To live in
Your first home, sized for you.
An instalment lower than renting a room, spaces that are easy to run, and a refurbished building with an efficient envelope and services.
The city, for us too
Your home, one stop from Milan.
Design studio flats of 22 m², with bespoke interiors, high ceilings and private outdoor space. Turnkey from €150,000.
01 · The concept
A more affordable Milan.
In Milan, house prices are set by the balance of supply and demand, and public measures, however necessary, cannot close the gap with the salaries of those entering the job market today. Meanwhile the people looking for homes have changed too: living alone is the new normal, while the market still offers one- and two-bedroom flats. PERNOI works on the one lever still genuinely available, size, to bring ownership back within reach.
73%of the average net salary in Milan goes on the rent of a standard flat
+49%rent growth in Milan from 2019 to 2025, against net salaries up between 7% and 15%
57.5%of households in the metropolitan area are single-person: demand has changed, supply has not
01
Fewer square metres, more design
Every centimetre is designed: bespoke furniture, high-level storage, tall ceilings that multiply the space.
02
Ownership, not rent
A mortgage instalment instead of rent, even on a first salary: what you pay each month stays yours.
03
The city as an extension
Metro, shops, sport and services minutes away: the home is compact, your life is not.
Not a smaller home. A possible one.
Sources: CNA analysis of Italian Revenue Agency property market data, 2019–2025 (standard 70 m² flat); ISTAT, 2019–2024 data on households.
02 · Why PERNOI
A single room to rent in Milan costs €700 a month. A home of your own can cost less.
That is €8,400 a year for a space that will never be yours. With PERNOI you can have a flat of your own, designed around you, one metro stop from Milan and turnkey from €150,000. With a mortgage, the instalment stays below what renting costs today. And it is 22 m² with ceilings of 3.00 m on the upper floors and 3.75 m on the ground floor, as tall as they no longer build them.
Every month
−€200a month compared with renting a room, for a home that is yours and designed around you.
Turnkey
Renovated unit with a bespoke interior design: move in and live, with no building work.
The Milanese balcony house, today
Light steel walkways and private outdoor space in front of every door.
High ceilings
3.00 m on the upper floors and 3.75 m on the ground floor, where a mezzanine bed fits.
Off-plan
Secure your unit with 10%. Completion expected December 2027.
Single room: Immobiliare.it Insights, Aug 2026 (€704, rounded). Instalment: illustrative example for a €100,000 mortgage over 25 years at a fixed rate of 3.5%; it is not a credit offer. Mezzanine bed to be verified unit by unit.
03 · The neighbourhood
Everything you need, a short walk away.
Via Sempione is the historic road running from central Milan towards the Simplon Pass. The supermarket is downstairs, the metro and sports club a few minutes on foot, the new Cascina Merlata district next door: in the evening you come back to a quiet town on a human scale.
Downstairs
On foot
A little further · Cascina Merlata and MIND
The district next door
Cascina Merlata, a step away.
Across via Sempione one of Milan's newest districts is taking shape: homes, a park and Merlata Bloom, the lifestyle centre opened in 2023. Shopping, restaurants and groceries a few minutes by bike, along the cycle path that runs past the building.
- 210shops at Merlata Bloom
- 43restaurants and bars
The metro · indicative diagram
M1 diagram not to scale, stops simplified. Distances as the crow flies from the building, times indicative. Two-lane cycle path in front of the building.
04 · The building
The balcony house, today.
As in Milan's traditional balcony houses, you enter from the walkway: here it becomes a slender steel gangway serving every home. In front of each door, part of the walkway belongs to the unit as private outdoor space. A 1930s building recovers its façades, pilasters and cornices, and the high ceilings of another era.
Façade palette: light grey render and matt galvanised steel.
- Lift
- New, external, integrated into the walkways
- Accessibility
- Every unit adaptable (Italian decree 236/89)
- Ceilings
- 3.00 m on the upper floors, 3.75 m on the ground floor
- Structure
- Seismic upgrading
- Energy
- Envelope and building services upgraded
- Air and light
- +82% openable windows, cross ventilation
- Energy rating
- A · project target
Indicative render. Finishes as per the project currently under approval. Energy rating to be certified on completion.
05 · Every centimetre, a possibility
Two layouts, 22 m² each.
Type A faces via Sempione, type B the inner courtyard. Every home arrives complete with bespoke furniture, high ceilings and outdoor space. The finish is your choice.
Units facing via Sempione
Type A Sempione
Room for comfort. Double bed, fitted kitchen, table for two: everything you need, to the centimetre, in the light of via Sempione.
Render · bespoke interior design
Units facing the courtyard
Type B Courtyard
Room for your rhythms. The table folds out for breakfast, work and dinner, then folds away and gives the room back. Bespoke kitchen and storage do the rest, looking onto the quiet of the courtyard.
Render · bespoke interior design
06 · The interior design
You choose how far to personalise, not whether to furnish.
Every home is delivered complete: kitchen, bed, storage and table are designed for PERNOI's 22 m² and made to measure.
Made to Measure
€25,000
Everything you need to live here from day one, as shown in the renders.
- Bespoke kitchen with appliances
- Bed with storage, 160 or 140 × 200
- Bespoke wardrobe and storage
- Table and two chairs
- Bathroom and lobby fittings
- Lighting
Made to Measure Plus
€36,000
The home personalised in its materials, with more storage and the outdoor space furnished.
- Everything included in Made to Measure
- Choice of finishes, woods and colours
- Mezzanine bed on the ground floor, or high-level storage
- Coordinated textiles
- Outdoor space furnished
Package contents and prices are being finalised and will be confirmed in the offer. The mezzanine bed is subject to technical verification unit by unit.
07 · The units
Seven homes and one studio. Choose yours.
3-Atop floor
3-Btop floor
2-Asecond floor
2-Bsecond floor
1-Afirst floor
1-Bfirst floor
0-Astudio
0-Bwith courtyard
Every unit measures 22 m² and is reached by lift and walkways. Each home has outdoor space: on the upper floors, the stretch of walkway in front of the door, reserved for the unit; on the ground floor, the courtyard. On the ground floor, 0-A is designed as a studio or office.
| Unit | Type | Floor | Ceilings | Outdoor space | Plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-A | A · Sempione | Ground | 3.75 m | none | Plan for unit 0-A, PDF |
| 0-B | B · Corte | Ground | 3.75 m | courtyard 15.3 m² | Plan for unit 0-B, PDF |
| 1-A | A · Sempione | First | 3.00 m | ≈ 10 m² | Plan for unit 1-A, PDF |
| 1-B | B · Corte | First | 3.00 m | ≈ 8 m² | Plan for unit 1-B, PDF |
| 2-A | A · Sempione | Second | 3.00 m | ≈ 10 m² | Plan for unit 2-A, PDF |
| 2-B | B · Corte | Second | 3.00 m | ≈ 8 m² | Plan for unit 2-B, PDF |
| 3-A | A · Sempione | Top floor | 2.40 m average | ≈ 10 m² | Plan for unit 3-A, PDF |
| 3-B | B · Corte | Top floor | 2.40 m average | ≈ 8 m² | Plan for unit 3-B, PDF |
da €125,000off-plan price per unit
10%to secure your unit
December 2027expected completion
Areas and heights from the project drawings (rev. 10/2026); outdoor spaces: stretch of walkway for exclusive use, indicative areas to be defined in the preliminary contract. Mezzanine bed subject to verification. Price set unit by unit, availability to be confirmed.
08 · Buying off-plan
Choose your home today.
Buying off-plan, you pick your unit and lock in the off-plan price. You pay in three stages, with deposits secured by a bank guarantee, up to completion expected in December 2027.
Project status
Planning process under way, with favourable opinions.
The project is going through planning with the Municipality of Pero and has already obtained two favourable preliminary opinions.
- Microliving conceptPreliminary approval for homes under 28 m².
- Landscape opinionFavourable to the proposed refurbishment.
The regulatory framework
Legislation designed to bring existing buildings back into use as homes.
PERNOI applies the Salva Casa decree (Italian Decree-Law 69/2024, converted by Law 105/2024) for the purpose it was designed for: simplifying the conversion of spaces in historic buildings to residential use. The initiative is aligned with the goals of the Piano Casa (Decree-Law 66/2026): reusing existing buildings without consuming new land, urban regeneration, and answering priority housing needs, starting with young people, workers living away from home and single-person households. Nothing new is built here: a vacant early twentieth-century building on one of the town's historic roads is brought back into use, with seismic upgrading, an improved envelope and services, and better air and light in every unit.
The unit · off-plan price
€125,00022 m² refurbished, new building services, energy rating A target.
Off-plan price held until work starts on site.
Bespoke interior design
from €25,000Made to Measure or Made to Measure Plus.
Turnkey
from €150,000The home finished and furnished, ready to live in.
How the unit is paid for
10%On the purchase offer · €12,500You reserve the unit and lock in the off-plan price.
+ 20%On the preliminary contract · €25,000Second deposit: with the offer, 30% of the price. Secured by a bank guarantee.
70%On completion, at the deed · €87,500A mortgage works too: for €100,000 over 25 years, an indicative instalment of about €500 a month. Handover and deed expected in December 2027.
Amounts calculated on the off-plan price of the unit; timing and terms of payment for the interior design package to be defined in the offer. Instalment: illustrative example at a fixed rate of 3.5%, not a credit offer. Guarantees under Italian Legislative Decree 122/2005.
09 · Buying
To live in or to invest.
To invest
A property to let.
Next to Fiera Milano, for short lets during trade fairs and events. Close to MIND, with the Galeazzi hospital and the state university campus: for students, nurses and researchers.
01
Meeting
Presentation of the project and the units.
02
Offer · 10%
You choose the unit and lock in the off-plan price.
03
Preliminary contract · 20%
Second deposit, secured by a bank guarantee.
04
Deed · 70%
On handover, expected December 2027.
10 · About us
People who do innovation for a living, and one who has actually lived it.
Behind PERNOI are an innovation hub that has worked on urban regeneration for years and an architect among the first in Italy to design, and inhabit, minimal space.
The promoter
Designtech is a Milan innovation hub that connects designers, startups and companies to turn ideas into prototypes, products and new ventures, with dedicated spaces, labs and programmes. Innovation with impact is its business: from advanced materials to urban regeneration, through to new housing models and the services that make cities smarter.
PERNOI is that method applied to housing: a pilot project that takes microliving out of theory and into a real building, one stop from Milan. A disused building that comes back to live in the city.
The architect
He lived in 9 m².
Now he designs the 22 you will live in.
Leonardo Di Chiara
Architect and engineer · among Italy's leading experts on microliving
To interpret the concept, Designtech chose Leonardo Di Chiara as project architect. An architect and researcher, he is internationally recognised for his work on microliving, space optimisation and new forms of urban living. In 2017 he designed and built aVOID, the first mobile tiny house made entirely in Italy: 9 m² containing every function of a home, exhibited in museums and trade fairs across Europe.
Living in 9 m² was the radical experiment; designing PERNOI's 22 means bringing its lessons into a real home: furniture that opens and folds away, high-level storage, spaces that change function through the day. The result feels like many more square metres.
2016board member of the Tinyhouse University, Berlin
9 m²aVOID, the first mobile tiny house built in Italy
- 2017aVOIDA 9 m² tiny house on wheels, designed and built in Pesaro: a single empty room where the furniture comes out of the walls.
- 2017–2018Bauhaus Campus, BerlinWith the Tinyhouse University, where he is a board member, he lived in aVOID in the garden of the Bauhaus-Archiv for the exhibition on a temporary tiny-house neighbourhood.
- 2017Berlin PrizeAward from the Italian Ministry of Culture and Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the Italian Cultural Institute and AEDES Berlin; guest architect at GRAFT Architekten.
- TourPinakothek der Moderne, MAXXI, Milano Design WeekInvited by design institutions in Munich, Rome, Milan and Zurich (ZHdK) to talk about micro-living.
- EducationUniversity of BolognaDegree with honours in Architecture and Building Engineering, specialising in the reuse of existing buildings. Registered with the Pesaro-Urbino professional bodies.
PRNOI
The city, for us too.
Eight units. Move now and you choose yours.
PERNOI is the first microliving pilot project in Pero. Leave us your details: we will walk you through the project and the units still available.
PERNOI · Via Sempione 156–158 · Pero, MilanAn initiative promoted by Designtech S.r.l. Società Benefit