A historic building from the early 1900s, once a manufacturing unit and automotive showroom, was chosen to be located in by NTT DATA, rather than a new, aseptic facility.
This choice reflects the company's strategy of engaging with the host city and community. The project involves enhancing existing architectural elements, introducing new spaces, and recovering the outdoor area to transform it into a place of exchange and interaction inspired by American university campuses.
Its proximity to the University of Bari fosters collaboration between business and education, and the outdoor space will serve an urban function, recalling historical models of gathering places such as church squares or town squares. The rehabilitation of the property ensures continuity with the site's history and promotes urban regeneration, embodying a 'humanistic' approach to business and urban transformation.
The building has predominantly horizontal development and vertical connections designed as autonomous spaces for specific activities.
The spaces are clearly defined and, due to their formal characteristics and the activities they can accommodate, can also be given metaphorical names such as 'porch', 'garden', 'hall', 'aisles', 'apse', 'Low Classroom' and 'High Classroom', as well as 'stairways'.
Natural and artificial light play a central role in the new venue. The former is filtered or screened according to Mediterranean tradition, depending on the location and requirements, while the latter is achieved through specially designed lighting fixtures that combine high performance with the domestic quality of blown glass.
With the aim of making this venue as “site specific” as possible in order to pursue a clear and strong principle of belonging, thus running counter to the standardization of multinationals, the choice of materials and finishes was oriented toward local tradition.
Textile surfaces, Trani stone, handmade terracotta tiles, and natural wood inserts, all worked with colors related to the colors of the Apulian land and shapes from local craft techniques, build an original identity of the places.
In addition, the presence of technological apparatuses proper to the company's activity, returns in an immediately perceptible way not only a synthesis between innovation and tradition but also its contemporary declination in a specific territory.
The presence of greenery, in its various forms, pervades every environment, helping to build continuity between interior and exterior.
On the subject of energy, technology and materials used, the building, like all other NTTDATA offices, is aligned with the highest known standards. However, in this specific case, since it was an intervention that also involved all parts of the envelope, it was possible to activate special attention to the most stringent ESG criteria in terms of supply chain and involvement of the local economy.
