Hasta La Ideas

Every year, the experience of travel becomes easier and—dare we say it—even more fun, thanks to an influx of innovative apps, new thinking in hotel design and more. Between the major travel headlines of 2013—like American Airlines and US Airways finally receiving the green light for their merger making them…

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Italian architect Fabio Ferrillo has transformed a derelict blacksmith’s workshop into the headquarters of a Milanese fashion brand.

Fabio Ferrillo retained many of the building’s original features, including the exposed brick walls, abandoned machinery and suspended pulleys, but added a new cement floor and industrial ventilation system.

“The space was seriously run-down, but its crude and post-industrial aesthetic is now its most fascinating and contemporary aspect,” said Ferrillo.

The building’s open-plan shell is divided into an office space, research archive, design area, kitchen, meeting room and courtyard.

New partitions painted in grey and pink contrast with the raw brickwork and provide a backdrop for additions including a nineteenth century marble fireplace that was imported from France.

An unused air shaft introduces light to a corner of the private office, while mirrors act as screens in the large empty doorways that separate the main meeting room from the design area.

Vintage furniture and lighting sourced from The Netherlands and France combines with colourful canvases by French artist Nathalie du Pasquier, which Ferrillo added to complete the “eclectic, refined and contemporary space.”

Earlier this year, a dilapidated car showroom in London was transformed into a flexible communal workspace and Polish architects PL.architekci created a new studio for themselves inside a disused loft.

Photography is by Diego Diaz.

Here’s a project description from Fabio Ferrillo:

MSGM headquarters by Fabio Ferrillo

Architect Fabio Ferrillo’s project for the new MSGM headquarters was born from the intuition of the brand’s Creative Director, Massimo Giorgetti; together they gave new life to an abandoned early 20th-Century blacksmith’s workshop in Milan’s Porta Romana borough. The space was seriously run-down, but its crude and post-industrial aesthetic is now its most fascinating and contemporary aspect thanks to a careful work of preservation and reinterpretation.

A large access portal, two distinct areas, an irregular floor plan, walls in plain brickwork, abandoned machinery and suspended pulleys maintain the space’s productive spirit but are combined, in an unprecedented layout, to a new cement flooring and deliberately flashy steel and zinced plate conducts and ventilation systems.

The preserved and renewed brickwork is paired with the dove-grey and pink tones of the new irregular partitions, a combination that creates surprising perspectives, such as the fireplace: an original mid-19th-Century Louis Philippe in grey marble specifically imported from the south of France. The great central skylight, the doors and windows have been carefully salvaged, while an unused air shaft has been connected to the private office to be used as a scenographic source of light.

The decor is the result of prolongued research: the original 1950s pieces by Friso Kramer come from Flanders, the grey and yellow shelving, the curved wooden chairs, the private office’s armchairs, handpicked from galleries in Antwerp and Paris, just like the grand central table, an original Ico Parisi from 1960, reimported to Italy from a gallery in Belgium.

The ceiling projectors, all from abandoned industrial sites of the île de France, are paired with lamps of typical italian design. The beautiful canvases by Nathalie du Pasquier give the finishing touch to this eclectic, refined and contemporary space. It is the image of the brand, MSGM: in constant evolution.

The post MSGM fashion headquarters in a former
blacksmith’s workshop by Fabio Ferrillo appeared first on Dezeen.

by Heather Stewart Feldman From a distance it looks like any other city block in Milan, but a closer look reveals it’s anything but average. Rapidly taking shape in the heart of the Isola neighborhood of North Milan is Europe’s first …

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Shanghai already counts one millionaire in every 175 people, and a new plan to expand the city’s free-trade zone will boost investment and reinforce its identity as one of the biggest trade hubs in China. Thanks to…

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Monolithic limestone totems and cast bronze pedestals punctuate the interior of this Milanese fashion boutique by architect Claudio Silvestrin (+ slideshow).

Claudio Silvestrin combined natural materials including leather and different types of stone to give the interior of the Giada store in Milan’s Montenapoleone fashion district a luxurious feel.

Regimented rows of roughly-hewn limestone columns create a textural backdrop to the clothes, which are hung on geometric metal rails.

The changing rooms feature walls and floors made from leather with handles given an antique bronze finish.

Blocks of cast bronze with differing dimensions provide pedestals for the products, a display island, a screen for the cash desk and a bench in the VIP room.

Rectilinear white leather armchairs continue the geometric theme.

A water feature runs along one of the walls, which are made from porphyry stone with a water-jet finish.

Claudio Silvestrin previously designed a kitchen island made of porphyry stone, which the architect used in his design for rapper Kanye West’s Manhattan apartment block.

Other fashion boutiques that have appeared on Dezeen recently include the extension of Paul Smith’s Albemarle Street store in London, and a boutique in Brussels that features cacti, gravel, concrete floors and a wooden bridge.

See more retail design »
See more design by Claudio Silvestrin »

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by Claudio Silvestrin appeared first on Dezeen.