TRN
2019.01
Palazzo Tornielli di Barengo
Novara, IT
Office
81sqm
Two rooms in the smaller courtyard of a historic 18th century residence, Palazzo Tornielli di Barengo, were transformed into an extension of a large law firm located in the same building. The magnificence, the stuccos and the late Baroque furniture of the main rooms are contrasted by the intimate and calm atmosphere of the two rooms in sequence, dedicated to more private meetings and gatherings, but also to moments of work in which greater isolation allows a different type of concentration. The function was almost built on the project, as the client, after a quick initial briefing, left the designers with the challenge of shaping the use of space on the design of furnishings and mezzanines that enhanced the existing spaces. Somehow, we dare to say that the function has followed, in this case, the form, even if this process has, in many ways, undergone a opposite.
The project builds, through the design of the oak furnishings, a series of (co)respondence between of the elements (mezzanines, stairs, bookcases, containers) mainly situated along the perimeters, according to a principle of mutual necessity.
The first area, dedicated to reception and waiting, is covered by a plastered vault and houses a container staircase that leads to a mezzanine with low shelves and seats for consultation.
The underlying bookcase, with a fast and regular rhythm, is the daughter of the mezzanine structure. A portal-boiserie containing a service and storage room leads to the main room, whose original finishes (sown on the ground with a frame and vault in exposed brick) were maintained in dialogue with the design of the modern taste of the furnishings.
The second room is left free on the side of the three windows, opposite the second loft served by a lighter metal staircase and the archive wall that also hides the door connecting to the first room. The structures of the solid wood mezzanines also mark the scanning of the archive modules. The structural nodes and all the details in white painted metal, including the handles of the furnishings, were executed according to the designers' designs, like all the oak furniture.
