DI TANNO HEADQUARTERS

Location_via Borgogna 8, Milan

Year_2024

Client_Studio Legale Tributario Di Tanno Associati

Area_700 sqm

Service_Preliminary and executive project, building site direction

A few steps away from Piazza San Babila, where via Borgogna intersects via Cerva, a beautiful building designed by architect Giuseppe Martinenghi in the 1930s, stands out with its white marble facade. Our project concerns the functional adaptation and customization of the entire fifth floor, chosen as Milan local office by Di Tanno Associati, a law and tax firm, whose headquarters are in Rome. In 2011, a renovation of the entire building by Asti Architetti left behind several elements of excellent quality, among which the windows in stainless steel by Secco Sistemi and the boiseries by Lualdi in elegant dark walnut veneer. These high-end architectural elements, having been used for just a few years, were saved and integrated into the new project, following an essential ecological need to reduce waste.

The previous tenant, the english law firm Bird&Bird, used several floors of the building, among with the fifth floor, had been set up as a purely operational area.
As a result, two problems had to be solved:
1_ The presence of only closed offices, served by rather claustrophobic blind central corridors;
2_ spatial narrowness at the elevator landing area, as the general reception was located on the attic floor.
The first problem, namely the lack of natural light, essential for the well-being of the occupants, was solved by demolishing blind walls and doors in favor of glass partitions at each perimetral end of the floor.
The second problem was more complex to solve, as a reinforced concrete structural pillar was located just over a meter from the doors of the two elevators, making complicate to create a good reception area.
Although frictions between as-built situation and performances to be guaranteed to a corporate client is a typical problem of many existing buildings, the impossibility of intervening on a structural element required disguising its cumbersome and unavoidable presence with a diaphragm of satin stainless steel slats. The high rate of reflection generated, in addition to the brightness mirrored into the corridor, generates a multiplicity of reflections that dissolves the pre-existing walls encumbrances. Like a colonnade, the diaphragm accentuates the centrality of the reception area, giving a hierarchy to the entire layout.

Deep black, silky grey, watery blue. The three face expressions, assumed by iron, as the light varies. A material, which is never the same, but varies depending on our point of view.

Stainless steel, a kind of “bridging material” between the as-built and the new design, appears in other details of the office, such as the frames of the new glass partitions and the finishing of the sliding doors for a mini break area and the kitchen.
For the reception desk, a custom-made black steel artifact was tailor made. It extends across the entire length of the reception, also incorporating a small back office.
All the walls, which in the as-built state had a conventional white finish, were entirely repainted in light dove gray, so as to tie together, in a more refined and coordinated palette, the wood and steel.
In order to be able to have a mini auditorium when necessary, the two meeting rooms are divided by a soundproof foldable wall (Anaunia, PMI Maxi). To make it almost indistinguishable from the walls, it was painted in the same shade as the walls.
As with stainless steel, a material theme already present in the as-built was resumed, namely the dark wood veneer.
The large meeting table, the one in the lunch area and the screen holder totems were selected from those covered with extremely similar essences.
In order to provide privacy control for the new glass partitions, filtering mesh curtains were installed on a double track in two iridescent shades of gold and brown, a coloristic dialogue with the wooden surfaces.