Ethics of transparency

Upbeat furnishing. A style that prefers to lighten rather than weigh down; a design philosophy that aims to find solutions, to better manage the space we live and work in, to realise the idea buzzing around the customer’s head without taking shape. This is Zenucchi’s modus operandi, which is unleashed in all its creations, always with great attention to detail, always conceived after careful analysis of the customer’s needs, tastes and personality: furnishing does not simply mean filling an empty box with high quality furniture, but giving a clear imprint, a decisive style, a coherence to the environment. In this case, Zenucchi’s work transformed the bare and impersonal area of an old market into the new headquarters of a high-level construction company, with offices, technical studios and meeting rooms to use for a new activity: pure and strictly functional forms typical of a working structure brought together to create a modern but not exacerbated style that combines elegance and rationality. The space, the real protagonist of each project, is the result of the different proportions and power relationships between furniture, volumes, empty areas, that are sometimes more important than any furnished area; it also contributes to the whole by the choice of materials, perhaps not many, but which are repeated, creating correspondences and movement like in the rooms of these offices.

Glass, crystal and metal are modulated and bound together by a warmer tone of beige, used for the resin of the floor and the monochromatic putty of the load-bearing walls and ceiling. The effect is the creation of a sense of calmness, a minimal sobriety that is replicated in the choice of furnishing. All the partition walls are made of glass to give the feeling of an open space; almost an open space that nevertheless allows a certain amount of privacy and blocks out the constant murmuring in spaces without subdivisions. Furthermore, every office is equipped with curtains that, thanks to an automatic mechanism, lower and transform the glass into a real wall that can ensure the privacy needed for more important business meetings. A “transparent” environment as a metaphor for the company’s own work ethic, which aims to establish open relationships with everyone, from customers to employees who, similarly to the distribution of this space, share a mission, but at the same time are separated by different roles and responsibilities. The decision to break through the walls in the ceiling, which fits into and embraces the glass walls, producing an effect of suspension and of lightness, increasing the sense of transparency. The rooms are never filled with objects, but there is a sophisticated and calibrated void, a balance between form and space, albeit scenic, like in the chairman’s office, characterised by designer furniture, made important by the Frau black leather desk, armchair and furniture. Not far away is a small meeting corner where Tecno’s Nomos crystal table stands out as a symbol of power and solidity, the iron floor contrasting with the delicacy of the crystal surfaces. Intense green in the areas reserved for plants, enclosed in a play of glass, that form the walls of the offices; small greenhouses that break up the uniformity of the colours and become visible from the different workstations that, at the same time, they help to separate. The reception area where visitors are welcomed is deliberately comfortable and cosy with two black Frau sofas and a round Minotti table on which magazines are displayed; a softer, less technical environment that, avoiding the typical aseptic waiting room, invites visitors to relax and make themselves comfortable. The alternation of light and dark tones in the waiting room continues in the choice of a black glass counter; a strong, elegant impact behind which there are two desks with IVM furniture and drawers; in the background there is a green area, beyond which the president’s office can be glimpsed. The lighting, which is not always recessed in the ceiling, impacts the surfaces indirectly, with spotlights that form bubbles on the floor and create shadows on the shiny surfaces, animating the glossy resin of the reception area. Two projectors hang from the ceiling in the entrance which, with a back-projection system, project photographs showing the company’s achievements and projects on the outside window of the headquarters: an innovative advertising initiative and a strong sign of a new presence for people visiting the offices for the first time. Also characterising the high-tech entrance is a glass floor corridor that provides indirect light to the lower floor and, especially at twilight, appears to become a watery surface, further enriching the harmonious lightness of the project.