Architect Nicola Martinoli designed a 4.25x3.85m module made of steel tubes, which allows for countless configurations for the building, creating modules for single offices, double offices, a meeting room, service functions such as changing rooms, bathrooms and a dining room, a two-storey warehouse and an archive.
This modular system is also reflected in the façade, which features glazed modules with a curtain wall system, and blind modules made of trapezoidal metal sheet painted grey. The materials used respond to the needs of flexibility and rapid execution, as well as adopting an industrial and mechanical aesthetic language that reflects the company's concept.
Offices for a metal carpentry company by Nicola Martinoli. Photograph by Filippo Poli.
Descripción del proyecto por Nicola Martinoli
The design of C.O.M.S. Metal Carpentry's new office building stemmed from a specific request from the client: to conceive a modular, repeatable and flexible all-steel construction system. This system had to be simple to design, quick to produce and extremely versatile depending on the functions it was to fulfill.
For these reasons, a 4.25x3.85m module made of 300x300x10mm steel tubulars was designed, which, repeated and assembled n times in the three spatial directions could accommodate any function within it.
The building that houses the new office building is a kind of catalog and showcase of the countless configurations that this building system can allow for: there are in fact modules for single offices, for double offices, for a meeting room, for service functions such as locker rooms, bathrooms and canteen, for a two-story warehouse and for an archive. The module was even used to create, three dimensionally and full-scale, the company's logo, which will be prominently displayed on the main façade, clearly visible to the many persons who drive daily along the route SS42.
The concept of modularity is also found on the façade where fully glazed and fully blind modules alternate. The glazed parts were made with a mullion and transom curtain wall system, with the inclusion of some opening modules corresponding to the entrance to the administrative offices and the entrance to the workers' locker rooms.
The blind modules were made with a dry curtain walling system using high-performance energy-efficient materials.
The outer cladding of these modules is made of an anthracite gray painted metal trapezoidal sheet with a 28-mm corrugation. In each module, 3 sheets of trapezoidal metal sheet precut to size were laid to minimize production waste and allow installers to optimize assembly time.
This material was chosen in keeping with the original philosophy of the concept to meet the needs for flexibility, modularity and speed of installation that this project required. Also, from an aesthetic point of view, this solution responded perfectly to the conceptual language of this building: in fact, it gives an “industrial” and “mechanical” look to the blind modules, but at the same time, thanks to the light ribbing laid vertically, it guarantees vibration and lightness to the partitions.
