CORPORATE INTERIORS – Design Wrapping

FROM THE EARLY 20TH CENTURY, BETWEEN NEW YORK AND CHICAGO, THE GREAT COMPANIES BUILT INNOVATIVE TOWERS SUCH AS THE CRYSLER BUILDING AND THE ROCKFELLER CENTER, IDENTIFYING THE ARCHITECTURE WITH THE COMPANY ITSELF.

The banking world itself, for centuries, has turned historical palaces, sumptuous furnishings and art collections a means of communicating its economic power.

Chrysler Building, William Van Allen. 1930

The idea of using architecture as a vehicle for corporate identity, has very distant (and successful!) roots.

Owning a "corporate building" or having headquarters in the most important historical centers, however, is not always within everyone's reach. Indeed, precisely because the majority could not afford them, the very idea of "corporate building" had almost disappeared for several decades.

A much more open and social approach such as "campuses" has conquered the main Silicon Valley start-ups, which under the aegis of Steve Jobs "stay hungry, stay foolish" aimed more at relationships than at hedonistic manifestations of their own ego: the concept of “understatement” was (and in part still is) synonymous with culture and savoir faire.

With the new millennium, this trend seems to change again and we are witnessing a return of corporate identity constructions, of large real estate, banking, financial and commercial groups, which are rediscovering architecture a confirmation and a manifesto of their value. From the Petronas Towers to China Central Television by Rem Koolhaas or the Unicredit tower in Milan, there are plenty of examples.

What has changed from the mode of the early 1900s?

That massive economic investments are no longer necessary, but a good ability to creatively decline company's values and products, with available spaces. With this first paper, we would like to dedicate some of our contents to several interesting case histories.

The first project we are presenting you today, was suggested to us by GR Group, a Milanese company (from Legnano, to be precise) that has been dealing with temporary and non-temporary installations for several decades: from large-format printing, which has characterized its beginnings, today is a 360 ° contractor with internal joinery and carpentry and a design team capable of following all phases of the project.

As we have told and explained several times (and we will never tire of doing it!), this idea of communicating with architecture certainly comes from advertising and retail. GR Group, which has always operated in this sector, has put itself to the test in an environmental communication project dedicated to a company that has been operating in the field of HW Ventilation air handling systems for thirty years. In a large industrial warehouse, the need arose to make a space that was basically just an operational space more welcoming and more communicative.

Welcome and engage the two watchwords.

Within a few days, an interior for interiors, a sort of glazed box, became the meeting room and all kinds of fans, which previously were huddled together, waiting for the next fair, have become a sort of showcase, a museum scenography with a system of supports, studied ad hoc, which could also be easily moved and transported. Infographics, logos, corporate colors and informative captions have transformed a warehouse into a narrative and engaging space. The financial commitment was consistent, the lead time was record!

Certainly the multifaceted skills that characterize GR Group, Francesca Di Mitri in particular is the architect who oversaw the design, have allowed to speed up all the creative, executive and realization processes, guaranteeing the customer maximum efficiency. Interior design, which here seems to take more inspiration from scenography than from architecture, finds in creativity a valid alternative to the availability of expenditure.

If the interior design is the result of the dialogue between client and designer in which the first asks a question and the second formulates an answer, a note of merit also goes to the client, for having clearly posed the question: a good answer , you need a good question!