Generali Stadium: Foster + Partners and MANICA unveil Milan's new San Siro

On 29 October, AC Milan and FC Internazionale Milano presented the design of their new shared home at Milan's Castello Sforzesco. Named Generali Stadium after a naming-rights agreement with the insurer, the 71,500-seat venue is designed by Foster + Partners and MANICA.

It will rise next to the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, which keeps hosting matches while the new stadium is built and will be partly demolished once the clubs move. The first game is targeted for the 2031/32 season.

Generali Stadium in Milan seen from the surrounding park, with its X-shaped concrete façade — *Generali Stadium seen from the new park. Image courtesy of Foster + Partners and MANICA*

A bowl on a podium

The stadium is a compact bowl raised on a public podium. The building measures roughly 270 by 244 metres in plan and reaches about 60 metres at its highest point.

Inside, a continuous 360-degree bowl in two tiers wraps the pitch. Behind the goals, each curva holds about 11,700 supporters and rises as a steep wall of up to 37 degrees, pushing fans as close to the play as the geometry allows. It is the San Siro curva, rebuilt on purpose.

A façade made of structure

The most striking move is on the outside. Large diagonal concrete elements rise from colonnades at the base, cross each other in an X pattern across the elevations and continue upwards to carry the roof. The design team's own diagrams describe it as a low-carbon precast concrete façade system.

In other words, the façade is the structure. There is no decorative skin hung in front of a frame: the rhythm you read from the street is the load path itself.

"At its heart is a striking structural form with a powerful rhythm that recalls both the legacy of Italian engineering and the intricate craftsmanship of the Duomo di Milano." – Foster + Partners

Diamond-shaped openings in the lattice mark the entrances and lead to panoramic routes inside. At ground level, the colonnades are naturally ventilated, so the public concourses breathe without mechanical systems.

Fans outside the Generali Stadium entrances, framed by the diamond-shaped openings of the concrete lattice — *The diamond-shaped openings at the entrances. Image courtesy of Foster + Partners and MANICA*

A roof for sound and energy

Above the stands sits a double-curved roof on a spoke-wheel structure. It covers the seating and leaves the pitch open to the sky through a central oculus. It also has two other jobs: its geometry is shaped to push crowd noise back towards the pitch, and it carries around 27,500 m² of photovoltaic panels.

The rest of the energy strategy follows the same logic: all-electric operation, natural ventilation through the colonnades, rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling. The project is targeting LEED Gold certification and carbon-neutral operation.

Sectional sketch of the Generali Stadium showing the precast concrete façade, central oculus, photovoltaic roof and sustainability strategies — *The sustainability strategy in one section: precast concrete façade, oculus, PV roof, rainwater and greywater. Image courtesy of Foster + Partners and MANICA*

A district, not only a stadium

The stadium is part of a regeneration area of about 281,000 m² in San Siro. The plan adds public spaces, green areas, pedestrian routes, shops and leisure venues, with the aim of keeping the neighbourhood busy on days without matches.

As David Manica put it at the presentation, San Siro is more a feeling than a building. The brief was to carry that intensity into a new structure.

Aerial view of the Generali Stadium in the San Siro district with Milan and the Alps in the background — *Aerial view of the stadium in the San Siro district. Image courtesy of Foster + Partners and MANICA*

Timeline

Construction is expected to start in 2028, with the first match planned for the 2031/32 season. Further design and permitting steps are still to be completed.

Why it matters for the envelope

For façade designers, the Generali Stadium is a case where envelope and structure become one system. Several questions are still open and worth following as the design develops:

How the precast X elements will be segmented, jointed and erected, and with which tolerances at this scale.
How the enclosure behind the lattice is detailed, from the ventilated colonnades to the closed spaces of the podium.
How 27,500 m² of photovoltaics are integrated into a double-curved roof, from panel layout to drainage and maintenance access.

We will follow the project as the technical design moves forward.

Sources: Foster + Partners; MANICA; designboom; Dezeen.

Renders and diagrams courtesy of Foster + Partners and MANICA. All images belong to their respective owners and are shared for educational purposes and to promote façade culture.

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