ZURICH HEADQUARTERS

DETAILS

Name: Mac 9-Zurich Insurance Company Italian Headquarters
Location: Milan, Italy
Years: 2006-2009
Typology: Office
Surface:
GBA: 9.500 sqm
Credits: Scandurra Studio,
BMS Progetti
Ariatta ingegneria dei sistemi
Client: Zurich

Finalist at the Fundació Mies van der Rohe Awards 2011 and the Gold Medal for Italian Architecture 2012, the new Zurich Italia headquarters is part of the masterplan for the former Carlo Erba area, which was once confined within a closed block and used exclusively for industrial production. The opportunity to physically open this enclosed perimeter and integrate it with the city’s fabric influenced every design decision regarding the building. The entire development is conceived as permeable and an integral part of the park; the public and internal areas are designed as spaces of passage rather than mere points of arrival, where community space blends with the private realm. The geodesic structure is a single curved surface that covers the void created by subtracting volume from the building. Its profile is a non-form, a crystallization of emptiness with an eccentric effect. The structure spans a large area without the need for pillars, extending the façade: the transparency of the glass and its reflections rise from the façade to the cladding. A primary framework generates the main curve, while a secondary grid connects to the cladding, elevations, and façade.

The base is conceived as part of the landscape, fluidly crossing the volumes above it, linking the different levels of the existing structures and integrating the spaces for the archive and the functions closest to the street in a complex system of paths leading to the large central void, a garden with tall trees overlooked by the inner courtyard.

A gigantic system of columns directly supports the first floor, which consists of the raised square, a large terrace overlooking the garden. This is where the company’s communal functions are located, and where the circulation routes to the main and secondary office cores converge. The volumes that house the offices are designed to optimise the proportion of distributed space in relation to the usable area.