Salewa headquarters

The functional theme - a large warehouse, offices, factory shops, kindergarten, cafeteria and indoor climbing gym - is articulated following the client’s desire to have a representation of the company’s brand, producing sophisticated mountain climbing apparel. The exceptional location adjacent to the Brennero highway suggested a “landmark” building, in formal dialog with the surrounding steep cliffs. The oxidized zinc envelope and the large north-facing glazed surfaces generate a “mineral” feeling of the whole building on the backdrop of the beautiful and hard landscape.

The new headquarters of Salewa, one of the most important manufacturing firms in Bolzano, is integrated into the landscape at the point where the city of Bolzano meets the uncontaminated nature of the mountains. As well as housing new work spaces, the building aims to provide a space of interaction and communication between the company and its network of suppliers, partners and clients. The new headquarters represents a point of convergence between different elements of everyday life: from physical, social and communicative dimensions to work styles and leisure. The Salewa headquarters is formed by a series of multifaceted slabs and towers, including a 50 metre-high structure which when built will be the tallest building in the city. The project combines an electro-coloured micro-perforated aluminium skin which protects the most exposed parts of the building with a large vertical glass covering. The resulting visual effect is that of a rock crystal. The interplay between the thin sheet metal-like pillars and the delicate protective layers frame the façades and underline the contrast between the invisible and visible areas. Situated in a particular geographic location, this complex represents a place of information exchange between the dense web of material and immaterial relations that constitute the life of a modern company.

The building designed for Salewa is a synonym for iconic architecture, while being sustainable at the same time. The project by Cino Zucchi Architetti and Park Associati is a reference for the territory, both for its composition choices – relation with the context – and its functional program which opens the corporate building to an interesting combination of uses. 

Built on the edge of the city of Bolzano, it is conceived both in its relation with the landscape of the Dolomites and in the way it is perceived from the highway, becoming a new landmark. A reference also for its attention to energy consumption and the sustainable use of resources.

The decision to equip the building with the most advanced energy-saving systems has led the designers to choices that are structural in the first place; the materials used for the facade and aluminum skin that envelops the whole building were selected so as to integrate with the surrounding landscape and ensure first-level energy performances.

The film shows in detail how materials, energy-saving systems, morphology and architectural composition can coexist within a contemporary architecture project. The words of the designers and actors involved reveal not only the building process, but also the careful research and diversification strategies in terms of uses and time.