GEZA Architettura Designs the SPACE within its ENVIRONMENT through the seasons of TIME

Founded in 1999, GEZA Architettura is the multi-disciplinary architecture studio of Stefano Gri and Piero Zucchi, whose projects have been internationally recognized with awards for their exquisite design solutions and strategic thinking.

Pratic 1.0 + 2.0, Fagagna (UD), 2011 + 2018. The two-unit production complex features an essential and nude language, in unison with the surrounding agricoltural panorama. Simple dark volumes that uniquely interact with the landscape in search of a meaningful dialogue. Photo credit: Javier Callejas

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. Their architecture strives for new meanings, while creating new identities, and is designed based on a unique point of view and sensibility in regards to the context, the materiality of the details, and the human-centered solutions, always towards a poetic dimension.

Furla Progetto Italia, Tavarnelle Val di Pesa (FI), 2021. Vertical plates system positioned according to the sun direction. Photo credit: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG fotografia de arquitectura

GEZA rethinks the workspaces, taking advantage of all the variables and constraints - productive flow, working dynamics, efficiency goals, location features - and creating new environments where the landscape and the individual’s well-being are at the core of the project.

Furla Progetto Italia, Tavarnelle Val di Pesa (FI), 2021. The green patios encourage the flow between indoor and outdoor, between architecture and landscape. Photo credit: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG fotografia de arquitectura

The relationship between architecture and nature

The industrial architecture project is a great opportunity to rethink the connection of architecture-nature, bringing the individual back into focus. GEZA’s projects merge aspects of engineering and economics in researching formal abstraction while combining different logics. The landscape and its features define the project choices, celebrating the elegance of timeless architecture and the sustainability of the internal workspaces.

Reading the territory and the internal space

The studio simultaneously deals with the production processes and the relationships between artifice and nature, foreground and background, working environments, and outdoor spaces. Each project is designed to become one with the landscape, reinforcing its presence within its surroundings.

Furla Progetto Italia, Tavarnelle Val di Pesa (FI), 2021. Headquarters and Production Complex immersed in the Chianti landscape. The buildings are developed at different altitudes and are a striking mark visible from the high way. Photo credit: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG fotografia de arquitectura

Zoom lens – shape and matter

Architecture must balance different reading scales, from the overview to the most minute details. GEZA bases its projects on this approach, changing perspective from the outside to the inside, switching zoom lenses from the big scale to the singular element in order to guarantee the quality of their work. In this way, the architecture doubles its function to bring new identities to both the territory and the human beings’ everyday life.

Furla Progetto Italia, Tavarnelle Val di Pesa (FI), 2021. Headquarters and Production Complex. Photo credit: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG fotografia de arquitectura

Rigorous essentiality of forms

Industrial architecture is physically very impactful in regard to the territory and the landscape - as are infrastructures - and thus must be responsibly designed to merge with the environment in a gentle and timeless manner.

Furla Progetto Italia, Tavarnelle Val di Pesa (FI), 2021. Façade detail. Photo credit: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG fotografia de arquitectura

The definition of simple acts guarantees a measurable relationship with the territory: horizontal and vertical, repetition and rhythm, light and shadow, straight and curved lines, coloured and neutral marks, black and white.

Furla Progetto Italia, Tavarnelle Val di Pesa (FI), 2021. Headquarters and Production Complex immersed in the Chianti landscape. The whole project is conceived in a tight and unavoidable relationship with the surrounding, the morphology constraints, the sustainable company’s goals and the natural features. Photo credit: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG fotografia de arquitectura

Pratic 1.0, Fagagna (UD), 2011. Cork oak amongst the office building. Photo credit: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG fotografia de arquitectura

Monochromic and materiality

Monochromic, pure colours and materials allow for exploration of different surfaces, depths, thoughts, gradients, tactile sensations, and light interactions. Black and white are harsh, neutral colours, yet they merge harmoniously with the natural elements. They are, in fact, a means to highlight two things: the landscape, green hues painted, and the human being, made of dynamic colours himself that blur into nature when in action.

Furla Progetto Italia, Tavarnelle Val di Pesa (FI), 2021. Viale del Benvenuto and Chianti view from the entrance hall. Photo credit: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG fotografia de arquitectura

Human-centered design and sustainability

GEZA personalizes the concept of sustainability (intended as conceptual, almost poetic), a current theme that goes beyond environmental best practices. In relation to the pandemic, individuals have discovered themselves in a new condition, juggling between health (physical and mental), smart work, and the company's needs. In these circumstances, people's well-being has inevitably become the number-one priority, even in industrial architecture projects: the studio designs human-centered workspaces, featuring flexible layouts, green areas (indoor and outdoor), optimal natural lighting conditions, and cozy environments.

Pratic 1.0, Fagagna (UD), 2011. Headquarters and Production Complex. The green area between the two perpendicular volumes (office and production use) is designed for the employees’ well-being. Photo credit: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG fotografia de arquitectura

Furla Progetto Italia, Tavarnelle Val di Pesa (FI), 2021. The landscape to shape the building, the workspaces to merge with the natural elements. An example of human-centered design whose focus is the well-being of the employees. Photo credit: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG fotografia de arquitectura

For GEZA, sustainability relates to quality of life, particularly within working environments where people spend most of their days, sustaining, indeed, their labour. Sustainability is beauty, as it’s undeniable that a pleasant environment sets the parameters for best performances: design, light, space, nature, and meeting areas all contribute to the overall mental and physical well-being of the employees.

Furla Progetto Italia, Tavarnelle Val di Pesa (FI), 2021. Office interiors, Photo credit: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG fotografia de arquitectura

Beyond Architecture

Great architecture is the result of a complex process that merges different logic, the client’s needs, a variety of professionals and skills, constraints, timing, issues, and design. It requires continuous and rigorous control. The architect - the only one to hold a clear overview of the final outcome - plays a pivotal role in coordinating the professionals, the details, and the compliances at different levels, from day one right through to the end. Accordingly, GEZA Architettura’s projects are the synthesis of ideas, beauty, and functionality.

Pratic 1.0, Fagagna (UD), 2011. Courtyard and green area in between the offices and the production section, Photo credit: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG fotografia de arquitectura

Furla Prog.etto Italia, Tavarnelle Val di Pesa (FI), 2021. Entrance hall. Photo credit: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG fotografia de arquitectura

About GEZA Architettura

Established in 1999 by Stefano Gri and Piero Zucchi, GEZA Architettura is a studio driven by curiosity and passion, striving for research based on a synthesis of Ideas, Beauty and Functionality. GEZA believes that a project implies design of the SPACE (Architecture) within its ENVIRONMENT (light and landscape) through the seasons of TIME. Our architectures strive for new meanings, while creating new identities.

Over the years, the studio has specialized in architecture projects, urban planning, interior and product design, developing a signature style based on a unique point of view and sensibility in regard to the context, the materiality of the details, and human-centered solutions, always towards a poetic dimension.

The main focus of the studio is industrial architecture and its relationship with the landscape, in a new way of conceiving the work spaces. A few worthy examples are Furla Headquarters (Furla Progetto Italia, 2021), Pratic (Pratic 1.0, 2011 + Pratic 2.0, 2018), Faber Cylinders (2013), and Bosch/Freud (2018), as well as currently-in-progress works such as the the award-winning Silk-Faw EV (2021) project, Capua1880 Headquarters (2021), and Pratic 3.0 (2021). In addition to residential and housing projects, GEZA designed the setup of the New Craft Exhibition (2016, Fabbrica del Vapore, Triennale di Milano) and Casa della Musica (2010, Cervignano del Friuli).