The location
The venue is located within the urban regeneration project which involved the spaces of the famous former cigar factory Manifattura Tabacchi in Florence, active for over seventy years and abandoned since 2001. The ambitious redevelopment project aimed to give life to a new neighborhood of the city, so that it could become an alternative meeting place compared to the historic center and a creative hub for commercial activities in art, design, fashion and refined restaurants.
The original building complex, of rationalist architecture, was designed by Bartoli and Nervi in the 1930s and has 16 buildings arranged over an area of approximately 100,000 m2, when the Monopoly decided to unify the Sant'Orsola and San Pancrazio plants.
The first Masterplan for the redevelopment of Manifattura Tabacchi developed by Concrete Architectural Associates was developed by the Sanaa architecture studio (Pritzker Prize 2010) in collaboration with Studio Mumbai, whose project identifies the building that housed the repair workshops as the iconic object for the entire intervention.The development of the Masterplan was then entrusted to the Florentine studio q-bic, in collaboration with the landscape architect Antonio Perazzi and the Piuarch studio, which was entrusted with the actual design of the new construction.
The project
The interpretation chosen by AVAMPOSTI for the interior of this project sought a synthesis between the conservation of the rigor of the original plan and the inclusion of Renaissance elements, which pervade every corner of the city of Florence. Having in mind imposing architectural references such as the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the project wanted to see in the gray and profoundly structuralist pillars of this place, the columns with smooth shafts of the Basilica of Florence. Nervi's columns end in capitals formed by structural nodes with a trapezoidal shape, which replaces the Renaissance decorative quality with the principle of extreme reduction of materia
l useful for supporting any load, at the basis of the structuralist philosophy.
The bold parallel by contrast between the productive Italian basilicas of the 1940s and the Renaissance ones, between secular and ecclesiastical, continues naturally in the choice to organize the spaces of the project into three naves, with a central nave which is accessed from the entrance staircase , very similar to the staircase of San Lorenzo and other places of worship. In Manifattura Tabacchi we find the same prevalence of gray color as in the colonnade of San Lorenzo, in which the red color of the frescoed dome overlooking the altar stands out. The red spot of the dome becomes the pizza-shaped rose window of this project in Berberè, positioned in an ironic and perfectly coherent way above the counter in which the profane ritual of cooking pizza is celebrated.
The limitations of intervention, rightly imposed by the center of via della Cascine, became the opportunity to leave exposed as much as possible of the structure desired by master Nervi. No form of false ceiling was introduced and the only full-height wall added is the one that now divides the public room into the kitchen and operations side, without changing the structural perception of the space.As in the other premises of the Berberè brand, the collaboration with the communication agency Comunicattive Agency continues for neon lights, signs and hangers. The murals in this case, as in other venues of the group, were entrusted to visual artists TO/LET.
The rooms
The resulting structure of the large administration room is an environment with an industrial flavour, softened in its more angular elements with contrasting elements:
- the counter uprights are curved and rounded on the edges;
- the colors of the materials are deliberately warm tones, above all the cherry wood of the counter, but also the brass of the uprights and the chromatic details characterizing the format (yellow band that frames the lower part of the walls, the covering of the benches, the brightness colored by neon, the wooden variants of the seats).
In this project, round marble tables are added to the classic modular solutions of square tables with school chairs, surrounded by rustic chairs made entirely of wood. Their arrangement within the plant recalls the arrangement of the tables of an informal wedding, increasing the feeling of warmth of this unique convivial space. The curtains, already adopted as a sound-absorbing and decorative solution in the Berberè Modena project, return here to recall the coffered ceiling of their Florentine ecclesiastical alter ego in the Basilica San Lorenzo, but replicate the angle and inclination in the arrangement of the sheets of the beams and the nerve structural nodes where the beams cross.
The only room separate from the main room is a waiting room which acts as a passage to the bathrooms: created through an arched opening positioned on the side of the wall behind the counter. The red color of the walls emphasizes the "Tom & Jerry" effect and enhances the view from the main room, making it resemble a sort of secret refuge.
Technical light and special lighting fixtures
The technical lighting of the living room and kitchen was resolved with white spotlights, but it was a shared desire with the owners to embellish the project with a recognizable element of accent and furnishing light. Berberè Manifattura Tabacchi therefore inspired the imagination of 9 lighting fixtures, designed for the occasion by Avamposti Architettura and created in the special guise of the Viabizzuno® brand.
The creative process of this site-specific furnishing object starts from a shape already seen in engineer Nervi's structures, albeit in a completely different architectural and functional context, specifically inspired by the shape of some of his pillars. The lines seen in the pillars of Savona change proportions and orientation, maintaining their ability to reduce a complex function into a geometrically simple form, and are transformed here into brass prisms with luminous cuts positioned on two vertical edges.
The kitchen
The kitchen area, as well as the bar and the key operations areas of the group's restaurants, are designed together with the Berberè staff. Also in this case the project was born from a functional positioning of the kitchen, which took into account the internal flows and towards the room. 70m2 were allocated to the kitchen, dough and washing area.
In this specific project the large open kitchen, protected by architectural windows topped by screens with rounded edges, occupies the central core of the main room. Upon entering, the customer immediately sees the oven mouth, here larger than the standard and viewed from the front.
The service rooms are accessible from the main room through two doors, created in the wall behind the counter.
The customer's visible preparation area is surrounded on three sides by the wet bar that we have already seen in other projects of the brand, characterized by cherry-colored wood, Carrara-type marble worktops and polished brass uprights that support glass windows framed by frames rounded and connected to each other. On the two long sides of the counter there are the functional accesses to the kitchen with 1) pass and 2) bar.
The bar
The bar area closes in a horseshoe shape with the neon pizza rosette set in a special circular hole, allowing dimensions of 17 linear meters in this project, incorporating the two columns of the central nave.
The counter, as well as the paneling, are made of hollow milled wood, with a cherry laminate inside.
Cash register and reception furniture
A solution of architectural interest concerns the twin elements of cash register and service cabinet placed against the walls on the sides of the main entrance. The glass that tops the wooden furniture is replaced by a mirror, to break through and make the visual horizons wider, but also to allow the staff to continue to monitor the room even when concentrated on cashiering and reception management.
The stained glass windows
The pre-existing windows have been preserved and we have tried not to block them with visual obstacles of any kind. Undoubtedly imposing in their height and complicit in the play of light produced by the custom lighting fixtures.
The proportion generated by the yellow band that frames the perimeter of the room is interesting, a characterizing element of the format, which here maintains the same height as other projects of the brand, further highlighting the imposing heights of the windows and walls.
The outdoor area
The summer seats were positioned mainly on the sides of the entrance to the building. Following the indications of the owners of the Manifattura Tabacchi centre, the external space is made interesting above all by the industrial context and the way in which it frames and projects inside the premises. The entrance surmounted by an overpass which houses stairs leading to the floors, gives further importance to the entrance and the space dedicated to the outdoor area. The bulges that frame the entrance door are pillars that support the overpass.
Design team
Outposts Architecture / architectural and executive design, interior design, furniture, artistic direction
Communicative Agency / visual brand identity, look and feel
MTDM Srl / ownership
Photographs / Federica Dattilo
Partner
Aligroup Grandimpianti / Industrial kitchen
Decorating / Furnishings
Viabizzuno® / Lighting bodies (technical and special lights)
