Bank in Florence - Villa Fagan

Florence, Italy

Photo © Image copyright Massimo Mariani architect and Alessandro Ciampi

Architects: Massimo Mariani Architect

Location: Florence, Italy
Year: 2015

Villa Fagan is a building in Florence, located in Viale Antonio Gramsci, surrounded by a beautiful garden where you can also find an annex. It occupies an area of about 1600 square metres and is one of the most significant pieces of residential architecture in the neighbourhood built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Previously occupied by the University of Florence, the complex was acquired by the Cambiano Cooperative Credit Bank to turn it into the institution’s headquarters and head area branch.

The architectural restoration and renovation were carried out following the Studio Gurrieri Associati’s project.

Faced with a conservative philological type of restoration, we added our contribution in a natural way to the existing architecture, creating a “second skin” with carpentry and design interventions.

We looked more to the garden than to the existing architecture for inspiration.

A somewhat bucolic image emerged, made of floral and natural elements that characterise the intervention, involving all floors of the building, from the ground floor to the second, in a constant search of continuity between the “inside and outside”.

A slight irony can be seen in all the spaces, mixing the new with the old without rules or priorities.