.
The large covered courtyard, with a glass ceiling that invites one to look at the ever-changing and moving sky, serves as a spatial unit that unifies all floors and functions around this visual focal point. Here, families can find a moment of relaxation, children a protected place to play, and socialization, training, and communication initiatives an ideal meeting space. Around the perimeter, from every floor, every room and every person can feel part of this whole, drawing light, movement, and comfort from it.
Special attention is given to the rooms, reception, and living spaces for women, children, and families, which are furnished and specialized according to their functions, while also including all integrated aids for staff activities. The walls of the rooms and corridors are treated as art gallery surfaces, ready to host children's drawings and games, as well as artistic or photographic works, following an educational and compositional narrative that elevates the hospital to a "place of life."
The compositional and volumetric layout emphasizes this concept of light through white surfaces that define the volumes and house the large glass facades. Following simple and elegant shapes, this ensures the environmental and landscape sustainability of the intervention. The colored elements characterizing the facades, the courtyard, and the terraces are tasked with further defining and enlivening the layout, blending with the existing structures through graduated earth tones and natural materials.
MIRE is therefore a project featuring significant healthcare, technological, and compositional innovation, fulfilling all expectations for technical-scientific advancement, humanization, and hospitality for the maternity and childcare of the future. The project, technically sound and appropriate, is also distinguished by high compositional and architectural quality, as well as meticulous design and spatial planning—qualities recognized with an Honorable Mention at The Plan Award 2018 in the "Health Future" category.
Studio Cattivelli handled the preparation of the executive design. More recently, Eng. Fausto Cattivelli was appointed as Operational Director, assisting the Works Supervision of Binini Partners for the double-skin curtain walls and ceramic cladding. This role included coordinating environmental tests at notified laboratories according to UNI 13830, as well as impact resistance and seismic deformation tests.
