Maddalena spa / Alessandro Zuccolo / Fantoni

Founded in 1919, Maddalena Spa, innovative engineering company specialized in the production of heating water and thermal energy meters, has celebrated its hundredth anniversary with an important expansion of its headquarters, in the province of Udine, that led it to boast Europe’s highest-capacity water meter production facility under a single roof and to reach 15,000 covered sqm, with an ultramodern integrated logistics, a new warehouse and new offices at the forefront of comfort and technology.

Aware of the significant impact of a company that produces 3 million meters per year, employs 150 people and reinvests 10% of its turnover in research and development, the management board has decided to establish a dialogue with the territory through the large glass curtain walls that characterize the architecture. As witness of a local culture and an environmental and social sustainable approach, the company has found the key to its future success in the comfort and efficiency of the new spaces, designed by architect Alessandro Zuccolo. 

The production of the furniture of the offices of the hospitality areas and of the auditorium, which helped to achieve these objectives, was another great challenge successfully won by Fantoni, the Friulian leading manufacturer of office furniture, partition and storage wall systems, sound-absorbing systems and MDF and chipboard panels, which offers, thanks to its proactive approach to research, products, systems and solutions conceived to meet all the needs of the office world.

The new building – open onto the landscape and welcoming to the local community – which accommodates the offices of Maddalena Spa, is accessed via an airlock covered by a steel and wood canopy, leading to a scenic double-height hall, where guests are welcomed at the reception desks created with 4akustik sound-absorbing panels. Strongly characterized by two architectural elements, a self-supporting staircase and a glass and steel elevator, the hall connects the two levels of the building. The ground floor is a large open space dedicated to training, conferences and operational meetings that houses a great variety of functions, offering informality, openness to team working, modularity, functional longevity and efficiency.

Here, the Hub collection by Fantoni favours a smart and hybrid work, defines a versatile environment and reduces hierarchies by promoting an informal communication. The other operational functions of the ground floor are entrusted to the world of the 45 degree edges, core of Fantoni’s historical production, designed by architect Gino Valle, who contributed to making the culture of design greater. The dematerialization of the panel, the essentiality, the minimalism, the simplicity of these furnishings express a particular vision of the office world as an environment where the absence of exteriority as an end in itself leaves room for action. The upper floor houses the executive offices and an executive meeting room overlooking the double-height space and open onto the surrounding landscape.

The upper floor houses the executive offices and an executive meeting room overlooking the double-height space and open onto the surrounding landscape. All spaces, from the reception to the workstations and from the meeting spaces to the training rooms, are stylistically characterized by formal rigor and an essential, timeless appearance, devoted to excellence and destined to last over time.