Bank in Donoratico / Massimo Mariani
Architect: Massimo Mariani
Location: Livorno, Italy
Project Team: Elda Bellone, Roseda Gentile, Alessandro Mariani
Project Year: 2007
Photographs: Alessandro Ciampi
The project concerns the redesign of a building at Donoratico (in Livorno) located next the head office of the bank “Banca di Credito Cooperativo di Castagneto Carducci” (also designed by architect Mariani in 2002).
The building is on two levels. From the functional point of view the ground floor houses the areas most strictly connected with the banking business like the big hall with counter and advisory services for customers. The branch management offices as well as the loan management and administrative offices are encapsulated inside a long slice of coloured bureaus on the right of the entrance.
A number of other banking offices, safe deposits and services areas (vault, archives, etc…) are in the basement.
Inside the hall, upper the round waiting seat, there is a plasterboard ceiling randomly perfored. Like a big drop, it comes out from the elongated corridor giving light to directional bureaus, services offices and common spaces.
A single graphic sign features all public spaces which are accessible to customers. All the furnishings and wooden wall are designed with vertical strip in red, blue, yellow and green.
In this way areas that in banks have traditionally been some what staid and “bleak” have been reinvented to give then an amusing and more optimistic look.
Ouaaaaaa !
Its a typical ITALIAN KITSCH architecture !
you should take a look on renzo piano, cucinella and so on, nothing in common with this project.
quite stupid considering this as an exaple of italian architecture, duce.
Renzo Piano or Cuccinella …are just exceptions !
kiss for you
This is just an interior… how does the exterior look like? There must be some kind of a story behind such a unique colour scheme… well… looks like architects do everything clients want if they are… adequately payed… :)
Dove che la bella italia? questo sembra una architectura fatta da berlusconi.
Good lord, thats horrible.
Bo, there might be no exterior, seems just like a bank office in any mall, building, etc.
And I don’t think a bank will have a corporate image that will appeal to 3 years old.
That looks more like a kindergarden than abank, it needs some crayons on the tables for the customers while they wait.
like kindergarten
MEMPHIS!! remember ettore’ s work?
i think sottsass caused a lot of bad “gusto” in italy.
but i still think that its design for the olivetti typewriter is absolute classic!
@henry, you dont know what you are talking about. did you ever hear about
Razionalismo? Futurismo? Modern Architecture from architects like Moretti, Terragni, Fiorentino (just to mention some) belong to the most important in the history of architecture.
please do not generalize, that doesn’ t lead to an interesting discussion.
o my god… so horrible
4:14 AM Nov 20th
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