- Area: 950 m²
- Year: 2010
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Photographs:Francesco Jodice
In the Chinatown of Milan, Effetti Digitali Italiani (EDI), category leader in the sector of post production for cinema and television, has opened its new headquarters in a converted a 50's factory. The light filters through a roof with beautiful vaulted sheds more than 7 meters high. Once full of metal work machinery, the space today is made of three navels, each thirty five meters long. The project focused on maintaining the original industrial nature of the space.
Shaped like a large white box, the project is perforated by three new courtyards to enable the light to enter into the area without windows. Once it moulded iron, today it processes bites that flow through the visible wires from the tech room to each work stations. The operative part is a large high ceilinged open space where big round table with 10 work stations are connected to one another with a system that provide them with data and electric energy, the raw materials for the production of virtual images.
The mechanical and electrical elements are neither hidden nor emphasized in any way; they just appear where they are of use since this is above all a place of production. Then there are the boxes; here a steel roulette constitutes the small cinema in which clients can watch the post productions. A large green container contains the tech room, the operating heart of the system.
The computers are dismantled, modified and repaired in a box cladded in perforated metal sheet which allows the light to filter though the wholes, resembling a very large lamp. Other boxes are designated for clients; one is made of yellow wooden boards, another of dark iron slates. These boxes are connected by a suspended 25 meter boardwalk which hangs onto the ceiling, accessible via three staircases; these create a pathway which looks over the work stations and connects the meeting rooms in the main space to the entrance.
