Borgo Ognissanti
SuperSpatial A chapel of the renaissance period that in the centuries carried many functions and underwent many transformations now becomes the showroom for a bespoke kitchen company.
The project is directed at transforming a former renaissance chapel in the old town of Florence, with a complex history, into a characteristic showroom for a bespoke kitchen company. The building is part of the Ognissanti church, with paintings from famous masters such as Giotto, Ghirlandaio or Botticelli, and in the centuries, held different functions, from being a church and a cemetery chapel, to being a cinema, a restaurant and even a shoe store. It has, in the past, also been a night club. Every change in its history had left some architectural trace and addition to the original volume.
The project wants to bring this space back to its original simplicity and purity, without removing the alterations from the past. With few interventions and changes specifically to the materials and in the circulation layout, the project separates what is old from what is new, underlining the different history of the elements. The modern volume, added in the 80s, gives the opportunity to create a multipurpose space, transformable and extremely flexible, with a metal structure and state-of-the-art digital technology inside.
The central space breaks the original geometry of the chapel, and includes different activities in the location, from dinners, show-cooking , meetings and co-working, to parties, exhibitions or temporary events. The modern additions have been covered by aluminum and the metal structure is cleaned from the plaster and is therefore clearly exposed. The old walls and frescos have been cleaned from the layer of paint. The false ceiling that covers the original roof has been removed and substituted by a mesh, that can change the perception of the space, according to different lighting layouts.
