The new headquarters of Asset Bank has been inaugurated in Gualdicciolo and enriches the neighborhood with new spaces of social and cultural meeting. From the underground car park to the interiors designed in detail, right down to the outside, each element is designed according to precise reports of scale and language. The designers have woven a dialogue between the new building and its surroundings. Although the shape is recognizable, its presence is measured, thanks to its neutral and homogeneous colour. The dialogue is certainly not monotonous: the facade marks out full and empty spaces, alternating glass and zinc dry titanium panels. The syncopated rhythm accompanies the fifth fragments of the surrounding buildings. On the ground floor, permeability is the visual theme of the building: the building is raised on a light podium, the ground connection is not opaque, but fully glazed: the two upper floors are floating on the transparency of the ground floor. Activities that take place there are visible. The exteriors are to be experienced both day and night. During the nightime hours, the light becomes a local lady. Transparency is transfigured: lighting with copper tones, generated by light sources that originate from each of the windows, converts the complex in a tenuous urban lantern. The light also floods the interior of the building. At the main entrance, it opens up a spectacular triple height glass hall that illuminates the common areas, letting your sight move freely from one floor to the next. Every space, sober, moderate and refined, is designed to exceed the simple function: are we really in a bank? Lighting of offices and halls of representation is perfectly integrated to the acoustic ceiling system. In the basement auditorium, the wisdom of design is released and integrates with the light: the space is functional, but also theatrical. The brightness of the rooms is regulated by sensors. In the council room a work of art has been installed: a handcrafted, motorized chandelier consisting of 195 luminous cards in glass and brass, which resume and miniaturize the motif of the facade.


place: repubblica di san marino
project: archinow!
lighting project: UpO
technical sales consultant: maicol fedrigo
photos: giovanni de sandre