International architecture and design firm led by Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel, puts health and wellbeing at the centre of the major renovation of the Enel Group headquarter in Rome, Italy. The proposed office building is pursuing both WELL and LEED certification.
Enel Group, one of the largest world’s energy provider, aims to renovate its offices on Viale Regina Margherita in Rome with a project that will radically change the existing building. The architects’ innovative proposal based on the application of the sustainable principles, that will provide new healthy indoor spaces and greater comfort for employees along with low energy consumptions.
The renovation, which covers a total surface area of around 80,000 square meters, has been designed to increase personal wellbeing through the provision of modern, comfortable workspaces conceived around the concept of more agile organization.
The lighting and air conditioning systems will ensure the utmost comfort while the distribution of the rooms will alternate working environments with green indoor and outdoor spaces and areas devoted to mental and physical wellbeing.
The building will also feature additional employee wellness facilities, with the existing crèche, canteen and auditorium, all complemented by a new gym.
The building’s sustainability and comfort will be assessed by external international bodies, with the aim of achieving the LEED and WELL certifications at Gold level. After the selection phase, which saw a certification process involving leading national construction firms, and the subsequent tender, the contract was awarded to Colombo Costruzioni of Lecco.
The project bears the hallmark of the Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel (ACPV) architecture firm, also selected by comparative tender, which has directly handled the architectural and interior design.
“This project demonstrates how, thanks to careful policies, shared objectives and clear answers, Rome continues to be privileged as the home of the largest Italian and international companies. Cities can only restart through healthy collaboration between public and private, timeliness and projects that go in the direction of innovation and sustainability. A virtuous example of this is what we will soon have in the capital thanks to the important requalification of the Enel Group,” said the Mayor of Rome, Virginia Raggi.
“Innovation and sustainability are the guidelines that underpin Enel’s commitment,” said Carlo Tamburi, Director of Enel Italia. “Thanks to this project these values will also be applied to the workplace, benefiting our employees who will be able to access a space redesigned around their needs.
Thanks to the decision to affirm our presence in the historic office on Viale Regina Margherita, which strongly characterizes the district’s identity, the city of Rome will become the site of a major urban redevelopment project centered around one of the most modern and advanced buildings in the region.”
“The project proposed by Enel and designed by our practice facilitates the redesign of a building from the sixties, reimagining it according to completely new functional principles in line with emerging professional requirements,” added architect Patricia Viel, co-founder of the Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel architecture firm. “Enel is thus achieving two objectives: regenerating the building, and renewing its relationship with the city.”
“The rethinking of the Enel offices makes it possible to initiate a redevelopment which, in addition to the historical site, involves several buildings and impacts an entire urban sector, enhancing their historical qualities but at the same time creating more innovative and sustainable spaces. An example that demonstrates how it is possible to carefully combine, thanks to the project developed by the Citterio Viel firm, a vision of the future, a reflection on the workplace in this difficult historical moment, the reinterpretation of existing urban morphologies in a contemporary key, recovery of symbolic buildings of the city thanks to the company’s choice of a renewed alliance with the city,” said the councilor for urban planning of the City of Rome, Luca Montuori.
In order to optimize the layout and design of Enel’s historic Rome headquarters, the project by ACPV aims to develop a “building-city”, where the towers of the central structure are balanced against the new transparent walls of the cladding. The glass of the new façade offers a view through the sequence of architecture and surrounding greenery.
The new offices will be developed around the innovative principles of bioclimatic, sustainable and biophilic design. The project was designed using a digital model (BIM) which collects and displays information and 3D graphics throughout the project’s life cycle, enabling the more efficient and sustainable management of both the construction works and the subsequent operation of the building.
