Karl Kolbitz embarks on an photographic journey through Milan’s modernist entrance halls, reflecting that first impressions really do count
The importance of 20th-century Italian design is well documented, but Berlin-based editor Karl Kolbitz presents a fresh take on Milan’s architectural heritage by exploring the often ignored realm of entryways that quietly define the city’s identity.
Kolbitz considers each entrance hall, or ingresso, to be “a piece of punctuation to the architectural accomplishments of the city’s modern history”.
After growing up in the concrete jungle of reunified Berlin, he became intrigued by Milan’s beauty, and developed an interest in the role of architecture on our everyday lives.
These gateways between the public and private space; both joining and separating, neither interior or exterior, are widely discussed in architectural circles, but the entryway also provides a snapshot of people’s everyday lives.
For Kolbitz, “Milan is a city that draws you in, that shows itself while screening itself at the same time. It is at once private, grandiloquent and refined.”
While it may lack the magnificent palaces of Rome or Florence, the discreet charm of the city’s ingressi shine through.
“Every beginning is cheerful; the threshold is the place of expectation,” Goethe once said, and Milan's entry halls do not disappoint. The following photographs, taken by Delfino Sisto Legnani, Paola Pansini and Matthew Billings, take you on a tour of Italy’s fashion capital behind closed doors:
Milan's Modernist hallways
Pier Giulio Magistretti, 1934–36
“The city’s complex Modernist heritage is documented and reproduced in countless publications, yet this very Milanese singularity, the ingressi, has gone almost unnoticed.” - Karl Kolbitz Delfino Sisto LegnaniGio Ponti, Antonio Fornaroli, Alberto Rosselli, 1952–56
"An emotional overdose of colour, understated grandness, ultimately, a sense of chic," - Stefano Pilati, fashion designer Delfino Sisto LegnaniGiuseppe Roberto Martinenghi, 1937
The policy of self-sufficiency during the Fascist era of the 1930s means that most of the stones and marbles using in Milan in the first half of the century come from Italy. Paola PansiniGiandomenico Belotti, Sergio Invernizzi, Achille Boraschi 1958–60
“The entryways to all kinds of residential buildings - the city’s most hidden treasures - present themselves in plain sight to the eye. Not only do their residents , or visitors, but to anyone who endeavours to discover them. Every day, heavy wooden portals swing open while others, fitted with large glass panels, forever invite our gaze.” - Karl Kolbitz Paola PansiniUmberto Riva 1965
The enigmatic Umberto Riva believes in an open text in architecture. Despite the austere materials, the colour-coded ceilings marry poetry and organisation. Delfino Sisto LegnaniPalazzo Sola-Busca Aldo Andreani
“Looking through these portals, I witness sublime interiors that speak to me about how architecture shapes our lives. I fantasise about who the people who inhabit them might be, what their lives might be like.” - Karl Kolbitz Delfino Sisto LegnaniChandelier and sconces by Aureliano Toso
The Eocene fossil-rich calcarenite quarried from the hills around Vicenzia varies naturally in colour; from ivory white, to grey and golden yellow. Matthew BillingsKarl Kolbitz's book, Entryways of Milan, published by Taschen, is available on their website: taschen.com