Together with Generali Real Estate and Mondadori Group, CRA renews the offices within its Oscar Niemeyer’s Palazzo Mondadori into a dynamic Playground Workspace in Italy. The renovation brief was to provide a much-needed fully reconfigurable working environment by using modern furniture merged with innovative design. It was led by CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, collaborating with the late Italo Rota and Maestro Technologies for the Milan-based building?one of Niemeyer’s masterpieces and seat for Mondadori Group, Italy’s biggest book publisher.
© Daniel Shearing
The design retains Niemeyer’s original vision but incorporates progressive workplace strategies. It initially encompassed over 20,000 square meters and marked the first phase of a more extensive renovation program for this iconic European landmark. More than 1,300 units from the building’s original modular furniture by Swiss manufacturer USM were refurbished by CRA, in collaboration with Maestro Technology, to include wood and add modules to be reconfigured to provide spaces for plants, thus allowing nature into the office environment.
“Leaving behind our pajama comfort zone of Zoom calls, the office will have to be more like a playground,” opines Carlo Ratti, founding partner of CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati. “Ditch the old cubicle-compartmentalized thinking that gets in the way of innovation and encounters. Exchanges in physical space are essential and exploit an ever-confi...