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Entwurf • Design Balance Architettura, IT-Turin
Bauherr • Client Masini011, IT-Turin
Standort • Location Viale Sarca 336, IT-Milano
Nutzfläche • Floor space 6500 m 2
Fotos • Photos Philip Du Jardin, Beppe Giardino
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More info on page 142

BICOCCA SUPERLAB

IN MAILAND

Balance Archittetura has transformed a disused office
building formerly occupied by an industrial company that
was dissolved in 1992 into a contemporary co-working
building as a new anchor point for collaboration and
innovation. Particular attention was paid to revealing the
building’s original structural quality, which the planners
emphasized with a strikingly immaterial interior design.

B alance Architettura’s team had to carry out a general renovation to
make the old office building formerly occupied by the steel com-
pany Breda Siderurgica in the industrial district of Bicocca, which is
now home to a university and numerous companies, usable again. In
the immediate vicinity of companies such as Pirelli, Philips and Engie
Italia, the 100-metre-long structure had to be converted into a con-
temporary office building that would enrich the district with its rental
space for companies and individuals. As part of the construction pro-
cess, the architects exposed the iron structure and replaced the former
clinker-brick façade with a curtain-type glass façade whose supporting
structure consists of specially developed outer mullions made of recy-
clable silicone. This created a completely new building impression,
characterized by transparency and with its immaterial appearance,
which seeks to establish a relationship with its location and the daily
changing light conditions. This deliberate permeability is also part of
the interior design: instead of compartmentalized structures, the three
storeys above ground and the new, generously sized, double-height
subterranean ground floor were left open. The corresponding rede-
sign of the storeys and the furnishing of the foyer, the large conference
rooms and a community-creating café in the original basement provi-
ded approximately 1,600 square metres of additional office space and
a new building access. Users now enter the building from the central
axis – at ground level from the street via a flight of steps down and,
at the rear of the building, via a sloping green space at ground-floor
level. From here, the building is accessed via centrally located lifts and
two massive concrete stair towers, which divide the floor plan of each
storey into four almost equally sized office spaces. The load-bearing
structure, which changes colour from green to yellow to coral as you
move up the building, helps people find their way around. The rest of
the interior design is clearly subordinate to this, striving for a kind of
Grundriss Erdgeschoss Grundriss 1. Obergeschoss Grundriss Regelgeschoss urban understatement with neutral colours, reflective and translucent
Ground floor plan Floor plan level +1 Standard floor plan partition walls, acrylic elements and open-plan workspaces.

AIT 4.2025 • 077