ITC Innovation Technological Center is a great design structure within the AEC Headquarters where all the Research & Development activities are concentrated and where product tests are carried out. The birth of the Innovation Technological Center accompanies the company's growth and marks the completion of its production structure, an area of ​​26,500 square meters. To design and build the new structure, AEC Illuminazione turned to the SBGA Blengini Ghirardelli architecture firm, based in Milan and with an international curriculum. The studio's approach was based on the choice of simple and pure forms, and on the search for technologically advanced construction solutions.

 

The Lab, the heart of the project, is volumetrically composed of two parallelepipeds intersected with each other with a total area of ​​3000 square meters. This building was conceived as an ideal space for team work involving technicians and researchers together. Three levels of development. On the ground floor and first floor - where tests and simulation experiments are carried out under extreme environmental conditions - there are a series of double and triple height laboratories that intersect with mezzanines from which it is possible to safely control the test phases.

 

These clear and precise geometries, the formal cleanliness that touches the volumetric proportions and the full / empty relationships are also repeated on the 3rd floor, where the research offices are located. The roof, moved by oblique and decomposed buttresses, houses a skylight that conveys the light to the center of the workspace. Higher up, on the roof, are the technical systems and photovoltaic panels covered by a dark cornice that closes and completes the architectural discourse.

In front of the main entrance, a tensile structure from the early 2000s has been recovered and transformed into a shady and meeting area, with chairs and tables to accommodate outdoor business meetings or more simply to host moments of leisure. The redevelopment project of the area has extended to the rethinking of the pedestrian system. New walkways allow efficient connection axes in an area of ​​5000 square meters. In this way, the connections to the neighboring pavilions that house the most innovative systems of industrial 3D printers have been optimized.

On the opposite side of the Lab, another two-storey building was born. A hospitality structure was built on an abandoned area: 500 square meters which are changing room and canteen area that can accommodate more than 250 employees of AEC Illuminazione every day. Also for this building the theme of comfort and living well-being is declined through the large windows that frame the rural landscape and flood the spaces with natural light.

 

 

TECHNICAL SHEET - AEC RESEARCH CENTER:

 

Surface: 3,000 sq.m.

External areas: 5,000 square meters

Interior furnishings: SBGA, MDF

Metal carpentry: Iamec, Focchi Group

Facade: Dekton, Cosentino

All the most innovative company research and development activities are concentrated in the AEC Innovation Technological Center (ITC), to ensure products with a high technological coefficient and extreme quality standards over time. A new and modern open space, which consists of large bright spaces in glass and concrete, with the application of solar panels and sustainable materials. An important choice that allows to reduce the impact on resources, while at the same time decreasing that on the environment. A green strategy that has always characterized the business development of AEC Illuminazione.