Minimalism and transparency rule at Luxottica’s Digital Factory in Milan
Luxottica's Digital Factory by Milan-based architects Park Associati is the latest addition to the city's via Tortona neighbourhood
An industrial restoration has resulted in the newly refreshed home of eyewear market leader Luxottica in Italy. The project, the brand's Digital Factory, was designed by Milan-based architecture studio Park Associati, and effortlessly blends minimalist architecture, swathes of glass, and 21st-century manufacturing and workspace.
The building is located in the city's trendy via Tortona area, and used to be occupied by General Electric. When Luxottica decided to move in, the company reached out to the architects for a redesign, bringing the complex to contemporary standards but at the same time, maintaining its feeling of history and utility, and sense of space and light throughout. Park Associati kept the original volumes and configuration, focusing on sharpening existing shapes and lines, while upgrading facilities and sustainability elements.
Indeed, an eco approach towards sustainable architecture was key in the spatial reinvention, and the team followed a LEED quality and sustainability protocol – aiming for a Gold certification. A strong connection to open-air areas with gardens (such as the ground floor's green patios), as well as planting inside, also ensures there's a strong presence of nature throughout.
Transparency played a key role in the redesign – both in physical terms (the building is an ode to glazed expanses, connecting vistas inside and out, and bathing the interior with light from almost all directions), as well as symbolically, in particular with the ground level's public aspect. Luxottica's showroom and further commercial spaces are located here, while the Digital Lab – a high-tech innovation centre – is situated on the first floor.
Apart from creating a sophisticated, modern workspace for Luxottica, with interiors composed in collaboration with Storagemilano, the Digital Factory also helps activate its wider neighbourhood, bringing a green element and considered retail to this corner of Milan, adding to its vibrant suburban environment.
INFORMATION
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).
-
Studio Twenty Seven opens a sprawling flagship in New York
Studio Twenty Seven, the celebrated collectible design platform, joins Tribeca’s gallery scene with a new space that is an extension of the gallerists' own home
By Adrian Madlener Published
-
For spring, designers reimagine the classic trench coat
Uniquely chic interpretations of the classic trench coat from the S/S 2024 collections, primed for both bright spring days and inevitable April showers
By Jack Moss Published
-
Sir Kenneth Grange’s influential industrial designs are chronicled in a new book
‘Kenneth Grange: Designing the Modern World’ explores the life and work of the pioneering British industrial designer
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Giovanni Michelucci’s dramatic concrete church in the Italian Dolomites
Giovanni Michelucci’s concrete Church of Santa Maria Immacolata in the Italian Dolomites is a reverently uplifting memorial to the victims of a local disaster
By Jonathan Glancey Published
-
Milan’s 10 Corso Como revamp nods to the concept store’s industrial character
Milanese concept store 10 Corso Como unveils its new look by 2050+, a stripped-back design that nods to its 20th-century character
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Carlo Ratti announced curator of Venice Architecture Biennale 2025
Carlo Ratti has been revealed as the Director of the Architecture Department at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025, with the specific task of curating the 19th International Architecture Exhibition
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Floating infinity pool by Herzog & De Meuron at Lake Como is largest of its kind
Herzog & de Meuron creates the largest floating infinity pool in the world for Mandarin Oriental in Lake Como
By Lauren Ho Published
-
Freddy Mamani on Neo-Andean architecture and bringing a cruise ship to Bolivia
We catch up with Bolivian architect Freddy Mamani at Focus: Radical Repair, the conference curated by The World Around and Fondation Cartier in Milan, to talk about Neo-Andean architecture and his latest project, el Crucero de los Andes
By Laura May Todd Published
-
Best of brutalist Italian architecture chronicled in new book
Brutalist Italian architecture enthusiasts and concrete completists will be spoilt for choice by Roberto Conte and Stefano Perego’s pictorial tour
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Studio Tropicana, Switzerland and Italy: Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2023
Based in Switzerland and Italy, Studio Tropicana is part of the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2023, our annual round-up of exciting emerging architecture studios
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
WeWork Meravigli blends past and present in a 21st-century office space
WeWork Meravigli launches in Milan, bringing its ornate, historical new home to the 21st century
By Ellie Stathaki Published