Location: FLORENCE, Italy 40 sqm 2015
Client: INRES COOP
Type: Workspaces

INRES is the national consortium for the architectural and MEP/FA design of Coop’s stores and it is certainly one of the most important clients of Area-17. It is with great pleasure that our team designed the new INRES’ reception on the first floor of a five-story building, located right out of Florence city center.

The environment, airy and functional, is meant to be a transitional space between the outside and the inside. The tall floor-to-ceiling windows covered in a large-scale pattern reinforce this idea of continuity, but also serve as a support for the visual communication to enhance the firm’s visibility from the outside.
Strings of LEDs run along the counter’s edges, dematerializing its rigid geometry and leading visitors towards the offices right inside the building. Multimedia screens hanging on walls display information about services offered by the company.
The concept idea – green wall, seating inspired by nature, raw plywood walls – is a clear hint to the themes of environmental sustainability and energy savings, issues that are at the basis of all INRES’s interventions.

 

Featured

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KUNSHAN, China 335 sqm 2008

Villa Jade is a showroom villa created by Area-17 as a model for a thirty-villa complex facing one of the beautiful lakes that surround Suzhou, a charming city in Southern China. The design draws inspiration from the peaceful beauty of the surrounding nature, incorporating comfortable and soothing environments.

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JINAN, China 49'800 sqm 2006

Run Hua, a top Chinese automotive dealer, tasked Area-17 with the design for its headquarters and car showroom in Jinan. The project also includes a hotel, a service apartment tower, and a main square. The square unifies the different architectural elements physically and metaphorically, therefore becoming the symbol of the area.