A new image for aluminium pipe maker Tubettificio Pedercini

Tubettificio Pedercini, a small company located in the town of Coccaglio in the northern Italian province of Brescia, has been operating in the aluminium processing industry for more than thirty years, specialising in the production of flexible aluminium pipes for use in the food, cosmetics, chemical and pharmaceutical sectors. Located along the former state road 573 connecting the province of Brescia with the nearby city of Bergamo, the production facility was built in stages as the company grew and needed more space.
The latest renovation and modernisation work was carried out fairly recently and adopted a two-stage approach. The first step involved upgrading the production lines in terms of performance to meet the demands of an increasingly competitive marketplace, while the second step was to renovate the buildings themselves. Architect Roberto Taglietti, whose practice is also located in the town of Coccaglio, was commissioned to redevelop and expand a disjointed and rather unsightly building complex set in a heterogenous context typical of the outskirts of many Po Valley towns, where factories are interspersed with fields and agricultural areas.
Taglietti’s project aimed to rationalise the original layout of the complex in terms of its internal organisation and massing through a plan that focused on three main actions: demolition of the parts that were most outdated and difficult to reuse; maintaining and renovating the most recent sections (the buildings constructed between the late 1990s and the early 2000s); and constructing a new roadside building with two above-ground floors and a basement.
The renovated complex is more unified and compact and has a total floor space of 8,000 m2, including 7,000 m2 of production facilities and 1,000 m2 of administration space, consisting of a new entrance, offices and service areas with changing rooms for the staff and the caretaker’s lodgings.
The new entrance and visitor reception is visible from the road and is clearly identified by a monumental arcade formed by a double-height intertwining white metal structure. This structure, inspired by the pressed metallic blocks of aluminium processing residues ready for recycling, stands out against the neutral-coloured backdrop of the new envelope, which in turn consists of a ventilated façade clad with Florim Magnum Oversize large-size tiles from the Industrial collection by Floor Gres in Moka and Grigio colours (also used on the interior floors and part of the outdoor area) and a luminous structural glass façade that highlights the entrance and the office area.