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Sumit Singhal
Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination. Microsoft Milan in Italy by Flores Prats ArquitectosFebruary 28th, 2013 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: Flores Prats Arquitectos In 2007 Microsoft Italia chose to establish its headquarters in a rural landscape characterized by the seasonally shifting pattern of agricultural production. The proposal focused on the condition of agricultural fringe, an opportunity to create a transition; to create a meeting point between two technologies, working the fields and working with computers. These two realms of technology develop in parallel, with neither prevailing over the other.  Image Courtesy Flores Prats Arquitectos
 Image Courtesy © Enzo Barraco The project is located in the flat terrain of the Padana plains out ofMilan, characterized by their broad horizons, patterned fields, tree rows, canals and spring-fed irrigation channels. The new Microsoft Italia campus is enclosed in a chamber created by extended tree rows that flow in from the landscape.  Image Courtesy © Enzo Barraco The design proposal implies a stitching together of the two fabrics, the purity of the architectural volumes with the broad landscape. The proposal responds to both the clients need for a new entrance to the building and also to the broader agricultural landscape. The lines in the project are connected to the lines of the cultivated fields, their rhythm is natural and develops in the same way as the natural landscape.  Image Courtesy © Filippo Romano The project drags the agricultural landscape in and around the buildings of the campus, it moves in a field that is both ambiguous and clearly defined at the same time. The furrows of the landscape approach the built form and then rise up in all their power, suspended over the walk way. They then stretch out and envelop the volumes of the building by climbing up the glass facades.  Image Courtesy © Enzo Barraco People entering and leaving the building are sheltered by a series of pergolas: “shade pergolas” composed of metal lines and parallel tubes at different heights and then one single “rain pergola” made of glass and metal, running at a lower height. The origin of the structure is not clear, does it rise out of the trees or from the building facade? The expanse of the brise-soleil, which detach from the vertical plane to a horizontal one, invite you out from the walkway onto the campus.  Image Courtesy © Filippo Romano Aeration and illumination cones from the underground parking punctuate this intermediate landscape. Similarly to the furrows of the fields, pathways carve through this intermediate space to create places for work and play. The new green volumes of the day-care centre, for 60 children, project themselves against the stand of trees announcing the Gambarone spring, acting as another connection to the irregular landscape. The buildings enclose a courtyard for the children, similar to a fragment of a field defined by endless tree rows.  Image Courtesy © Filippo Romano The swath between the offices and the fields is now a hive of activity, which permeates out into the landscape, the two landscapes share and cohabitate the swath. When under the transitional space of the pergola, we will ask ourselves once again: to which world does it belong? The shadows of the metal lines, like the ploughed fields in winter, are where different situations come into being, where the important thing is to design a dialogue.  Image Courtesy © Filippo Romano  Image Courtesy © Filippo Romano  Image Courtesy © Filippo Romano  Image Courtesy Flores Prats Arquitectos  Image Courtesy Flores Prats Arquitectos  Image Courtesy © Filippo Abrami  Image Courtesy © Enzo Barraco  Image Courtesy © Enzo Barraco  Image Courtesy © Enzo Barraco  Image Courtesy Flores Prats Arquitectos  Image Courtesy Flores Prats Arquitectos  Image Courtesy Flores Prats Arquitectos  Image Courtesy Flores Prats Arquitectos  Image Courtesy Flores Prats Arquitectos
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