Matteo Thun Fills Milan's Torre Velasca with 72 New Residences

Matteo Thun & Partners has completed the interiors of 72 residences inside Torre Velasca, Milan's 1958 brutalist landmark by studio BBPR. The units occupy floors 19 through 26 and will open in phases beginning in fall 2026 under the METT Milan Torre Velasca operation, run with Sunset Hospitality Group.

The program mixes suites and apartments for both short- and long-term stays, including duplex penthouses overlooking the city. Colors are rich, the furniture is largely Italian, and the location is one of the most recognizable addresses in Milan — Piazza Velasca 3/5.

What does the transformation change for the building?

Torre Velasca was designed by BBPR on a site heavily damaged during World War II and completed in 1958. Its silhouette is unusual: a broad residential volume projects above a narrower office tower, a form inspired by medieval Lombard architecture, especially the Filarete Tower at Milan's Castello Sforzesco. Angled reinforced-concrete supports carry the upper floors and give the building its mushroom-like profile. The design stirred considerable debate among modernist architects at the time, but it has since become an unmistakable feature of the Milan skyline.

The interiors follow an extensive restoration of the whole tower led by Milan-based Asti Architetti for developer Hines, completed in 2025. Because the building is protected, Matteo Thun & Partners had to accommodate much of the original architecture. The team preserved:

• original tiles in the kitchens and bathrooms
• historic doors and window frames
• the original loggias that punctuate the tower's upper volume and frame vast views across Milan, including the nearby Duomo

The existing proportions posed their own challenges. Ceilings are relatively low and many rooms are compact, so the studio introduced glossy finishes that reflect daylight and give the interiors a greater sense of space. Floor plans were adjusted to fit larger showers and walk-in closets.

A cocktail counter negotiated with the Ministry of Culture

Working with Italy's Ministry of Culture, the architects were allowed to partially remove a kitchen wall. The opening introduces a cocktail counter that connects the cooking and living areas. It lets natural light reach further into the kitchen and creates a casual spot for gathering — a small intervention that required national-level sign-off.

Pink velvet drawn from the tower's own plaster

The material palette comes directly from the building itself. With Italian textile house Dedar, the studio developed custom velvet wall coverings in a dusty pink inspired by Torre Velasca's exterior plaster. The color brings the tower's character indoors.

The furnishings lean on several decades of Italian design:

• mustard-yellow sofas custom-designed for Molteni
• coffee tables with distinctive stone finishes
• pieces by Gio Ponti alongside work by Afra and Tobia Scarpa
• Cassina's Utrecht armchair in blue felt with contrasting green stitching
• lighting by Oluce in colors selected specifically for the apartments
• custom wardrobes and bedside furniture manufactured by Italian producers

Warm wood and deep green accents complete the rooms, connecting them to Milan's long history of furniture design.

A mixed-use tower that keeps its balance

Beyond the apartments, Matteo Thun & Partners designed the reception and lobby spaces and the corridors toward the rear of the ground floor. The residences form part of a wider redevelopment that preserves Torre Velasca's mixed-use character: offices continue to occupy the lower floors, and hospitality spaces run throughout the building.

From the street, the immense concrete brackets appear to support an entire block of apartments above the city. Inside, the rooms are surprisingly modest — low ceilings, deep window openings, domestic scale. That contrast between the monumental exterior and the intimate spaces within gives the project its particular character, and allows one of Milan's most recognizable landmarks to be experienced from the inside for the first time in this way.