SANAA designs a campus for the Italian supermarket Esselunga

SANAA, the Japanese architecture firm led by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, was commissioned to design a new campus for the Italian supermarket Esselunga, aimed at the employees of the Italian retail store chain.

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 administrative headquarters and one of the most important logistics and production hubs of the company has been located since 1964.

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.

Campus for the Italian supermarket Esselunga by SANAA. Renderings courtesy of Esselunga

The project is entrusted to SANAA and will be built in an abandoned industrial area. It is conceived as a large park of approximately 10,500 square meters, within which the extensive program is accommodated in sinuous volumes, creating a special relationship of continuity between architecture and nature.

SANAA's proposal, a volume with two levels, ground floor and basement, will have 9,600 square meters and will house: a sports area of more than 800 square meters with sports fields, a 650 square meter nursery (it can house up to 60 children), a multifunctional diaphanous space of more than 700 square meters destined for conferences or exhibitions, equipped with a bar-cafeteria, a 900 square meter and in the basement, in addition to the service rooms and changing rooms, the historical archive of the company of 2,500 square meters with a special consultation area.

The façades are largely glazed to make the most of natural light and to create visual connections to the greenery of the park.

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More information

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Architects

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SANAA. Kazuyo Sejima, Ryue Nishizawa.

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Client

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Esselunga.

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Area

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Plot area.- 10,500 sqm.
GFA.- 9,600 sqm.

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Dates

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May, 2022.

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Location

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Limito di Pioltello, Italy.

KAZUYO SEJIMA & RYUE NISHIZAWA. SANAA

SANAA. Kazuyo Sejima (Ibaraki, Japan, 1956) and Ryue Nishizawa (Kanagawa, Japan, 1966) worked independently from each other before founding the SANAA Ltd. studio in 1995. Having studied architecture at the Japan Women’s University, Sejima went on to work for the renowned architect Toyo Ito. She set up her studio in 1987 and in 1992 was proclaimed Young Architect of the Year in Japan. Nishizawa studied architecture at the Yokohama National University. In addition to his work with Sejima, he has had his practice since 1997.

The studio has built several extraordinarily successful commercial and institutional buildings, civic centres, homes and museums both in Japan and elsewhere. These include the O Museum in Nagano (1999) and the N Museum in Wakayama (1997), the Day-Care Center in Yokohama (2000), the Prada Beauty Store in Tokyo and Hong Kong (2001), the Issey Miyake and Christian Dior Building in Tokyo (2003) and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa (2004). Sejima also designed the famous Small House in Tokyo (2000), the Toledo Museum of Art Glass Pavilion, Toledo, Ohio (2001-2006), the extension to the Institut Valencia d’Art Modern, Valencia, Spain (2002 – ), the Zollverein School, Essen, Germany (2003-2006), the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2003-2007) and the Novartis Campus WSJ-157 Office Building, Basle, Switzerland (2003 – ).

In 2004 Sejima and Nishizawa were awarded the Golden Lion at the 9th Venice Architecture Biennale for their distinguished work on the Metamorph exhibition.

Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa have won the 2010 Pritzker Prize.

The 12th International Architecture Exhibition was directed by Kazuyo Sejima, the first woman to direct the Venice Architecture Biennale, since its inception in 1980.