studiometrico

Are we going commercial? Could be… Matter-of-factly last autumn we have started to work on this very pragmatic project for the transformation of a 2.000 sqm industrial building into offices to be let out next year on the Milanese market.

To transform the existing building and to optimise the usable surface, all the existing structures of the courtyard will been demolished. The Main building (Block A) will be preserved and completely refurbished while a new smaller building (Block B) will be built from scratch. Block A sits on the corner of two urban streets and is characterised by a pitched roof and a regular clean facade. Block B stands on pilotis to enable car parking, has a flat green roof and will only be visible from the inner courtyard.

To comply with the planning regulations, the overall volume of Block A will not been modified. A new mezzanine will be inserted above the top floor and suspended from a the new steel structure of the roof to exploit usable floor surface. To provide access and light to each office a new external corridor with a steel mesh and a suspended fire staircase will be added.

The project will employ mostly prefab elements and reasonably cheap materials, Block B bearing structure as well as Block A corridors and staircase structures will be in steel. The new facades of both buildings will be clad with prefab sandwich insulating panels with metallic outer layer.

The fact that we don’t know our final users (the offices will be let out after the refurbishment) determined the overall ‘mood’ of the interior office spaces. Colours have been basically avoided, bearing structures, partition walls and floor finishing have been deliberately distinguished and characterised with different (mostly black and white…) materials.

After some months of work the planning application has been submitted to the municipality and the few contractors invited to tender. The project should go on site after the summer, the refurbishment is supposed to be concluded before summer 2010.

Design Team:

Lorenzo Bini
Claudia Brunelli
Roberta Rizzi

Design Consultant:

Gennaro Postiglione

Structures:

Marco Clozza (Atelier LC)

Tags: Industrial building, Milan, Office, Refurbishment

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 30th, 2009 at 11:53 pm and is filed under Interior, Outdoor, Projects.