Printing Workshop

date: 1992 – 1994
client: Nuove Grafiche Cola srl
object:  Printing Workshop in Lecco
size data: Surface 730 sq. m.
project stage: Preliminary, definitive, executive project and
works direction. Furniture project.

The programme dictated by the Client was the realization of a cost-efficient building in short times to express a brave and innovative entrepreneurial spirit.
Therefore, we made the choice for prefabricated components, individuating a composition kit with precise hierarchies.
The printing workshop and the staff services are located on the ground floor, while the upper floor – accessible through a wide winding staircase – is assigned to open-space environments, where the administration offices, the graphical design department and the customers’ reception are arranged. A set of inner terraces and a continuous glass surface are the elements setting up the dialogue between the industrial mission of the workshop and the more domestic one of the offices, which can be increased in case of future needs by extending the existing floors.
The roofing and the intermediate planking are supported by two approaching double prefabricated beams, which are aimed at creating a set of zenith sunlight blades and at the same time make up the plant organizing elements like a sort of rail that distributes the artificial energies in the building; the curtain walls are transparent on two opposed sides and opaque on the others.

The adopted construction solution allows having a time open system, which can be completed and modified according to the client’s needs. The inner balconies, which have an exhibition function at present, can be easily integrated in the working spaces of the offices, which can grow in their turn compared to the still free surface of the inner volume. Inside, beams and columns take on the task of describing the system members, while floors and panels curtain and close the volume horizontally and vertically. All that occurs according to precise “interfacing” rules both from the dimensional and construction point of view and the chromatic surface-grind one, thanks to assembly mechanics and hierarchies of immediate comprehension.
The strongly distinguishing element was the choice of primary colours that give the environments a personal mark and highlight their brightness: yellow for horizontal structures with the function of calibrating the chromatic spectrum of the zenith light and red for some vertical partitions.
The offices are arranged in total open space and, notwithstanding the not very sophisticated technological choices, the general feeling that is perceived visiting these environments is of an extreme simplicity, which is also reflected in the furniture, lively in the design and colour but sober, tuned in to the linearity of the architecture.