A unique law office designed by Marchisciana Saverio Adriano | Saverio Adriano Marchisciana

In the Sicilian city of Gela, a law firm headed by a young lawyer and housed in a 19th century building on the most important street of the city, has renovated its offices.

By agreement with the client, who is a great admirer of contemporary art and design, a decision was taken to give the interior a modern, dynamic feel as a specially designed ensemble in which everything is made to measure. The intention of the project was to produce an effect of astonishment on anyone entering the legal office for the first time: the overall effect of the architectural volumes seems to be a precarious balance, and all the items of furniture give the impression of being on the verge of overturning. This gives an impression that the space is in movement.

This theme of movement is a constant presence in the architectural tradition of southern Italy, and is found in many of the scenic Baroque squares of eighteenth century Sicily. And just as in a Baroque piazza, this office interior has a similarly striking and pleasing spatial effect.

A precise combination of voids and solids in the project, of spaces that serve a solid function and that contrast with the surfaces, which are void, determines a sense of amplitude and at the same time an almost sculptural order of the elements, creating a space of considerable formal impact.

Upon entering, clients find themselves immersed in a space they did not expect that surrounds them with deformed and inclined objects, and furnishings that seem to subvert the principles of gravity.

A large bookcase detaches itself from the wall, taking the form of four tall pointed modules that are rotated like a fan and extend all the way to the ceiling. The desk, which is conceived as a futuristic control panel, occupies the central space of the office, imposing itself with a clearly pronounced edge that appears to be suspended in the void: a sharp point that rests on a tempered glass plate which is invisible at first glance. The sense of precariousness and instability is surprising.

Two tall archive cabinets on opposite walls serve as storage for the client files. Above these archives, two triangular shelves serve as additional modules that enlarge the rich library of this unique law firm.

The sense of movement that the project evokes is accentuated by the interplay of the cylindrical light fittings, which descend from the large sloping ceiling, freely positioned in the space and suspended at variable heights.