To describe the development of our project ZUM, we are very happy to publish a new set of pictures that Francesca Pozzi has been shooting for us on site in the last months.

Design Team:

Lorenzo Bini
Claudia Brunelli

Design Consultant:

Gennaro Postiglione

Structures:

Marco Clozza (Atelier LC)

previous posts about this project:

ZUM – 1

ZUM – 2

Last June we published a first post about this project for the transformation of an industrial building into offices to rent in Milan. Then we have been silent… but not idle.

Last fall we have been busy with the tender, in October Cometal S.p.A. has been appointed by the client as the main contractor and  in December the project eventually went on site! We are now able to publish some pictures showing the result of the main demolition phase and we hope to keep on posting as the works progress through the whole year.

Design Team:

Lorenzo Bini
Claudia Brunelli

Design Consultant:

Gennaro Postiglione

Structures:

Marco Clozza (Atelier LC)

previous posts about this project:

ZUM – 1

In December 2007 an Italian art dealer decided to expand his business in the prosperous land of Albion. He found the right location in the heart of London, and made a deal with an Irish man who owned the property. He then appointed us to develop a project to transform the 250 sqm building into a new contemporary art gallery. Then came The Crisis…

Click on the image to view the building as found

The existing building was organized on four floors (basement, ground, first, second and third) and divided in two blocks: the main one facing the street, and the rear one toward a courtyard surrounded by other houses. The split levels of the two parts of the building were connected by a steep staircase placed in the middle and inside the perimeter of the main block.

Situation plan (click to open, then right-click to zoom)

To make the building adapt to its future use, we needed more generous and regular rooms. To achieve a more flexible and open space – that was considered necessary to display art works – we proposed to demolish the existing staircase and to use the rear block to build a new and more relaxed one that could serve fewer, but bigger, rooms placed in the front.

Part of the brief was also to add a new storey to the building according to a planning permission that had been previously submitted and accepted by the authorities. This expansion of the building could enable the building to host a new office for the landlord as well. The art gallery would then occupy basement, ground, first and second floor while the office would use third and fourth floor.

The combination of these two activities within the same building provoked a logistic problem and an architectural challenge for us. The available space was limited, therefore the two functions could only be served by an unique circulation system. The two activities were not related, therefore the staircase, the corridors and the lobbies had to be treated as a common space and the thresholds to the ‘private’ areas had to be secure and controlled.

For these reasons our design proposal was organised around the new circulation system that, despite the reduced dimensions of the building, was conceived as an articulated sequence of corridors, lobbies, ramps and flights of stairs constantly switching angles: a winding pathway that vertically connected the different floors and horizontally separated the enclosed rooms assigned to the two different activities.

Plan 00-02 (click to open, then right-click to zoom)

A long corridor was necessary to reach the staircase from the entrance of the building on the ground floor, and even if this element reduced the width of the main exhibition room on the street side, we achieved a sequence of relatively generous rooms – both on this and on the other levels – that could be used as small exhibition spaces and that presented always different proportions and heights.

Plan 03-04 (click to open, then right-click to zoom)

On the second floor the ‘public’ staircase reached a lobby that gave access to the top floor of the gallery and, through a small corridor, to the last rotated flight of stairs leading up to the third floor occupied by the office of the landlord. The fourth floor was conceived as a mezzanine facing the lower level and the street in front of the building.

Section a-a (click above the image to open)

Section b-b (click above the image to open)

Section c-c (click above the image to open)

The different parts of the building have been treated, in our proposal, with different materials and details. The exhibition rooms of the gallery had been conceived as neutral and clean environment, while the ‘common spaces’ and the more private rooms -both of the gallery and the office – have been characterized with the use of warmer, domestic finishings.

The entrance from the street

The entrance from the street

Gallery – ground floor

Gallery – ground floor

Gallery – first floor

Gallery – second floor

Gallery – second floor

Office – third and fourth floors

Since we have presented our first design proposal – which consists in the materials showed here – the development of this project has been long, complicated and contorted. The goals that our client (the Italian art dealer) and ourselves were sharing with great enthusiasm have been made impossible by the way the Landlord had carried on the operation. The British local architects – that we had involved – acted in a very ambiguous and ungrateful way and even now – that this project is ‘dead’ – they are trying to promote themselves with the feathers they have been stealing…

It might also be because the so-called ‘economical crisis’ that this very good opportunity to work in England has vanished.  Anyway we consider this project another fundamental bit of ‘good experience’, and we are very happy to disclose – as we always do – the outcome of our work.

Design Team:

Lorenzo Bini
Francesca Murialdo
Valentina Cocco

Note: the works of Maurizio Cattelan, Simone Berti, Yan Pei Ming, Elmgreen & Dragset, Sam Samore, Rudolf Stingel, Steven Parrino, Gelitin and others that are featured in our photo-montages have nothing to do with the real facts but have been captured on the web and used just because we sincerely admire them.

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.

Overall Plan

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.

First floor plan (click to enlarge, then right click to zoom)

Second floor plan (click to enlarge, then right click to zoom)

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.

Sections (click to enlarge, then right click to zoom)

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.

View of the courtyard (click to enlarge)

Block A - corridors (click to enlarge)

Block A - office (click to enlarge)

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.

Block A - office (click to enlarge)

Block A - office (click to enlarge)

Block B - office (click to enlarge)

Block B - office (click to enlarge)

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.

Block A - existing situation

Block A - existing situation

Block A - existing situation

Block A - existing situation

Block A - existing situation

The courtyard - existing situation

Design Team:

Lorenzo Bini
Claudia Brunelli
Roberta Rizzi

Design Consultant:

Gennaro Postiglione

Structures:

Marco Clozza (Atelier LC)

During the site works of the house with garden and caves, studiometrico was asked to think of possible ways of re-using the ruins of a small existing building that layed adjacent to the main house. The initial task was to insert a very small room for guests without completely filling the hollow volume. Some empty space should have been preserved to bring natural light into the caves below the house turning the ruins of the building into a patio. An early design proposal featured a hanging two storey prefab living unit of 2 by 4 meters. Although this seemed like a convincing solution and an exciting design challenge, a new discovery completely changed the project: another ‘secret’ room was found on the opposite side of the ‘patio’. After long negotiations the small room was purchased by the owner of the house for the given purpose…

Overall plan of the new scheme with the house on the right, the patio in the middle, and the newly discovered room on the left.

In the new design proposal the patio is kept almost untouched: a linear staircase leads up to the guest room which expands and overlook into the the patio through a 3-dimensional light-constructed window. The 12 sqm room has also an independent entrance on the opposite side and is conceived as an essential and compact piece of furniture with a bed, a desk, a cupboard and a small toilet. Two small existing windows look toward the panorama, the existing pitched roof profile is mantained. Although this is an extremely  small project, for the difficult accessibility to the site, for the poor conditions of the existing buildings and for the dangerous position just above unfriendly and steep cliffs, the transformation is going to be quite slow and adventurous. Site works should start next spring, and we’ll keep on posting…

Section through the guest room and the patio

Plan of the guest room and the patio

View from the patio toward the 3-dimensional window

The interior views of the guest room

See previous posts about this project:

House with garden and caves

House with garden and caves – 2

House with garden and caves – 3

Only 48 hours after the successful ONLYWOOD (the COMVERT Headquarter Grand Opening Party) we went back to Casacomvert for the first skate-session after the completion of the Bastard Bowl, the first skateable spaceship ever landed on earth. It was not surprising to find out that there was a martian skating upthere!

Here few amatorial pics we shoot of Daniel Cardone:

Find out more about this project here.

A year ago we had the great opportunity to be introduced to a famous painter. He needed help to transform an old industrial space into his new, equipped, atelier. We took the task very seriously: we flew over to visit the building and receive his brief, we set up a deadline and we even started a language course to facilitate the communication with our new ‘potential’ client.
We worked intensively and we presented a consistent design proposal with architectural drawings, diagrams, collages and a 1:50 scale model.
After a neverending wait for a longed-for phone call that has never arrived, we have now decided that this is another lost project.
This painful achievement enables us to publish, after more than a year, the outcome of our work.
Places, names and details about this project are deliberately omitted in order to preserve the privacy of our ‘missed’ client…

Architectural drawings

The design proposal was first described through a set of architectural drawings in 1:200 scale featuring the new elements inserted and organised into the existing space. Each element hosts one or more functions as requested by the client’s brief.

Lower level plan

Upper level plan

Longitudinal sections

Cross sections

Collages

The new elements were conceived as small buildings and the existing industrial environment was treated as an architectural landscape. The atmosphere and the character of the transformed space were depicted and communicated in a number of collages. Some collages were manipulations based on the actual photographs of the building…

the canvas archive

toward the entrance of the atelier

toward the canvas archive

… while other images, based on a simple digital 3d model, were completely ‘artificial’ and much more abstract, but still very useful to describe more precisely the space inside, outside, above and around the new constructed elements of our project.

the mezzanine above the canvas archive

inside the suspended atelier for watercolors

interior view of the kitchen

the garden toward the artist’s office

the garden toward the kitchen

inside the artist’s office

toward the garden

Physical model

A 1:50 scale model has been built to allow ourselves to understand the proportions of the new inserted elements and their effects and implications on the natural light inside the building. The maquette has also proved to be very useful during the discussions with the client that followed the presentation of our design proposal.

Design team

Lorenzo Bini, Francesca Murialdo, Marco Di Nallo, Roberta Pezzulla, Dora Pugliese, Emanuela Ragazzoni

We are finally able to post an ‘almost’ complete set of pictures and drawings concerning a project that has kept us busy for more than one year: The new home of Comvert s.r.l, the italian clothing company that produces and distributes Bastard. Few years ago Comvert asked studiometrico to look for a location for its new headquarter in Milan; the place should have been large enough to host offices for 15-20 people, services, a big storage for their products and an indoor skatebowl for employees, team riders and friends. In spring 2005 we eventually found a Cinema theater from the 50′s that really suited Comvert needs and few months ago – after the conclusion of the refurbishment works – the company has moved into its new home: Casacomvert!

Conceptual diagrams

We have tried to establish few principles that could help us to deal with the existing space: the cinema theater designed by Ing. Mario Cavallé has been perceived as something to preserve, a valuable example in a city like Milan that has apparently forgotten how to produce ‘good architecture’. The following diagrams are a brief attempt to establish basic rules to add new layers within the existing environment without overwriting it, our 5 rules to avoid succumbing to architecture.

Ground floor plan

On the ground level plan – the former foyer of the cinema – constituted by a regular square room facing the street – will be turned into the first bastard flagship store. The ‘half-moon’ shaped space, flanked by two curved staircases leading to the upper balcony, has been transformed into offices for the administrative department. Through this joint element is possible to enter the space of the former pit, now occupied by the two storey metal structure of the storage. Few service spaces, toilets, kitchen, an archive, an enclosed office, and an access courtyard complete the ground floor layout.

Longitudinal section

This schematic longitudinal section shows in a sequence from left to right: the bastard store and the administrative department in the spaces of the former foyer, the creative department built on top of the balcony, the storage that occupies the area of the old pit and, on top of it, the skate bowl that is going to be built in the first one or two months of 2008.

Upper floor plan

The upper level plan shows the creative department built as a number of wooden platforms of different height on the existing balcony and the 144 sqm skate bowl that is going to be installed above the storage structure.

Constructive diagrams

The following Diagrams explain the constructive system of the platforms that constitute the office spaces of the creative department.

• Steel columns have been placed on the concrete bearing structure of the balcony
• Horizontal steel beams have been welded to the vertical columns
• Wooden beams and osb panels have been bolted on the horizontal beams
• 3-layered wooden panles have been placed to clad the platforms and to create furnished banisters.

Maquette of creative department

The office spaces above the existing balcony have been conceived and developed with a 1:50 scale cardboard maquette. The actual design, which is described by the previous diagrams, is eventually different from the one described by the maquette. The final version has been infact adjusted and re-organized on the existing structure of the balcony. The main reason is that the full comprehension of the bearing structure of the balcony was only possible as demolition works started.

Pictures of the buidling site

The following pictures are a selection of the ones we have been shooting during our visits to the building site. The first sequence of photographs focuses on the construction of the creative department platforms, which has been the most challenging and exciting part of the project.

The administrative department offices on the ground floor have been realized with same materials and similar constructive principle. On the slightly sloping marble floor of the foyer we have added another wooden platform that could leave the existing pavement untuched, provide a flat surface and host electrical installations.

Pictures of the ‘squatted’ headquarters

At the end of the summer Comvert has eventually managed to move in its new home! Nevertheless the project is not completely finished… The bastard store and the bastard bowl will come very soon and we are still working on a good deal of finishings, furnitures and details. We are therefore not really able (but then again, shall we ever be?..) to show jet those slick pictures that you often see on architecture magazines where everything is clean, neat and into place… Comvert staff was just too eager to take control of their new headquarters and… they did!

see also previous posts about this project:

Refurbishing a Cinema theater in Milan

Refurbishing a Cinema theater in Milan | 2

Refurbishing a Cinema theater in Milan | 3

Building Bastard Bowl