A clear line

In the very north of Italy, in the town of Brixen in South Tyrol, the greenhouse builder Rabensteiner has its headquarters. The family business realises projects in the whole of Europe - and also in Italy itself.
One of the latest of these is the new garden centre for Floricoltura Brambilla in Vimercate to the north of Milan. Its main purpose is direct marketing, the core business of the family-run company is floriculture. Until 2018, the activity took place in a greenhouse, with plastic film covering. So it was time for a modern solution.
The particular challenge was in making the best use of the relatively small piece of land covering 4 665 m² and organising the store layout and customer guidance in such a way to allow work with only a small team. It was also important to expand and organise both the outdoor space for a small nursery and the parking area. In addition, the town's planning requirements had to be taken into account.
A new, captivating and elegant appearance was to be created which was also intended to attract new target groups. To achieve this, a very rational and linear design was decided upon. At the same time, the connotation of a greenhouse could be kept, to emphasise the character of the company: a producer of floricultural products. In addition, the building regulations only allowed the construction of a greenhouse with a completely translucent envelope.

The fact that the land lies on a much lower terrain level than that of the road also had an impact. So a greater building height and a striking facade was decided upon.
The result is a garden centre which Antonio D'Ambrosio, architect and sales director for Italy at Rabensteiner describes as: "A project without frills, with a clear and precise identity, simple and functional, where everything finds its right place and value."
The new Floricoltura Brambilla store has over 1 840 m² covered retail space, of which around 880 m² is cold house and 630 m² warm house. The nursery takes up around 900 m². The structural design is a "customised" version of the Venlo-Cabrio model, with fully openable roof, therefore with great ventilation capacity, without renouncing a highly insulating envelope.