Sheraton Milan Malpensa Hotel

With the opening of the new superior four-star Sheraton, Milan Malpensa airport can finally boast an international level of hospitality. Located opposite Terminal 1, to which it is connected directly via a tunnel, it offers 433 soundproofed rooms including 19 suites, a thousand square metre spa with indoor pool, a Crew Lounge, a fitness centre, a Club Lounge, and a two thousand square metre conference centre with thirty meeting rooms and cutting-edge facilities. The large structure (420 metres long, 64 metres wide, 21 metres high and with a total floor space of 50,000 square metres) stands on a 24,750 square metre site already occupied by a multi-storey garage that visually forms its base without in fact supporting the building’s weight (the base will be shielded with slats). The design process was long and complex, explained engineer Roberto Saporiti. The pilot project and guidelines had previously been developed by Milan-based architect Caccia on request of the Milan airport management company SEA. During the design competition, the project manager SHD and Swiss architect Willy Ramstein made numerous alterations, defining the internal layout and optimising the functionality of the entire building. The exterior was designed by the practice King Roselli, envisaging the structure as a design object rather than just a building.
For the exterior cladding, which needed to enclose the structure seamlessly, 25 metre long pultruded glass fibre panels fixed to a metallic substructure were used like a skin to completely cover the technical systems. The building has a comb-like layout in which seven fingers housing the guest rooms and separated by courtyards project from the longitudinal structure towards the terminal, while a blind façade curves around on itself and returns to the main building. Because of the presence of the existing garage, the ground floor entrance is at a level of 3.36 metres below street level and the first floor lobby is at a height of 6.25 metres above ground level. The lobby intersects at full height with the hotel’s three guestroom levels, interconnecting them and serving as a foyer for the meeting area. During construction, King Roselli was also asked to design the interiors of the entrance areas and lobbies on the various floors and to integrate them stylistically into the futuristic exterior architecture. Although the hotel’s owner, the Starwood group, had wanted to maintain similar characteristics for the Sheraton brand the world over, it had accepted that conventional interiors could hardly suffice for a hotel serving as a gateway to Milan, the design capital. The rooms, restaurants, conference centre and spa were instead designed by SHD in line with the usual Sheraton style, with the exception of the suites which featured more contemporary design. Most of the floors in the common spaces are paved with Italian large-format ceramic tiles. The Golden Wood parquet style planks from Emilceramica create a warm atmosphere in the cafeteria area, while the Elegance collection from Ergon and the Q-stone collection from Provence lend natural appeal together with high technical characteristics to the pool area.