Piuarch

Situated just a few hundred metres from Corso Buenos Aires, the Dolce&Gabbana offices and showroom in via Broggi, Milan, is a combination of classical and contemporary, smoothly interacting with the surrounding cityscapeThe 1920s’ building, used for offices and reception spaces, is enhanced by focusing on its architecture and maintaining its elegant, classical style. The 1960s’ building, used as a showroom, has been completely hollowed out to create a 3-storey open space crowned by small terraces constructed out of the restaurant structures. It completely changes skin on the outside, cladding itself with glass in a very tightly-knit modular pattern. This gives it a much more contemporary feel, which seems to create a subtle line of rupture between the two buildings, whereas it is merely a junction line. The glass structure turns into an almost immaterial prism, thanks to the choice of reflective materials (glass and shiny steel sheets) enveloping it in an aura of eclecticism by means of simple forms described by the effects of shadow and light during the day. The building creates a large front of diffused light offering glimpses of garments from the fashion house’s collection, which run along the perimeter of the façade. The building’s transparency opens it up to the city and passers-by, stitching it back together with the neighboring building. Transparency emerges from the façade design featuring a regular pattern of vertical sunscreen shutters made of opaline glass, partly inspired by a work by the British artist Damien Hirst entitled “Some Comfort Gained from the Acceptance of the Inherent Lies in Everything” from 1996. Hirst showcases the bodies of two cows. In the same way, Piuarch seems, at least on the outside, to be sectioning the showroom’s large open spaces into lots of separate windows, focusing on every individual item of clothing from the collection in via Broggi.