Flexibility, modularity and digitization

Years before the pandemic, in 2017, Michelangelo Vallicelli’s doctoral thesis, entitled “La Città senza Uffici” [The Office-Free City] explored processes associated with the digitization of work and its consequences on the city’s urban and architectural fabric.

Vallicelli’s research inspired his office design for the new headquarters of Maticmind, a leading Italian company in the ICT System Integration field. To cater to its recent headcount growth, the company initiated a scheme to expand its headquarters in 2021, identifying two floors at the Maciachini Center office complex in Milan as a suitable facility for new workspaces to house all of its employees.

Architect Michelangelo Vallicelli totally redesigned the 1,650-sq. m fifth floor with an operational vocation, hosting employee workplaces, and repurposed the ground floor for the company’s Experience Center, an area dedicated to sales, a showroom and customer reception.

Flexibility, modularity and continuity were the core principles for the fifth-level design. Catering to employees’ diverse needs, the floor houses open space work zones, a Smart Area and groups of private offices. Offering workstations nearby socialization areas and meeting rooms, the Smart Area may easily be separated from common areas through a system of movable walls hung from the ceiling on a single track, which may be positioned and reconfigured to ensure and adjust levels of intimacy as the space requires.

Private offices are housed within transparent and opaque clusters. Transparent offices offer visual continuity with the Smart Area; the curved wall geometry reduces acoustic reverberation, ensuring good acoustic comfort throughout. The opaque clusters consist of private executive offices and groups of multiple offices.

The materials – lime, natural wood and anodized aluminum – and soft, warm finish colors recreate an informal and domestic mood, ensuring high quality-of-life standards within the workplace.

The ground floor is set aside for an Experience Center. Dedicated to welcoming customers, it showcases the company’s expertise in a single continuous space specially designed so that, from every point, visitors may see into the meeting and web conference rooms.

Meticulous attention was also paid to the relationship between the ground floor and the outside of the building, bringing the city closer to the firm and enlivening the interior.

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Maticmind Headquarters - © Lorenzo Poli, courtesy of Michelangelo Vallicelli

The ground-floor Experience Center was conceived to showcase the company’s expertise. Conveying audiovisual content on large monitors required a close focus on acoustic design using an intricate system of suspended ceilings.

Maticmind Headquarters - © Lorenzo Poli, courtesy of Michelangelo Vallicelli

The ground-floor Experience Center was conceived to showcase the company’s expertise. Conveying audiovisual content on large monitors required a close focus on acoustic design using an intricate system of suspended ceilings.

Maticmind Headquarters - © Lorenzo Poli, courtesy of Michelangelo Vallicelli

Maticmind Headquarters - © Lorenzo Poli, courtesy of Michelangelo Vallicelli

Maticmind Headquarters - © Lorenzo Poli, courtesy of Michelangelo Vallicelli

The concept of flexibility extends beyond the architecture to specially-designed furniture accessories that cater to the modular needs of the working environment.

Maticmind Headquarters - © Lorenzo Poli, courtesy of Michelangelo Vallicelli

Il design degli interni propone uno spazio lavorativo in cui tornare a vivere sentendosi a casa, in contrapposizione all’isolamento del cosiddetto home office: gli arredi e le texture sono studiati per creare un ambiente accogliente, che richiama il paesaggio domestico.

Maticmind Headquarters - © Lorenzo Poli, courtesy of Michelangelo Vallicelli

The only hubs that are “opaque” and separate from the open space are the managers’ offices and offices with multiple workstations clustered together.

Maticmind Headquarters - © Lorenzo Poli, courtesy of Michelangelo Vallicelli

To minimize the area devoted to meeting rooms, every individual management office is equipped with a reserved area for web conferencing that encourages smart working.

Maticmind Headquarters - © Lorenzo Poli, courtesy of Michelangelo Vallicelli

Maticmind Headquarters - © Lorenzo Poli, courtesy of Michelangelo Vallicelli

The design approach to this flexible space was collaborative: rather than separating operational blocks and offices, many of the functions are integrated into closed, transparent hubs inside each open space.

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