The restyling of the outdoor spaces and common areas of NMS Group’s headquarters in Nerviano
The restyling of the outdoor spaces and common areas of NMS Group’s headquarters in Nerviano. Building 75 — designed in 1993 by Dante O. Benini, the year he won the Compasso d’Oro — is brought up to date with a subtle red thread linking inside and out. The circular entrance vestibule disappears, replaced by a walkway and a semicircular stone fountain with a vertical waterfall; the cantilevered beam is clad in Corten and carries the new BUILDING 75 sign. Inside: wide glazing, double acoustic walls for the meeting rooms, geometric wallpapers for the representative areas and organic ones for the recreational areas.
The context. NMS needed to re-functionalise and modernise all the outdoor spaces and the common areas on the ground floor of Building 75, their headquarters, a building designed in 1993 by architect Dante O. Benini in the year he won the Compasso d’Oro.
The outdoor spaces. The main entrance, the principal focus of the design, stands out for its circular vestibule and a metal canopy, whose roof is articulated by a system of side-by-side vaults in polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) sheets. The terrace is covered with a raised flooring of marble composite.
The interior spaces. The area of intervention is on the ground floor of the building and involves the building’s two entrances, each fitted with entrance vestibules, and some representative spaces (Hall, Waiting Room, Meeting Room, Office, Storage, Snack Area) connected by the space dedicated to horizontal and vertical circulation. The current functional layout of building no. 75A, although equipped with reception and waiting rooms, requires a substantial restyling both for the elements linked to the spaces’ finishes and for the building services.
The project. In order to improve the usability of the ground-floor spaces, the functional layout was modified by removing the circular entrance vestibule and inserting two coffee-break rooms and two meeting rooms. The suspended ceilings were replaced with inspectable panels, with new lighting integrated. The choice of interior finishes leaned towards geometric wallpapers in the representative and circulation areas, and organic ones in the recreational areas. As for the window and door frames, the glazed fronts of the entrance rooms were completely replaced in favour of wide glazing. Internally, two glass doors were inserted: a double-leaf one with access control and a panic bar in the hall, and a single-leaf one in the new break room. In the meeting rooms, a double glass wall with high acoustic performance was installed. The doors giving access to the rooms are opaque to allow lighting sockets to be inserted. The area facing the entrance sees the complete removal of the vestibule room, with the insertion of a directional walkway towards the entrance of Building 75, flanked by the semicircular fountain feature, which serves to recall the footprint of the previous entrance.
The entrance. The entrance rooms saw the complete replacement of the external frames. The new white aluminium frames, fixed to the existing metal structure which was completed with a new external metal casing, allow greater visual enjoyment of the outdoors, as they feature new wide glazing. The new thermal-break profiles include double-glazed, low-emissivity glazing units, compliant both in terms of accident prevention and in terms of energy-consumption containment and acoustic reduction. Entry is via an automated full-height sliding door. In the Hall, a double-leaf glass door was provided with access control and a panic bar, sized for the minimum passage for people with disabilities.
The exterior. After removing the vestibule, while keeping two pillars, the flooring is to be redone with raised 60×60 cm stoneware tiles and a 30×120 cm stoneware walkway, with wood-effect finishes, towards the entrance. On the footprint of the previous vestibule, a stone fountain with a vertical waterfall was inserted. The new fountain incorporates the cantilevered beam into its semicircular form, the beam being clad in a Corten sheet. The beam holds a vertical glass support over which the water flows and to which the building’s new sign is anchored: BUILDING 75.
