Furla Headquarters "Progetto Italia" where working environment, sustainability and landscape harmonize

The new Furla Headquarters are located in Tavarnelle Val di Pesa, in the province of Florence, immersed in the Chianti area. The project highlights a paramount theme: the integration of the industrial architecture into the Italian landscape, providing an opportunity to rethink the quality of the workspace. The project was designed by the multi-disciplinary Italian architecture studio GEZA Architettura. 

Photo credit: Fernando Guerra

Architecture and nature are perfectly blended along all directions to create a unique element where the design and the Chianti landscape (defined by hills, heritage, and agricultural areas) communicate harmoniously.

Photo credit: Fernando Guerra

The Furla factory covers 42,000 sq m of soil - 18,300 sq m built - and has three main volumes (one for offices, two for labs and logistics) designed to be harmoniously integrated into the surrounding landscape, without too much contrast. Architecture and nature coexist in a functional balance.

Photo credit: Fernando Guerra

The morphology of the land is truly taken into consideration and is enhanced through three fundamental elements – the driveway, the terraces, and Piazza Furla – which define clear areas around the building volumes. Thanks to a system of patios and green roofs overlooking the wooded area, nature crosses the boundaries between inside and outside. A large group of centuries-old oaks is preserved and enhanced, thus mitigating the parking area.

Photo credit: Fernando Guerra

The main entrance recalls the archetype of Tuscan villa access: a linear row of cypresses welcoming visitors and showing the way through. This rhythm is replicated on the facade of the buildings with sunscreen filtering blades. The blades control and mediate the light according to the orientation and the seasons, protecting from direct sunlight and distributing the lighting inside the work spaces. This system also favors thermal inertia with a consequent reduction in energy costs.

Photo credit: Fernando Guerra

Along the avenue the buildings are arranged in harmonic succession of floors, staggered in plan and placed on different levels to accommodate the different activities of the Factory, the parking integrated into the morphology of the land, and Piazza Furla, the focal point of the axis that marks the arrival and the main entrance. From this panoramic point, conceived as the hear of the company, you can access both the management and the production areas, thus creating a perfect combination of offices and laboratories, which, although organized in different volumes, are organically connected by internal paths.

Photo credit: Fernando Guerra

The entrance to the offices, with the double-height reception and the large open-air hall, becomes the point where the boundaries between architecture and landscape merge. 

The interiors have been designed in such a way as to have real layout flexibility. The orderly sequence of offices is punctuated by green patios, or relationship spaces, such as meeting rooms, break areas and showrooms.

Photo credit: Fernando Guerra

Photo credit: Fernando Guerra

Nature is a prominent element, not just because of its beauty (Chianti hills), but also because it creates a pleasant environment once blended into the building: patios, green coverings, and natural light contribute to a more sustainable working habitat, where people can also relax and enjoy contact with nature.

Photo credit: Fernando Guerra

Finally, sustainability plays a key role in this project, which has been designed to comply with green energy best practices.

Photo credit: Fernando Guerra

About GEZA Architettura

Established in 1999 by Stefano Gri and Piero Zucchi, GEZA Architettura is a studio led by curiosity and passion, focused on research of the synthesis of Ideas, Beauty and Functionality. According to GEZA, the project implies designing the SPACE (Architecture) within its ENVIRONMENT (light and landscape) through the seasons of TIME. The primary focus of the studio surrounds industrial architecture in relation to the landscape, in a new way of conceiving workspaces.