Description

For their new company headquarters, Prada decided to work with the architect Guido Canali from Parma, who had already built production facilities for shoes at the same site in 2001 as well as in nearby Montegranaro. Canali sees himself as an architect with a clear-cut approach based on clear and legible structural simplicity and maximum transparency. His office was also responsible for the landscape design, which over the course of the 15-year-long design and construction phase became an integral part of the overall concept.

The company headquarters near Arezzo directly adjoin the motorway and the river Arno. The ground floor is visible as a long, vine-covered wall that extends on supports over a water basin, allowing the building to open a little to the motorway. The two entrances are located at either ends of the wall. Behind it are the technical services, then, parallel to the wall, a narrow internal street and the enormous halls for production and development.

The basic concept of the building is based on two stacked levels of halls rotated at 45 degrees to each other. This shift in the orientation of the upper hall, to which the office wing and company restaurant are connected, gives the shed roofs their north-south orientation, achieves a better connection to the hill to the north and forms three striking building corners next to the motorway, which appear to float above the wall presenting the Prada logo to passing traffic. The upper hall is subdivided into four sections, two larger and two smaller, and can therefore be used flexibly. Between these sections are “ribbons” with sanitary facilities and storage spaces. Outside the hall, they continue as bridge-like tubular steel constructions that at their north ends contain walkways and stairs to the car park at the rear of the site. At their south ends, these walkways extend out above the outer wall ending in a series of lookouts overlooking the motorway.

From the upper shed roof hall, the views through the huge glass surfaces into the surrounding greenery are especially impressive. The roof terraces with their dense vegetation have been carefully laid out with fig trees and rare plants and likewise present a stunning view of the chain of hills in the distance.

Originally published in Bauwelt 13.2016, pp. 24-31, abridged and edited for Building Types online, translated by Julian Reisenberger

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