SANAA designs a sinuous campus for italian supermarket esselunga

SANAA plants esselunga campus in a large park

Esselunga is planning to build a 9,600 sqm campus dedicated to employee wellbeing in Limito di Pioltello, a town close to Milan where the company has its headquarters. Designed by SANAA, the Japanese architecture firm led by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, the project continues Esselunga’s links with internationally renowned architects. Some of its past stores were designed by Gio Ponti, Vico Magistretti, and Renzo Piano.

To be built in an abandoned industrial area, SANAA’s design is conceived as a large park within which the extensive program is accommodated in sinuous volumes. The façades are largely glazed to make the most of natural light and to connect employees to the greenery of the park. Covered canopies around the campus also help make this transition between inside and outside seamless.

images courtesy of Esselunga

an extensive program for employee wellbeing

The new campus boasts an extensive program planned across two levels: first floor and basement. The first floor will host a 700 sqm open multifunctional space intended for conferences or exhibitions as well as a bar-cafeteria and an 800 sqm sports area. There will also be a 650 sqm kindergarten that can accommodate up to 60 children and a 900 sqm medical center divided into two large circular areas: the first will host the reception and a waiting room, while the second will house the doctors’ studios. The program also caters to sports with two padel courts, one soccer field and a tennis court located adjacent to the building.

The basement will contain services, changing rooms, and a special 2,500 sqm archive documenting the company history of Esselunga. The archive intends to become not only the memory of the company but of the entire community: it will detail how the patterns of consumption, production, work, and internal mobility have changed over the years.

the building curves around pockets of green space