Note
September 30, 2006:

The work has been under development for over a year and the first phase is almost completed. I worked, in the environment for a day this week, with the UniCredit Bank D/B/U Team on their new environment in Turin.

Next week, Gail and I will do a course there for WEF and Ales Groupe staff on the Taylor Method. This will be my first extensive use of the space. The notes, below, my documentation of three days in this environment.

Besides the NavCenter portion of the space, there is the office and collaboration space of the CEO.

This area is down the length of the Alse Groupe environment and functions as an adjunct to the NavCenter, as well as, a personal work area for the CEO and her team on various projects.

This area is actually newest expression of an office I designed for a senior executive in 1987 that was never built. The idea is to reverse the “walk-about” function and bring the work to the CEO.

I will ellaboration on this process later in this narrative.

The building, which contains the NavCenter and the Ales Group office, was designed in the 1930s by the Italian architect, Gio Ponti [link: gio ponti architect]. It was a benchmark building for its time employing one of the early uses of aluminum window walls. Alse Groupe remodeled the third floor in 2005.

Lorenza Battigello, the CEO, uses the new environment internally to develop team design practices, and externally to educate members of the distribution system on Ales Groupe products and campaigns. After working in her environment for some time, which at first seemed strange to her, she commented the day these pictures were taken “I cannot go back” (to the old way of working).

The environment can extend her own personal work space (with a design that can swing out to become a conference table) or configure to make one large or two smaller team areas. This is done in what would have been the conventional Conference Room off her office.