Specific Objects

Still by the end of 2021, it had become a tradition that the clients of a well-established law firm in
the city of Torino, North-western Italy, should find themselves right in the middle of a shut-doorstudded,
neon-lit corridor as they entered the office, being welcomed by nothing but a flat wall, with
just a cut-off window revealing a reception desk behind.
The firm’s partners had nonetheless had enough of such uncomfortable tradition. They would
therefore ask that the two rooms facing the entrance door shall be renovated to properly fit a
welcome and waiting area, secretaries’ back office and a relax corner.
Instead of embarking in the quest for the perfect office, a literally unreal icon, PAT. has chosen to
radically explore the potential of visual experience, by picking the typology of contemporary art
white cube as their reference, where sharp volumes are displayed, purest yet material units of color
interacting with space and light like Donald Judd’s specific objects, welcoming clients to the realm
of work as they would do to an art show. And properly housing all functions inside an inedited
spatial layout.
Walls are gone, five lacquered wood volumes define the space: a golden one for the welcome desk,
two blue pillars for coffee machine and servers, a petrol-green box protecting two back office desks,
one last pale blue partition hosting the printers. Space is also defined from above, by three soundabsorbing
suspended ceiling panels, framed by four low-voltage tracks, equipped with an editable
set of removable led strips and spots.
All existing electrical systems have been replaced and reorganized, the carving left in the floor by
demolishing the partitions is acting as a ready-made wire trunking for the two back office desks, all
remaining wires are channeled through floor conduits and a ceiling steel trunking, connecting the
two halves of the office.
Original flooring is preserved and a continuity bond is established with the long life and tradition
of the existing office, gathering around the new welcome/exhibition space, where glimpses of the
original wooden-clad meeting rooms, and the firm’s engravings collection can find their proper role
in a collective visual balance.