In the heart of Milan’s Porta Nuova district – a symbol of the city's innovative spirit – stands Gioia22, a 120-meter-high office skyscraper.
With its distinctive angular shape inspired by the Alps and its shimmering glass façade, this prominent landmark has more to it than meets the eye.
Woven into the fabric of the building’s design, construction, and management is smart technology. From an integrated photovoltaic system to IoT sensors to an advanced data analytics platform, Gioia22 is a bold fusion of technology, sustainability, and human-centric design.
As Italy’s first nearly zero-energy building (nZEB), Gioia22 proudly signifies the smart evolution of office buildings is here.
And it all began with a bold vision.
The Challenge
In 2012, an 80-meter office building sat abandoned in the heart of Milan’s business district. Originally built in 1961, it had served as the INPS headquarters for over 50 years. After sitting empty for four long years, the building was acquired by Coima SGR in 2016. As a leader in sustainable real estate investment, development and management, Coima brought a futuristic vision to the project: to create an autonomous building capable of communicating, adapting, and making life easier for all who occupy it – while achieving ambitious sustainability measures.
These lofty goals required the demolition of the old building and starting anew. Working with Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects, the old structure was torn down and the cornerstone of the new building was laid. The next challenge was figuring out how to maximize end-user benefits while keeping energy consumption as low as possible.
The Solution
To turn its bold vision into reality, Coima selected Siemens as its trusted technology partner. Together, Coima and Siemens turned Gioia22 from a simple building into a living, intelligent system – constantly analyzing, adjusting, and optimizing.
“Choosing Siemens as a supplier and partner was the result of previous collaborations,” said Francesco Moretti, Director of Development Management at Coima. “In the properties we manage, primarily Porta Nuova, Siemens provides 60% of the equipment and systems and has a proven track record of ensuring proper operations, strong management, and excellent support. Therefore, it was a natural progression of the history that already connects us. With Gioia22 and our latest Porta Nuova project Pirelli35, we’re building something exceptional, something that works flawlessly, and something that defines what’s next.”
Siemens’ smart building management platform, Desigo CC, functions like Gioia22’s brain: collecting and analyzing building-generated data to adapt to changing occupant needs. This spans across HVAC (heating, ventilation, air conditioning), lighting, shading, room automation, and fire safety.
For example, Desigo CC uses real-time data from smart sensors and weather stations to automatically adjust the lighting and blinds. If someone walks into a room, the building responds. Lights adjust to match natural daylight. Blinds lower or raise to create the optimal room temperature. Shades tilt to prevent glare. When the room empties, the lights turn off, and the building adjusts the blinds accordingly.
Safety too is seamlessly integrated. Fire protection, also centrally monitored by Desigo CC, is handled by Siemens’ Cerberus PRO system. Cloud-connected, it allows remote access anytime and anywhere, improving monitoring, maintenance, and planning.
Also integrated with Desigo CC is the building’s impressive display of 3,000 photovoltaic panels covering a large part of the façade. The amount of clean electricity generated by the photovoltaic system is equivalent to the energy needs of 306 homes. In addition, the HVAC system uses underground water for heating and cooling, optimized by smart sensors and submeters that track thermal energy use in real time.
“One of the most important sustainability measures we took was to install intake and return meters to measure the amount of thermal energy from hot or cold water used by the aquifer-fed heating and cooling system,” said Francesco Risitano, Area Sales Team Leader at Siemens Smart Infrastructure in Italy. “As a result, our Desigo CC system can monitor intake and return temperatures and water levels to contribute to the building’s energy-savings goals.”
Desigo CC also integrates a cloud-based energy management and asset management platform, powered by Siemens’ digital building platform Building X. Designed to optimize building energy performance, it seamlessly integrates complex data sources like energy supply, energy consumption, system performance, and sustainability.
The ability to manage, monitor, and supervise all of the building’s technical systems from a central platform was paramount to bringing Coima's bold vision to life. Intelligently blending technology with sustainability maximizes comfort for thousands of workers, while drastically reducing environmental impact.
