Vodafone Village

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Italcementi, with the TX Active white cement, “puts his signature” on the outside claddings of the Vodafone Village office buildings designed by architects Rolando Gantès and Roberto Morisi, built in Milan in 2012.

Innovative design, urban redevelopment of an abandoned industrial area, quality workplaces, sustainable materials and technologies.

This is the Vodafone Village, an eco-technological complex built in Milan to house the 3,000 employees who work in Vodafone offices in northern Italy. Three tower blocks, standing 60, 55 and 42 meters high, together with an auditorium for a surface area totaling 67,000 m2: the complex structural design was handled by architects Rolando Gantes and Roberto Morisi from the PRP firm.

The interiors were designed by the Dante O. Benini & Partners Architects firm. “Borgo Lorenteggio”, as it has been named, resembles a medieval village with the buildings gathered around a super-elevated square, a meeting place for the social growth of the community. Research into the concept of a “modern borough” provided the inspiration for the architects as they modeled the facades with elements curving around the complex in a spiral structure, while the interior is dominated by the sheer transparent frontage on the communal square.

A distinctive feature is the cadenced rhythm of solid and space, where the spaces are spectacular, fully glazed sky-to-earth facades, and the solids echo the walls of an ancient borgo: forceful and compact, they nevertheless maintain a dialogue with the light, animated by the whiteness of their surfaces. Here, an essential element is the use of panels in white TX Active® cement, Italcementi’s patented photocatalytic product, whose active principle reacts with sunlight to keep the cement clean, helping to eliminate smog from the surface and preserve its white color.

An environmental as well as compositional and formal choice, TX Active® combines the high plastic quality of cement with the chromatic elegance of white, underpinning and enhancing the formal softness and fluidity of these buildings, which repeat the elliptical shape of their groundplan in the facades. Facades that interweave in a kaleidoscope of light and shadow.

The most important TX construction to date, an example of virtuous architecture and eco-compatible design, the Vodafone Village also features a “photovoltaic garden”, where the panels are an integral architectural element.

Solar energy is used to generate auxiliary power, while the 27,000 m2 of glazing illuminate the offices with full natural light and provide the specific energy-efficiency features to cut the energy requirement for air-conditioning in the summer.

DESCRIPTION SHEET – Vodafone Village
Client: Real Estate Center
Location: Lorenteggio-Corsico District, Milan, Italy
Architect: PRP architettura (Architects Rolando Gantes and Roberto Morisi)
via Fatebenefratelli 4, 20121 Milan, Italy
Site characteristics: Striking example of restoration of an abandoned industrial site and creation of modern and comfortable workplaces, efficient interiors, and sustainable building materials and construction technologies.
Program: office complex.
Site dimension: mq. 35,000
Total floor area: mq. 80,000
Volume: mc. 300,000
Parking: 1,000 underground car places
Construction system: The complex consists of three buildings, respectively 14, 11 and 9 floors for offices, connected by walkways and bridges, and a fourth 2-storey building intended for public spaces, such as a restaurant-bar, training room and conference room. Finally, a fifth single-storey building open on one side to the garden and on the other by bright windows to the “promenade” access, in which space are shops, a nursery and a fitness facility.
Materials: Innovative eco-friendly facade, alternating solid white volumes, built with photocatalytic TX Active® cement, with 27,000 sq.m. of transparent surfaces.
Project: 2006
Start of works: June 2008
End of works: 2012
Roberto Morisi & Roland Gantes PRP ARCHITETTURA studio Technical data IT Press release IT Inauguration at the presence of President Mario Monti

VODAFONE VILLAGE ON ARCVISION

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