Because United Colors of Benetton’s core business is clothing, the contemporary culture of design plays an important role in the group’s activity, including its corporate architecture. Benetton’s international brand style—combining color, energy, and practicality—can be seen first in its buildings. In 1964, long before it was fashionable for designers to employ brand-name architects, Lucianno Benetton chose two very young and ambitious architects, Afra and Tobia Scarpa, to design his first textile factory. This project marked the beginning of a vision of architecture aimed at enhancing the workplace: an architecture where image and substance come together.
This unique book, brilliantly designed by Massimo Vignelli, brings together all of the Benetton buildings, including plans, 500 color illustrations, superb photographs by Antonia Mulas, an interview with Luciano Benetton, and a chapter dedicated to Tadao Ando’s Fabrica building.
This book is designed and published in collaboration with Fabrica, Benetton’s corporate communications research center designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando. Tadao Ando states the true spirit of the Benetton style when describing his work on the Fabrica project: “The role of the new architecture is to bring out the charm and strength of the ancient villa and to give birth to a reciprocal, cathartic relationship between old and new in an in an atmosphere of complete harmony, transcending the limits of a specific period.