The new headquarters, realized by Menon and designed together with Blugroup Architects, for Gruppo Sicura houses production, management, meeting rooms and training facilities all under one roof. The plans combine the requirements of interior layout and intercommunication with containment of energy consumption and a visual statement of modernity and reliability - two principles close to the company’s heart. The three functions have been kept spatially separate whilst allowing for smooth connections between the various areas. The ground floor is almost entirely devoted to production, except for a few meeting and training rooms, while the first and second floors house the whole managerial staff. A brightly lit “vertical” entrance-hall forms a functional hub, dividing and connecting the various sectors, and channelling the user visually as well as physically towards the meeting/training rooms on the one hand, and the first-floor “courtyard” onto which all group management cadres converge. In structure each floor is different. The ground floor is of pre-compressed reinforced concrete clad with pre-painted corrugated metal sandwich panelling. Rising above this is a structure in steel giving the whole operation a note of lightness and transparency. A metal grid on the outside of the façade made of tubular bars connected by invisible joints knits into the ground-floor cladding panels and also supports a brise-soleil system that enhances the geometrical regularity of the elevations. Metal components throughout the building were provided by Menon, the company from Possagno (Treviso) that specializes in metal pre-fabs for public/private buildings and industrial architecture. Thorough familiarity with metal and its properties enables Menon to lend its expertise to all technical and expressive uses the material can be put to. In this case the company liaised with the architects at all stages, from the drawing board, through the study of special aesthetic effects, to the practicalities of construction proper.
MenonVia Fornaci, 28
I - 31054 Possagno (TV)
Tel. +39 0423 920179
Fax +39 0423 544455
E-mail: infomenoncostruttori.it
www.menoncostruttori.it
