The new Milanese headquarters of Coca-Cola HBC Italia, the biggest bottling plant for 'The Coca-Cola Company' products in Italy, is a project that first began in 2013 and has experimented with every possible phase in the process of changing office spaces. The project focuses on certain key aspects in the layout of these new spaces: technology (and the implementation of a decisive smart working policy), flexibility and communication.
From the initial brief and organisational study to budget setting, the search for the ideal building in partnership with real-estate brokers, technical assessments, fit tests and the awarding of the tender for carrying out all the subsequent stages in the project: spatial planning, concept design, executive design and building works.
The design concept developed this underlining idea based on the client's own operating identity, ensuring Coca-Cola HBC's two basic operations (production/bottling and distribution) converge into a framework summing up its most iconic features (bottle top, crate). This creates a graphic leitmotiv that can be adapted to different but coherent means of using space: appropriately scaled, it turns into an interactive support space; ensconced in a niche, it is an exhibition space hosting and enhancing the project; as a simple, surface, it turns into a graphic backdrop serving communication purposes.
Each individual of ce space must convey the brand's values and its purpose, harmoniously passing on corporate messages about the company's history and products.
The Physical Branding of the premises of the new Coca-Cola HBC headquarters begins right on the ground floor, where there is a vintage reference to the shop counter of Jacobs Pharmacy, the place were Coca-Cola first began, and on the lift landings that are an authentic celebration of CCHBC products. On the other hand it is people who figure on the walls in the break areas, while the key to interpreting the brand in the communal areas is fun and irony. Lastly, there is a real "Coke and Food" mood in the restaurant, enhancing and customizing its spaces.
Photography: Dario Tettamanzi