Created by Alfa Project, Manzoni Hub combines several ‘senses’: that of home, that of the workplace, that of hospitality and that of co-working. Without looking for special effects, the fusion of the project’s brand partners (Altreforme, Bang & Olufsen, Bross, EPÒNIMO, Essenze Design, Euroluce Light of Italy, WallPepper®/Group) in the 135 square metres available on two levels is harmonious and balanced, with a few aesthetic peaks that give personality without overpowering the whole.
The play of colors and the choice of ‘shuffling the cards’ (juxtaposing different brands) between one environment and the next is the winning atout that creates so many uniques that live side by side without going to war with each other. The interior design of Manzoni Hub is by architect Francesca Aletti – partner of Alfa Project – who, together with the other two partners (Alberto Parma and Andrea Crespi Reghizzi), has translated the experience gained by the three into shapes and interior architecture, filtered through a marked sensitivity linked to this market, to the knowledge of the rules of the game (a table with many players) and of the context.
Manzoni Hub answers (not coincidentally) the historical question that the hospitality industry has been asking itself for decades and that has then affected the office world: to make the customer feel ‘at home’ or to make him live an experience ‘far from home’? The answer has never existed, and perhaps never will, but Manzoni Hub’s solution – intelligent, balanced and tasteful – reveals that there is a Middle Earth that has its origins in this street, which has always been seen essentially as a boundary between Durini and Brera, the two princely districts of Milanese design, but which today has taken on a personality of its own with the constant arrival of major industry players.
All photos © Matteo Cirenei; styling Alessia Marchesan
