16/08/2016 – Microsoft Italy has chosen DEGW for the new office in the center of Milan , which opened in February 2017 in a building designed by Herzog & de Meuron for the Feltrinelli Group in the Porta Volta area. DEGW worked on creating spaces shaped by flexibility and aligned with Microsoft’s values: openness, transparency, flexibility, energy, dynamism and innovation. Alexander Adam, Partner at L22 and Director of DEGW, described the collaboration with Microsoft with great enthusiasm. For DEGW, the project continued a path of innovation and technology that began in Italy in 1985 with IBM. The studio designs new ways of living in the office, creating work environments based on mobility, informality and sharing. In this case, however, the term workplace is an understatement: Microsoft’s headquarters is also a place of encounter and exchange between employees, customers and partners, where the virtual and the real meet. Designed by DEGW, Microsoft is not simply an office, but a dynamic, transparent environment, visible and open to the city. Cristiana Boienti, senior architect at DEGW, explained that the space is designed to be versatile, comfortable, informal and varied, with natural colors, accent lighting and unique custom furniture. The design focuses on the human dimension, creating a better, smarter and more flexible work environment. To create harmony between the interiors and Herzog & de Meuron’s architecture, DEGW began with the building itself. Its long, narrow form and parallel roof profile recall Lombard Gothic architecture, with the top floor reaching three times the height. The building was designed in relation to the historic Porta Tenaglia, on the boundary between the old city and the new Garibaldi business district, along the route of the former Spanish walls. DEGW’s simple, innovative and user-friendly concept connects Milan’s historic heritage with Microsoft’s technological innovation.
Smart work
The project is part of a path Microsoft has followed for 10 years under the idea of a “New World of Work.” This approach responds to the changing dynamics of professional life by giving employees greater flexibility through smart work, innovative room use and technologies designed to maximize productivity and collaboration. Well-being and the reconciliation of professional and private needs are central to the way time and work patterns are managed, and flexibility becomes an important tool for achieving objectives. In this process, Microsoft worked with DEGW to create interior spaces able to represent the company’s values and adapt them to new ways of meeting and working in a pleasant, efficient environment.
Interior Design
DEGW designed 7,500 square meters of Microsoft office space with an open, fluid organization. Work areas are arranged as open spaces without dedicated desks, so each person moves through the space according to the activities being carried out. Meeting and community rooms are designed to support communication between teammates. The workplace concept developed by DEGW brings together Milan’s historic culture and Microsoft’s technological approach, creating a dialogue between past and future. This idea appears in the spatial and interior design, created ad hoc by DEGW to feel increasingly like a home environment rather than a conventional working day. Italian design taste is given high priority, creating a warm and friendly atmosphere with natural materials such as wood. Wooden structural elements integrated into the rooms recall terraces, the typical Italian spaces where the garden enters the interior. On the ground floor, natural elements such as plants and flowers are placed at the entrance. On the work floors, open-space stations differ in form and aesthetics according to function, collaboration zones and more focused areas, avoiding monotony and stimulating creativity. Another essential element is the social hub, tailor-made around three themes: sport, nature and the city. The idea was to create rooms, finishes and custom furniture suited to each theme.
Innovation
Technology allows more flexible working models by making it possible to work anywhere and at any time. DEGW considers it especially important that this phenomenon is expressed in the very place where innovation is developed. Technology is therefore integrated in detail with the building management system to create an innovative, technologically advanced environment. The project is a true showcase for Microsoft’s new home.
Source: Press office, Lombardini22 SpA
Anna Lohan
Peter Dark
