Kengo Kuma talks about the new biophilic office Welcome

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panoramic terrace, welcome, kengo kuma, salone milano

Welcome, panoramic terrace and greenhouse, image KKAA

The biophilic Welcome office development, designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates, with Stefano Marcuso, is making headway in Milan. We talked about it with Kengo Kuma

“During the 20th century, architects killed off local materials and skills, believing that cement would save the world. It was a grave mistake. It is only by harnessing the knowledge of places that we can rehabilitate the identities of places”, Kengo Kuma told the Salone Milano public during the launch of the new biophilic office development conceived by Europa Risorse SGR and designed by Kengo Kuma and Associates, currently being built in the Rizzoli urban area, near Milan’s Lambro Park.

piazza cazzaniga, welcome, kengo kuma, salone milano — Welcome, view of Piazza from Via Cazzaniga, image Luxigon

The project has been flagged up by such well-known figures as the botanist Stefano Mancuso, Yuki Ikeguchi, head of design and partner at KKAA, the President of Europa Risorse, Antonio Napoleone, and the councillor for urban regeneration at the Municipality of Milan, Giancarlo Tancredi, amongst others. Welcome, Feeling at Work is the first biophilic office development to be built taking the new demands of workers and citizens into account.

“We conceived Welcome like a large open piazza, with hanging gardens anyone can walk through, spend some time and work in,” said project head Yuki Ikeguchi.

“We wanted a healthier, well-lit, dynamic, social working environment immersed in nature, which is the context in which people feel most at their ease,” added Antonio Napoleone of Europa Risorse. “In biophilic environments, people are happier to come into the office, they get less sick and are more creative and productive,” he explained.

courtyard, welcome, kengo kuma, salone milano — Welcome, courtyard, image KKAA

The building will take the shape of offset large wood, glass and steel parallelipeds, surmounted by hanging gardens, open to the local community, with offices, auditoriums, co-working spaces, halls designated for business meetings, as well as restaurants and lounges, shops, a supermarket, a wellness area, spaces for temporary events and exhibitions. As well as the terraces, there will be a large central ground floor piazza, permeable and accessible from all directions. The idea was to erect a zero CO2 emissions building, with renewable energy, consumption control and water retrieval, covered with endemic plant species as an integral part of the architectural project. The cherry on the cake is a large-scale Factory of Air, the project Stefano Mancuso’s research team has been carrying forward for years, which brings together botany and cutting-edge technologies for substantially improving our lives and that of the air we breathe.

reception, welcome, kengo kuma, salone milano — Welcome, reception, image FUD

“Plants are our habitat. It’s only the last few generations who have lived in closed environments, distanced from plants. We evolved beneath the trees. Our bodies are built to be on trees – being among them is good for us,” said Stefano Mancuso. He cites scientific studies and study cases that show that our physical wellbeing and healing, cognitive and creative processes improve significantly and very rapidly when we’re in contact with plants.

This new workspace in Milan also takes account of trends such as the rise in voluntary resignations and workers’ demands for workplaces that are a better fit with their lives, as Umberto Frigelli, a member of the AIDP Italian Association for People Management pointed out.

Welcome will be “turned over” to the citizens of Milan in 2024, and is close to the Crescenzago metro stop on the green line.