Ralph Giannone & Pina Petricone in DDN Magazine, Milano, Issue 294

August 23, 2024

Partners Ralph Giannone and Pina Petricone in DDN Magazine, for the IFI (International Federation of Interior Architects/Designers) Voices / Exchanging Ideas feature. IFI spoke with leaders in the world design community asking the question, “what design crossovers do you experience in workspaces with the ‘home away from home’ work process?”

“A very big part of life is work, and the spaces in which we work should be inspiring and meaningful. Embracing technologies that foster much needed connectivity and collaboration we imagine an architecture that infuses hospitality with workplace design, and vise-versa. The naturally emotive qualities of well-designed spaces of gathering and conviviality can easily and seamlessly extend themselves to curated spaces of work – both individual and collective.

Creativity in the overlap of well-defined yet convertible purpose designed environments is key. Depending on hours of the day and days of the week, a harvest table space can be designed to transition from reading room, to meeting room, to cocktail bar; and a lobby lounge can be designed to transition from project pitch to power lunch, to anniversary party, for example. The same is true in workplace design where break spaces, lunchrooms, and rest rooms infiltrate and break down fields of workstations and board rooms to create unexpected, escapist moments within daily routine. An interior architecture that crosspollinates hospitality design with office design has the power to create a joyous landscape of seamless work and life.”

- Ralph Giannone & Pina Petricone

Image above: Govan Brown HQ, Toronto. Read more about this project here.