Dialogue as an architectural design idea, which retrieves the image of two actors on the stage of the theatre, in search of a second time in the former cinema. The bilateral nature of the required program (administrative offices and public spaces) is interpreted both in plan and elevation through clear distiptions of the interiors. Each half of the building is polarised around two foci: the spiral staircase that distributes the offices and the staircase that connects the multipurpose hall and library.
The building's elevations have been designed to maximise benefits with the least amount of work. The large openings in the rooms are contained in steel frames so as to maintain the original morphology of the walls, modified according to the logic of carving. In particular, the large ribbon of glass facing south at the ground floor aims to open the building to the outside, as a stage opens to the audience.
The wall fixtures are preserved as original elements of the building's perimeter envelope. These are carved with the new openings and insulated with an external coat. The operation is not only supposed to be a simple and economical gesture, but is also a contrasting element to enhance the work on the interior. In the interior, the emphasis is on using a wooden cladding to highlight and ennoble the two symbols of the project, the staircase and the stairway. In this way the contrast between these large pieces of furniture and the rest of the factory is clear, thanks also to the uniform flooring throughout the distribution space. The partitions towards the corridors of the offices are made of glass in order to convey their public character (maintaining the possibility of insulating them with Venetian blinds on the walls) and maximise the luminosity of the spaces. The system of pillars and the large painted steel frames of the openings emphasise the intervention on the existing building, both for the insertion of the new structure and for the treatment of the shell. On the outside, bushhammered pietra serena stone is laid, a common element for public spaces in the region.
