Corima produces equipment for the pharmaceutical industry and it has chosen, for its new headquarters and manufacturing plant, to bring together in a single site the management and technical offices (2,000 sq m) and the manufacturing facilities (3,000 sq m). The premises are in Monteriggioni, an artisan district in the hills around Siena. In Riccardo Butini’s design, the anonymity and standardisation that so much industrial and artisanal architecture falls prey to is thoroughly rejected as the structure interacts with the natural surrounds, especially through the choices of colours and materials. From the outside, the building is characterised by compact stone, a wall along which openings rise the height of the volume framing windows that offer tantalising glimpses, for passers-by, of the interior. The building is enclosed like a castle, creating a relationship with the walls around Monteriggioni. The choice of Santa Fiora stone for the ventilated exterior walls and the floors introduces colour variations that allude to the local land and building traditions. The building is laid out to create a partially paved triangular internal courtyard that forms the fulcrum off which lie the offices and corridors. The light for these areas comes from two bands of windows, with all the rooms having suitable internal shading. This glass courtyard is characterised by Secco Sistemi’s windows and door frames (Sistemacciaio model in corten steel). The minimal width of these frames reduces the size of the metal supporting structure, thus maximising the amount of light for the building. The same frames are used on the outer sides of the building for the vertical bands of windows, drawing on the brownish colour of the metal to pick up on the red earth of this territory and thus create another point of interaction with the landscape.
SECCO SISTEMI
Via Terraglio, 195
I - 31010 Preganziol (TV)
Tel. +39.0422 497700
Fax +39 0422 497705
E-mail: [email protected]
www.seccosistemi.it
