Located in the heart of Bologna’s Lame district, the new CRIF21 Headquarters was developed through a redevelopment and replacement project on a former industrial site, with the goal of returning to the urban fabric an innovative, sustainable, and high-performance office building. The property comprises six above-ground floors, two underground levels mainly used for parking and ancillary facilities, and a technical rooftop level built with a steel structure and designed as a photovoltaic pergola.
The volumetric composition results from a careful study of the relationship with the surrounding context: façades open toward the landscape and close toward the street, following a logic of plastic addition and subtraction that shapes the spaces and creates fluid connections between interior and exterior. The high-performance façades alternate large glazed surfaces with ceramic-clad pillars, ensuring transparency, solar protection, and material continuity with the urban setting.
The building covers a total area of 10,500 sqm and is designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification and Energy Class A4. Among the key sustainable strategies adopted are a geothermal and photovoltaic system, full-electric mechanical systems with no use of fossil gas, building automation systems with dynamic regulation of natural and artificial lighting, and a building envelope optimized according to solar orientation to minimize thermal loads.
The interior space visually extends toward the central green courtyard of over 2,000 sqm, fully integrated into the architecture and designed as a place for rest, work, and social interaction. The bioclimatic strategies, together with the vegetation and the controlled use of reflective surfaces, actively contribute to mitigating the urban heat island effect, improving the local microclimate and indoor environmental quality for users.
