Embracing Innovation: Park Associati Designs Luxottica's Digital Factory

The Digital Factory of Luxottica, a world leader in the eyewear market, has been given a new lease of life in Milan thanks to Park Associati's industrial architectural restoration intervention. In collaboration with Storagemilano, the complex has been transformed into an open and flexible container where history, change and creativity can converge. Quality, technologically innovative materials and cutting-edge architectural solutions have been used to create a project that pays homage to Luxottica's identity principles, while also respecting the particular elements of the place and the social fabric of the neighbourhood. Park Associati's project has reinterpreted the existing industrial building - formerly occupied by General Electric - by maintaining its main volumes and character, while also adding contemporary, top-quality elements to the façade and interior. The intervention has emphasised the building's original shapes and lines by eliminating any later internal additions, and by adapting the building to contemporary safety and sustainability parameters. The excellent reinforced concrete truss design has been preserved, and the façade's vertical shape has been enhanced.

The result of technological and structural research, the daring and startling façade of the building on Via Tortona is a full-height glazed structure with vertical metal blades reminiscent of sheds. Transparency is reflected in the interior spaces, which have been completely reinterpreted to accommodate the showroom and commercial spaces on the ground floor, and the Digital Lab - a high-tech innovation centre - on the first floor. Designed by Storagemilano in collaboration with Park Associati, the interiors are bright and comfortable, featuring green leisure and informal meeting areas such as the internal garden on the ground floor and the green patios on the first floor. The intervention follows a LEED quality and sustainability protocol and is estimated to receive the "GOLD" class. By revitalizing an area of the city that was once suburban, the Digital Factory has returned it to the urban and social fabric.