Angelo Mangiarotti’s material research

The Snaidero complex in Majano, the company’s headquarters, is considered one of the icons of mid-to-late 20th Century industrial architecture, as well as one of the masterpieces of its creator, the Milanese architect Angelo Mangiarotti.

Often described as a great interpreter of material and its surrounding environment, with this project Mangiarotti brings to full maturity his research into materials, construction techniques and their expressive and symbolic limits. 

A synthesis of his approach to architecture and the material reality of the time, the office building consists of a reinforced concrete shell clad with curved fibreglass panels punctuated by oval portholes.

Suspended above walls of local stone, it is supported by steel beams – the same material used for the load-bearing structures of the adjacent building and for certain interior details such as the stair balustrades.

A metaphor for Snaidero’s pioneering spirit, the building bears witness to the alchemy of materials that runs as a defining thread throughout the company’s history.

Photography project: Matteo Lavazza.