Construction has begun on “Welcome, feeling at work”, a biophilic office of the future in Milan, Italy. Designed by Kengo Kuma & Associates and commissioned by Europa Risorse, this venture seeks to create a workspace centered on employee health and wellbeing, integrated within its local environment. Imagined to be one of the most sustainable office development to date, the project is scheduled for 2024.
“The biophilic office of the future, where work and nature interact together in harmony, in an organic and horizontal architecture responding to the surrounding context”.
Located in the Parco Lambro, in the former abandoned industrial area of Rizzoli district, in Milan, “Welcome, feeling at work”, reinterprets the concept of work, combining individual wellness and green building solution. Anchored around a newly established public piazza, the building imagined by Kengo Kuma & Associates will become a catalyst to revive the entire area. Placing the community at the heart of the design, the project allows “the individual to access the most sophisticated technological and digital resources as well as effective measures to protect people from future pandemics”.
Milan is a city with exciting and unique combination of contemporary and tradition in art, architecture and crafts that makes the ideal ground for our work to be implemented. Our organic design approach and designing of wood can be achievable in high quality with Italian craft -- Kengo Kuma.
Scheduled for 2024, the mixed-use intervention will include offices, auditoriums, co-working premises, meeting rooms, as well as restaurants and lounges, shops, a supermarket, wellness area, and places for temporary exhibitions and displays, linked by a common green thread, running through the entire project. The green infrastructure comprises of the Piazza, packed with vegetation and surrounded by soft rolling hills; the open-air courtyards, dedicated to informal work and meetings; the Terraces, designed as extensions of the outside spaces; and the Greenhouses, special workplaces that can also be used for entertainment.
Biophilic architecture: living with, and in nature. Welcome, feeling at work, is designed with organic, natural elements that appeals to our senses and tendency to find comfort and inspiration to the natural settings. Architecture space fully integrated living plants and greenery, composed with organic materials. […] Biophilic urban living; give life back to the city. It is to be the New Gate, green architectural intervention reestablishing urban axis, enrich urban space quality, enhancing public activity of the area. -- Yuki Ikeguchi, partner in charge of designing the project for Kengo Kuma and Associates.
Accessible place, permeable from all directions, “Welcome, feeling at work” features zero carbon emissions, renewable energy resources, consumption control, salvaging of water, green areas and endemic species, etc. The system of energy generation for heating and cooling, along with the vital use of solar panels, will allow the building to reach maximum sustainability levels, in a project that pre-empts the future of workspaces in a post-Covid19 era. Targeting Platinum Well certifications with a Platinum Leed energy efficiency; the project aims to become one of the most advanced eco-friendly projects in Europe.
Connecting the various adjacent urban elements (the Rizzoli area) and landscape, the project seeks to redevelop an area currently classed as marginal. In terms of materials, the development combines concrete for the foundations and basement, steel and wood above ground, to generate natural and contemporary architecture.
Foster a creative and forward thinking work life. Natural elements in architecture; green, light, air, timber that appeal to human senses make a difference in workplace, living culture for better mental, physical states, creativity, and productivity. Sustainably is the future focus and social responsibility for any industries and enterprises. Welcome offers a model work environment that can promote the forward thinking firms in sustainability. -- Yuki Ikeguchi, partner in charge of designing the project for Kengo Kuma and Associates.
