Milan's 2 Brutalist buildings bookend half a century of Italian ideas about urban housing. Luigi Moretti's residential and commercial complex at Corso Italia — built in the 1950s — anticipated Brutalism with its raw concrete surfaces, sculptural massing, and the conviction that housing could be both monumental and humane.
Carlo Aymonino and Aldo Rossi's Monte Amiata Housing Complex at Gallaratese — completed in 1974 — takes the Brutalist programme to its theoretical extreme: a monumental arcade that turns social housing into urban theory made concrete. Rossi's austere white arcade, marching along the building's full length, reduces architecture to its most elemental components. Together, these buildings demonstrate Milan's role in pushing Brutalism beyond material expression toward architectural ideology.
