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SOLAR SPACESHIP
project by Massimo Mariani
photo by Alessandro Paderni, EYE-Studio
text by Alessandra Quaglia

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Sleek, modern, creative: this is the image Cabel Industry want to project. This means that their architecture must be something special too. “Such a clean shell, showing no trace of the building’s functional mechanics because these are all incorporated; and then, the solar power makes it almost energy self-sufficient” – as architect Massimo Mariani explains, adding: “...but perhaps the greatest and most satisfying achievement is that the people working inside the building are so happy with it that they want to show their families around, definitely not a minor detail.”  Nothing wrong with that.

THE PROJECT The new Cabel headquarters, not far from Empoli, are located on a small-scale industrial estate in the heart of the countryside so typical of Tuscany. The building, which opened in September 2008, was designed by architect Massimo Mariani, who has put his signature to other projects for the same company. This enduring partnership was forged by shared concerns for environmental sustainability and sensitivity to the character of the surrounding landscape.
Cabel is a company that develops and supplies software systems for the banking sector, whose work therefore involves intangible, virtual materials. Fluidity and flexibility are the key concepts for the exterior structure and the organisation of the interior spaces, in keeping with the function of the place. The shell of the building, a linear, horizontal volume of great purity, seems literally to rise out of the surrounding terrain. A single graphic motif, in the form of an elongated slot, this is echoed in the design of the windows, creating a continually repeating flow of curved elements in an aesthetically perfect play of alternating filled-in and empty spaces.
The overall floor area of 4500m2 is divided into two above-ground floors and one below. Light reaches the floor below ground level from in the space carved out below three walkways leading to the ground floor and the lower floor opens onto a stretch of lawn running parallel to the road. Inside there is an open space reached by three doors directly underneath the three walkways. This large open space has been designed and equipped to host exhibitions and events, always in a spirit of sharing with the surrounding area. The windows are in milky glass to accentuate the continuous dialogue between inside and out with a play of light and reflections. With a blind rear wall, this floor houses a printing works, with all the machinery located to the sides and with the end walls covered in aluminium slats to ensure adequate ventilation.
The main entrance, at ground floor level, is reached by three suspended walkways. Each entrance has a different colour scheme: red for the main entrance and yellow and purple respectively for the side ones. Various types of glass are used to partition the interior space, dividing this into a mix of open-plan offices with multiple workstations and smaller individual offices. The glass partitions are coloured, as are the entrance doors, creating a delightful fluid colour effect.
By day, the light pervading all the interior spaces induces a magical atmosphere, distancing these spaces from the outside world, which seems to be viewed through a coloured filter, an almost aquarium-like feel. By night, the colour is projected outward, creating a vivid effect that emphasises the architectural lines and shapes and the alternating filled-in and empty spaces. The illuminated floor below ground level resembles a lake of light, which seems to lift the whole building, transforming it into a spaceship hovering over the ground, floating in the dark of the night.
The ground floor is where most of the day-to-day work of the company goes on, in a warm, pleasant environment enhanced by the diffused coloured light and the flowing lines of the inner glass panels. The outside world becomes part of the interior décor, seemingly coloured and framed, as in a painting, a natural canvas featuring the sky, the clouds and the landscape of meadows and trees. The first floor is given over to management operations and entertaining clients, with spacious offices and meeting rooms arranged around a small patio garden and a terrace. Here too, the main feature of the design is maintained, with the sense of continuity between outside and in.
Between the office spaces there are a number of waiting areas in which the seating is something close to a parade of the history of Italian design. This seating adds another striking note of colour, complementing that provided by the glass, and providing vivid splashes against the otherwise rigorously neutral interiors in tones of black, white and grey.

Technical details    From the more narrowly technical point of view, the building is constructed out of prefabricated concrete sections, with an external protection of colour-tinted enamel, with roof and end sections clad in grey aluminium.  The insulation for the exterior concrete walls consists of rock wool applied to the internal side of the panels, with facings of plasterboard, thus compensating for the partial heat seal provided by the prefabricated panels.  This arrangement not only ensures the comfort of the working environment, but has also made it possible to present smooth, uncluttered internal views since much of the evidence of plant and machinery is hidden from view.

The suspended flooring, tiled in porcelain stoneware throughout, is the perfect solution to the flexible working spaces required by a company providing computer services and therefore of necessity demanding a very dynamic functional geography. The hanging ceilings are either modular with inspection points or are continuous slabs. The ceiling “package” is thus built up in layers, whose heat insulation factor between the floor planes is superior to that produced by merely superimposing the levels.
The entire roof is covered in photovoltaic panels using amorphous crystal technology, laid in such a way as to be invisible. This means that the building is almost totally energy self-sufficient, producing some 150kW.
 

Sustainability     The project includes a number of measures to reduce the environmental impact of the building.
These include: solar panels covering the entire roof (ensuring almost total energy self-sufficiency), a system for collecting rainwater which is then used to water the green areas and to feed the fire-protection system, perimeter insulation for the building shell (see previous box for description) and, finally, management of the interior and exterior lighting systems and the heating and plumbing systems by a demotic program for maximum efficiency. to feed the fire-protection system, perimeter insulation for the building shell (see previous box for description) and, finally, management of the interior and exterior lighting systems and the heating and plumbing systems by a demotic program for maximum efficiency.

This is environmental sustainability that exudes imagination and ingenuity, rather than falling back on grandiose solutions, making this project a beacon of light that leads by example. The flexibility of the building plan, the close attention paid to the concept of economy, in the financial, ecological and also aesthetic senses of the word, the inspired treatment of the architecture-landscape relationship, in which great respect is leavened by playful irony; all these aspects of the design combine with the sheer simple elegance of the graphic motif that is the architectural emblem of the building.