ddn 248 | 05 2019

ddn 248 | DESIGN DIFFUSION NEWS | Interior magazine | UNICA CORPORATE ACADEMY

UNIPOL GROUP TURNS AN ANCIENT ARISTOCRACY DWELLING INTO THE MAIN HEADQUARTERS OF THE CORPORATE ACADEMY, DEDICATED TO THE PROFESSIONAL TRAINING OF ALL ITALIAN FACILITIES | A 16th century villa surrounded by the Bologna countryside was chosen by Unipol Group to house the training and representation center and, in the adjacent cottage, the learning center management offices, through the Corporate Academy Unica. In San Lazzaro di Savena, 6 kilometers from the center of Bologna and along the historic Via Emilia road, an evocative alley of lime trees takes you to the Villa Boncompagni alla Cicogna, one of the last works of architect Jacopo Barozzi aka il Vignola (1578) – the villa was commissioned by Marquis Giacomo Boncompagni who six years earlier had become Pope Gregory XIII. The Florence-based studio Pierattelli Architetture, working on the 2000 square meter large complex, wanted to maintain the Renaissance style of the villa. The interior design preserves the large rooms, heights, frescoes and decorations by Carlo Lodi and Antonio Rossi, very famous landscape
artists of the time. The historical dwelling has two floors, with large central areas, around which are developed training and management rooms, classrooms, lounge and break areas with table football and table tennis, archive, meeting rooms. Colors and materials such as dark woods, polished steels and high quality leather emphasize the historicity of the rooms, furnished, among other things, with iconic design products. The reorganization of the interior spaces has been designed to create a place devoted to knowledge and culture: walls equipped with versatile support systems for various educational technologies, desks and workbenches wired with electricity, and hidden data thanks to the ISY by Estel system were custom-designed by Pierattelli Architectures. The new functions of the building respect the genius loci, recognized and enhanced by the aesthetic cleanliness of an elegant contemporary style. True university campus, Unica does not forget the colors and symbolism of the Unipol logo in some details, such as in sound-absorbing panels, enhancing the characteristic of every environment.