ADH & Associati offices

Bergamo, Italy

This refurbishment project has transformed an old building in downtown Bergamo into modern and spacious offices comprising an area of 500 m2 distributed over two levels.

Within the limits posed by the regulatory instruments, the ample floor height and the conformation of the building allowed for a realisation of a mezzanine, thus making the most of the floor area for the operative spaces and adding value to representational and executive management spaces through the given floor height and the variation of scale of the architectonic elements.

The clients posed no conditions regarding the architecture; they simply exposed the general brief expressing the desire for a comfortable work environment to be produced, and that a severe aesthetic be expressed, persuasive of the reliability and the professionalism of the firm. They also realise that the quality of the workspaces will assume, on par with the economic incentives and competitiveness, an ever increasing role in the strategies of personnel management.

Although the project content was predominantly technical, given that a complex functional brief had to be satisfied and that the building services component was of notable importance, from the very beginning the architectonic aspects of this design proposal assumed the primary theme throughout all phases of design and its realisation. 

The use of noble materials such as stone and timber, generous day lighting and a discreet employment of artificial light contributed to characterising the interior spaces.

The entry area is lined with cherry wood to the height of 5.2 m; once beyond the octagonal reception desk in iron, an enormous red doorway leads to the meeting hall, also lined in cherry wood. From here an operable glazed wall opens to a terracotta-paved patio featuring a centrally located large Zandobbio marble table for open-air meetings.

Long corridors lead from the entry to the operative ground level spaces while two symmetrical lateral stairs lead to the upper level where balconies, daylit by tall windows in a delicate balance of light and shadow, lead to the executive offices.

This is an ample and bright space, open and sober. The natural light filters through the numerous paired lancet windows in the perimeter walls and from the outside it is possible to vaguely perceive what takes place inside.

At night the light coming from the inside gives the building an evocative image and allows for the movement of the people at work to be clearly visible.

Project and work supervision

Massimiliano Gamba

Chronology

Project: 1999

Construction: 2000