Innovation, Responsibility and People are the foundations of Sisal’s new Headquarters on a surface area of 9000 sq. m. on 13 floors designed according to the most modern standards. Opened today in the presence of Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan, the building fully represents the three values that have allowed Sisal to enter the hearts of Italians over the course of its more than 75 years of history.
Established in Milan in 1945, Sisal has always been an integral part of the city’s development process, contributing to the technological and social progress of the country. Ever since opening its first offices at Via Quintino Sella 2, the company has always been located in the central areas of Milan: Via Manzoni, San Babila, Via Paleocapa up to its headquarters at Via Tocqueville where it remained from 2004 to 2022.
The structure of today’s building, built in the Seventies and nowadays completely renovated with a view to sustainability, is located inside the Generali Business Park, an area that will be at the centre of the urban regeneration trend for years to come and that has become one of the most innovative and international areas in Milan.
Francesco Durante, CEO of Sisal, commented: “The new headquarters project us towards the future, as we are increasingly oriented towards a responsible and sustainable business strategy over time. This project puts people and their well-being at the centre of every decision to ensure a correct work-life balance and the highest standards of well-being inside the building. I am convinced that people can best express their potential in a welcoming, inclusive and innovative work environment”.
Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan, commented: “Sisal has redesigned its headquarters with a view to truly effective environmental and social sustainability. The world of work has changed today; and the way of experiencing the workplace has also changed. The well-being of people largely depends on the workplace environment: the greener, more dynamic, more innovative and more attentive to the needs of workers it is, including in physical spaces, the more profitable will the dynamics and performances stimulated be. For this reason, I believe Sisal’s choice to equip the building with a large green space, flexible work areas and many other very contemporary services to be in line with Milan’s vision of the city”.
The new Via Ugo Bassi offices offer an avant-garde environment where all spaces have been conceived, above all thanks to the experience of Coima Image, a company specialising in architectural design, as an ecosystem of different places to stimulate new ideas and to foster collaboration between people, putting their well-being constantly at the centre of attention. The layouts of the various floors have been defined in accordance with the Activity-Based Workplace design approach, which provides for the use of workspaces based on the various activities to be carried out there during the day.
Anticipating trends that envisage increasingly hybrid ways of working, Sisal has based the building’s design on 40% of remote working, making it a customary way of working. With this spirit Sisal promotes a new corporate culture, built on collaboration between people and fostered by flexible and attractive workspaces.
Gianmarco Bocchiola, partner of COIMA Image, commented: “The new Sisal offices were born after one year and a half of active engagement and discussions. Our experience combined with Sisal’s history and vision has given rise to an attractive ecosystem. The adoption of the most innovative design models for workspaces fosters sharing, learning, innovation and both physical and virtual connections between people”.
The “core” of the entire project consists in its “green lung” area of over 500 sq. m. that dominates the central area of each floor offering wellness spaces in contact with nature.These are true greenhouses that characterise the central space of each of the 9 floors, capable of offering people a space where to relax a bit and where, at the same time, air is regenerated in a natural way.
The presence of green spaces has made it possible to apply for the Bronze level - never obtained before in Italy - of the WELL certification from the International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI™).
Other important factors have contributed to this achievement, such as improvements in acoustics, carefully studied both in terms of insulation and in terms of comfort, quality of the air guaranteed by systems built for an effective air exchange, attention to water consumption and use of certified eco-sustainable furnishings.
The new Sisal Headquarters are also slated to obtain the Commercial Interior Gold of LEED, the optional certification programme that measures the entire lifecycle of the building, from design to construction and state-of-the-art plant engineering.
The three values are in particular perfectly exemplified on the ninth floor, where, thanks to the 310 sq. m. terrace that surrounds it, you can admire the suggestive Milan skyline. Equipped with various types of seats, the Working Café on the top floor is a place catering to people’s needs.
Inside the break area there is a small market where you can buy healthy and zero-kilometre meals supplied by Foorban, Sisal’s Food & Wellbeing catering partner for all the company’s offices in Italy.
To expand the range of after-work activities there is also a 200 m2 gym, a leisure room and a car park equipped with charging columns and a number of electric cars for short and medium-range journeys.
Within its new headquarters, Sisal wishes to make its history available to everyone, by renovating its business museum MEIC (Memoria, Evoluzione e Identità Condivisa, Memory, Evolution and Shared Identity), into a widespread museum, Sisal Memory, distributed across the building’s nine floors. Old shop signs, gaming terminals and iconic posters that have made Italians dream since 1946 will be embellishing the working environment with a mix of innovation and history.
For information: Sisal Comunicazione | sisalcomunicazione@sisal.it | www.sisal.com
