David Chipperfield's City of Culture nears completion in Milan
News: these new images show the interiors and exteriors of David Chipperfield's soon-to-complete museum and gallery complex in a converted steel factory in Milan (+ slideshow).
![City of Culture by David Chipperfield](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/City-of-Culture-by-David-Chipperfield_dezeen_468_0.jpg)
David Chipperfield won a competition in 2000 to design the Città delle Culture (City of Culture) complex in the former Ansaldo factory, located south-west of the city in the creative district surrounding Via Tortona.
![City of Culture by David Chipperfield](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/City-of-Culture-by-David-Chipperfield_dezeen_468_13.jpg)
Due to open early next year, it will create a home for the Centre for Advanced Studies of Visual Art (CASVA), the Centre of Non-European Cultures and the New Archaeological Museum.
![City of Culture by David Chipperfield](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/City-of-Culture-by-David-Chipperfield_dezeen_468_15.jpg)
The complex comprises an assemblage of two, three and four-storey volumes, framing a network of courtyards and passages designed to help integrate the new structures with the surrounding industrial architecture.
![City of Culture by David Chipperfield](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/City-of-Culture-by-David-Chipperfield_dezeen_468_7.jpg)
The central block is a curving opaque-glass hall, creating a glowing beacon at the heart of the site. Around this, the architects designed a series of boxy buildings, featuring a standing-seam cladding of zinc-titanium.
![City of Culture by David Chipperfield](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/City-of-Culture-by-David-Chipperfield_dezeen_468_3.jpg)
The complex will also accommodate a laboratory for a traditional puppet maker, as well as an auditorium, a restaurant and a bookshop.
Dezeen Book of Interviews: David Chipperfield features in our new book, which is on sale now
![City of Culture by David Chipperfield](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/City-of-Culture-by-David-Chipperfield_dezeen_468_5.jpg)
British architect David Chipperfield has an office in Milan, in addition to those in London, Berlin and Shanghai. Earlier this month he was also appointed artistic director of Italian furniture brand Driade.
![City of Culture by David Chipperfield](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2014/11/City-of-Culture-by-David-Chipperfield_dezeen_468_20.jpg)
Photography is by Oskar Da Riz.