International design and innovation firm CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati has completed the renovation of a historic building in Turin, Italy, transforming it into the new Open Innovation Center for the financial company Sella Group. The project reimagines office spaces as fluid environments for collaboration. The conventional setup of the office gives way to something that resembles a “piazza” – recalling the vibrant squares as a center of the Italian public life – where spontaneous interactions and idea generation take center stage.
As work evolves, our conception of the office must adapt alongside it. The era of cubicles, immortalized by director Jacques Tati in the movie Playtime, or the uniform open spaces of Billy Wilder’s The Apartment, have, thankfully, drawn to a close. Even the pre-covid co-working places are starting to look seriously outdated. Yet, the bets on what the future office model will bring to us are still open.
The Sella Open Innovation Center focuses on the workplace at a pace that can foster organic connections and unplanned interactions. The takes inspiration from the office as an urban playground, a dynamic plaza that allows ideas to move freely through shared areas. Communal zones are designed to suggest a new way of working, stimulating encounters while offering varying degrees of privacy to accommodate different modes of work.
Situated in Turin’s central Crocetta district, the Open Innovation Center spans 5,500 square meters (around 60,000 square feet) and acts as a hub integrating all the Group’s specialized consulting skills in its various business areas with the aim of developing innovation to generate a positive social, economic, environmental and regional impact. The design incorporates features such as an agora for events, flexible workstations, and terraced meeting pods, allowing workspaces to be shared adaptively throughout the day. Informal creative work areas are provided on each floor equipped with open seating and workbenches. This project is part of Sella Group’s broader strategy to support the growth of the Piedmont region, backing its lively innovation ecosystem and strengthening the competitive edge of its companies and startups through a variety of consulting services that can help them address today’s challenges and seize the opportunities offered by innovation using an “open” approach.
“We believe that physical spaces will continue to play a crucial role in catalyzing innovation,” says Carlo Ratti, founding partner of CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati and director of the MIT Senseable City Lab, currently Curator of the 19th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia 2025. “In this project for Sella Group, we imagined a building as a series of plazas to emphasize the importance of shared workspaces where the ‘weak ties’ initially theorized by professor Mark Granovetter could naturally emerge. These are impromptu, casual connections that provide access to new information and opportunities, which are indispensable for generating new ideas and strengthening company culture.”
The building also incorporates an advanced air exchange system and environmental climate control, based on a distributed “smart skin” approach which does not require traditional air treatment. A network of sensors activates optimal automated responses under all conditions of usage. This design feature underscores the project’s commitment to energy efficiency.
This project is a continuation of CRA’s ongoing experimentation with innovative workspaces. Previous projects include the new Fondazione Agnelli headquarters in Turin, the CapitaSpring skyscraper in Singapore (designed in collaboration with BIG), and the renovation of Oscar Niemeyer’s Palazzo Mondadori in Milan.
CREDITS
A project by CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati for Sella Group
Creative lead: Italo Rota
CRA team: Carlo Ratti, Andrea Cassi (partner-in-charge), Francesco Strocchio (partner-in-charge), Chiara Morandini, Serena Giardina, Luca Lidonnici, Eugenia Macchia, Marie Pétrault; CRA graphic team: Gary Di Silvio, Pasquale Milieri, Gianluca Zimbardi
Structural Engineering: INGEMPBP (Corrado Curti, Marco Bertelli, Giuseppe Coco)
Systems, lighting, acoustics: PROJEMA (Ivan Pavanello, Simone Graziano, Emanuele Lenta, Diego Dellerba)
Fire safety, security: ARCHING (Alessandro Rossi, Stefano De Pippo)
Photos by Melania Delle Grave, Alessandro Saletta, DSL Studio; CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati; Chiara Esposito