Client: MONTEVERDE Law Firm
Tipology: Office
Place: Novara, Italy
Year: 2016.12
Sqm: 81
Architectural Design: ATOMAA, Studio Asabesi
Design Team: Eleonora Salsa, Umberto Maj, Daniela Serini, Manuela Cruz Torres, Elizaveta Ukhabina, Simone Marusi
Photography: Lorenzo Piovella
General Contractor: Relazioni Edili Snc
Carpenter: Donghi Arredi, Projet Metal

This is a look at an archway entrance with a groin arch ceiling, pillars and a lantern pendant light hanging in the middle.

This is a close look at the small loft of the law firm with an indoor balcony and reading nook.

This is a full view of the loft above with wooden bookshelves and the area below that has bookshelves and a reading area.

This is the view of the other side that has a white desk beside the modern wooden staircase adorned with a potted plant.

This is the powder room with a blue green tone to its walls that make the toilet and sink stand out.

This side of the law firm has a tall brick ceiling, loft, and the walls are lined with built-in wooden structures.

Within the wooden structures lining the walls is the door that leads to the rest of the law firm.

This is a view of the large room with a white desk by the large windows.

This is a close look at the design and structure of the underside of the loft.

This other angle showcases the modern staircase on the far side by the set of waist-high wooden cabinets.

This is an illustration of the law firm's floor plan.

This is an illustrative perspective sketch of the structures inside the law firm.

This is an illustration of the law firm's cross section elevation.

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 the opposite.

The project builds, through the design of the oak furnishings, a series of (co)respondence between the elements (mezzanines, stairs, bookcases, containers) mainly situated along the perimeters, according to a principle of mutual necessity. The first area, dedicated to the 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.