Milan

Located in Foro Bonoparte, one of Milan's most prestigious areas, adjacent to Castello Sforzesco and the Triennale design museum the buildings façade which dates from the mid 1800's has recently undergone an extensive restoration. Internally the architectural challenge has been to find away to improve the connection of a variety of articulated and historically referenced spaces (600sqm), and in particular the idea to integrate the brick vaulted basement (155 sqm) as part of the overall opportunity to use the showroom as a creative and interactive project space. This has been achieved by returning to the original main entrance position, eliminating the old elliptical staircase that accessed the mezzanine level and creating a new central reception point for all visitors. To link the three levels we have introduced a new design feature, a beautifully engineered staircase that exploits the original connection to the basement with a structure that is neatly recessed between the buildings massive masonry walls. Another important recovery has been to reinstate a double height space that was previously used for storage with its direct access to the buildings internal courtyard, creating a dedicated interactive meeting places that benefits from direct views to the near by castle.

The stair comprises a prefabricated steel construction system that braces the existing walls and whose central feature is a series of glass segments on to which the handrails are directly attached. The open stair treads are paved in grey lava stone whereas at the basement level the stair rises out of a basin of river stones.

The basement raised floor is TecCrete by Haworth. The concrete panels can be left exposed or covered with carpet or tiles.

With the overall intention to liberate as much space as possible and emphasize some of the original internal architecture we have created a unified and expressive range of spaces that become the background for the communication and presentation of Haworth's evolving corporate messages and product design qualities. Internal finishes have been kept to a basic palette of warm greys for the walls and resin flooring (TecCrete by Haworth), whereas a textured ceramic dark grey gallery wall has been installed to display seating products; dark grey for Interface carpeting on first floor and the natural concrete colour for the basement raised flooring.

We want to introduce a new spirit that moves beyond the traditional boundaries of office furniture display to one that is a "Great Spaces" in which customers, architects and designers, specialists and partners can be inspired to conceive and create intelligent, effective and expressive projects.

Design: Studio & Partners, Nic Bewick