Sidera building is a new CIA Conad headquarters, where the precepts of neuroarchitecture have guided most of the design choices of tissellistudioarchitetti, which focused on finding the ideal working space.
Sidera building in Forlì is a new CIA CONAD headquarters where the precepts of neuroarchitecture have guided most of the design choices of tissellistudioarchitetti, which focused on finding the ideal working space.
The project was integrated into surroundings that offered neither ideas nor constraints, other than the cooperative’s functional brief.
From the outset, therefore, a conscious decision was made to avoid focusing too heavily on structural form per se in the initial designs, but rather to let the building reveal itself by adapting its lines to the functional and logistical needs imposed.
Its design, rooted in neuro-architecture, ensures a work environment that enhances psychological comfort and productivity. Natural light floods the spaces, air quality is meticulously controlled, and sound insulation is prioritized.
The precepts of neuro-architecture have guided most of the design choices, which focused on finding the ideal working space. Thus, external factors, such as light, air, sounds and visuals, enter the building in form of calibrated and controlled architectural components and not merely as necessary occurrences.
All these factors guarantee working conditions that foster high levels of psychological well-being, which inevitably translates into a higher quality of work from employees.
The study and design of the interior space were approached as essential components, not as a parallel project but as integral to the development of the building as a whole. The intention was clear from the very first steps, not to entrust the representativeness of the project to the exterior envelope of the building alone, but to ensure it was the skin of a more complex organism.
No colour has been added beyond the natural pigmentation of the materials. Wood, aluminium and concrete proudly express their natural state. The sobriety of the building in this sense reflects the seriousness and pragmatism of the company.
Between shard-like shapes and diagonal slashes, the large internal staircases act as a element of disruption for the entire layout. The hypertrophic and sinuous lines play with contrast, drawing the visitor towards itself like a disruptive centripetal force. The ribbon created by the parapet of the staircase worms and winds its way upward, like a living organism whose branches are attracted by the sunlight that penetrates through the large skylight.
Large landings are home to small squares/meeting points that invite people to stop and interact with each other, encouraging social moments where sharing ideas and creating positive relationships. People themselves become a component of the project, the key required to activate a machine that is full of cogs and gears.
The Sidera building is a living, creative organism that denies the rigid logic of orthogonality and avoids all static constraints or obligations to monumental and banal symmetry. The entrance, circulation spaces, assembly hall and top floor interplay alternating spatial compressions between the walls, ceilings and sloping, faceted surfaces.
In a context that is devoid of identity and architectural value, the Sidera building has been conceived to be a new element to add to its surroundings, a form of reparation to an area lacking in quality but one which can evidently become a better area, for the benefit of anyone who comes to make use of it.
Surrounded by 300 trees and 22,000 plants, and powered by a photovoltaic system capable of meeting all energy consumption, it embodies the cooperative’s progressive ethos.
In the headquarters design, there is no formalism, nor individualism but a strong sense of reality and intention to interpret needs. It translates human transformations into the building, maintaining the centrality of relationships and human individuality in the present day, which increasingly distances us from each other and our environment.
Project: Sidera, headquarters CIA Conad
Size: 10,000 Sqm
Location: Forlì, Italy
Design Studio: tissellistudioarchitetti
Photo Credit: Pietro Savorelli and Marcin Dworzyński
Website: tissellistudio.com
