Designing a new headquarters for Max Mara was an opportunity to reorder the global fashion group’s operations, in a form that reflects its own design principles and roots in Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region. Set on 30 hectares of former farmland beside the Autostrada del Sole, the campus is a carefully composed working landscape in which architecture, infrastructure and cultivated open space operate as a unified system.
The organisation and appearance of the campus draw on two distinctive local features: the well-proportioned post-war factories that line the motorway, and the fine grain of agricultural fields in the Po Valley, whose boundaries date back to Roman times. A central aim was to retain the agricultural character, and the campus was conceived as large farm – a composition of diverse, functional buildings set among glades of trees.
The masterplan is underpinned by an orthogonal grid extending across the entire site, rooting the development in familiar patterns while providing a rational framework for movement, servicing and future expansion.
Design studios, showrooms and logistics facilities are separated according to their environmental and operational needs, but brought into close proximity to encourage interaction between 2500 staff and nine brands previously dispersed across multiple sites. The result is a 45,000m2 workplace that is both legible and adaptable, with each component contributing to a coherent whole.
Client: MaxMara Fashion Group
Dates: 1998—2004
Architect:
John McAslan + Partners
Consultants
Ambiente Europa / Unieco
S.c.r.l / Frabboni S.p.A
Arcdesign
Intertecno SPA
Peter Walker & Partners
General Contractors:
Ambienta Europa
Unieco
Frabboni
Awards
Winner
Function and expression
At the heart of the campus are three closely spaced studio buildings aligned in a row, allowing future additions. Set above basement parking, each is square in plan and subdivided into eight linked pavilions around a central courtyard. Large floors are broken down into manageable units, allowing daylight and views to penetrate deep into the plan while creating a sense of community.
The external expression of the studio buildings makes this internal logic visible. Slender glazed stair towers mark the junctions between pavilions, expressing circulation and introducing a rhythmic vertical counterpoint to the long horizontal elevations. Materials were chosen for regional association and to reflect the character of Max Mara. Red brick tiles recall traditional construction, while roof-height louvred canopies, supported on slender steel columns, provide shade and a tectonic refinement that subtly echoes the precision of tailoring.
Open-plan workspaces are arranged in continuous rings, allowing layouts to evolve as processes change. Services are located along inner and outer perimeters to keep primary work areas uncluttered. Exposed in-situ concrete provides structural clarity and durability, while timber linings add warmth and acoustic comfort. On the upper floors, deep coffered rooflights formed in fair-faced concrete deliver controlled daylight to the airy ateliers.
A productive landscape
Landscape design is integral to the project’s organisational and experiential ambitions. Shaded streets between the studio buildings establish the site’s primary axial routes, extending outwards as long avenues of Lombardy poplar trees that project the campus grid into the surrounding countryside. To the south, dense hedgerows screen parking areas and buffer highway noise. Planting, developed in collaboration with landscape architect Peter Walker, underscores the productive purpose of the campus, with fields of crops irrigated by watercourses that tie into a regional network.
Unity and variety
The same material palette and strong geometric character is applied in different architectural forms to distinguish the other principal buildings. The showroom is a long, single-storey structure with a sawtooth roof, providing consistent light for the display of collections. A glazed internal street encourages informal encounters, while its position opposite the studios across a formal ‘villa garden’ reinforces the relationship between design and presentation. Lawns, native planting and a linear pool create a measured foreground that mediates between buildings and the wider, wilder landscape.
The warehouse has a more explicitly industrial character: facades of precast concrete and ventilated metal rainscreens are articulated by external staircases of perforated steel wrapped around freestanding concrete fins. This utilitarian building was also conceived as part of daily life for all staff, with a timber-lined canteen at first-floor level opening onto a shaded balcony with views across pavilions, canals and tree-lined paths. It is a scene that feels simultaneously industrial and pastoral, supporting operational efficiency and making an uplifting, convivial place to work.
