Gobbi 5

The building at Via Gobbi 5, designed to house the new Bocconi Library with its book collections and archives, a modern Aula Magna, and the institutes and departments of economics and business administration, was inaugurated on 11 December 1966. 

Built by the architect Giovanni Muzio in collaboration with his son Lorenzo, also an architect, and engineer Aldo Favini, it covers an area of ​​4,000 square meters. 

Following the historical plan designed by Giuseppe Pagano, architect of the Via Sarfatti 25 building (1940), Muzio respected the rationalist approach of his predecessor, creating an evident visual and material continuity in the new building: from the use of rectangular tiles (clinker bricks) of the same ochre color, to the creation of the Via Gobbi atrium characterized by a portico, as well as the choice of green window frames. 

Via Gobbi 5 has an orthogonal layout, and was designed paying great attention to the brightness of halls and rooms, with large windows, skylights and a careful study of exposure to natural lighting. Originally, an open patio – visible from the inside – stood at the center of the building with a pond and flowerbeds, but it was removed following renovations in the early 2000s. 

The Aula Magna, located in the basement, was equipped with cutting-edge systems for the time, such as a mobile stage and booths for simultaneous translation and interpreters. The Aula Magna drew light from large glass windows, while the crossed metal-beam ceiling was left exposed and integrated into an evocative artificial lighting system. 

Lastly, the book repository is placed in a location that is clearly distinct from the main structure. It is a 60-meter parallelepiped of reinforced concrete and glass block slits.