The new headquarters of Babel Industry has a markedly horizontal line and one geometrical motif linking the whole shell, window apertures and even the furnishing decorations inside. The building was designed by Massimo Mariani for an industrial estate at Empoli standing on the fringe of a largely agricultural area. With its two storeys above ground, plus one at basement level receiving light from ground excavation along the main front, the design of this building plays on interacting shape, light and colour. The oblong façade is of pierced prefabricated infill panels cut to measure, enclosed in a band of aluminium which is gouged into at intervals by entranceways and a terrace, and picking up the roof lining material which encases the whole building. The roofing system used was grey aluminium Riverclack® 55, extending over 1,500 sq m; hugging the building outline
and rounded at either end, it suggests a soft clinging contact with the ground. A mesh of horizontal blades in tone with the Riverclack® system hides the utility rooms at the end. The simple grey and white scheme of the façade and roof is repeated inside, broken up at points by coloured glass that filters coloured daylight indoors, while in the night-time hours they repay the service, gracing the landscape with the building’s polychrome outline which seems to float in the dark, illuminated from underneath by lighting shining up from the basement excavation.
IscomVia Belvedere, 78
I - 37026 Pescantina (VR)
Tel. +39 045 6889911
Fax +39 045 7732970
www.riverclack.com
