Prada inaugurates new industrial site in Valvigna, Tuscany

By

Laura Galbiati

Translated by
Nicola Mira

Published
Jun 12, 2018

On June 8, Prada inaugurated a new industrial site in Valvigna, Tuscany. The site was designed by architect Guido Canali, who has been working with the Italian luxury label for 20 years, and designed two other Italian factories for Prada, in Montevarchi in 1999 and Montegranaro in 2001.

 
The new site extends on a built area of over 32,000 m2 and hosts product development and manufacturing for the Prada and Miu Miu leather goods collections, the raw materials warehouse, the archives of the label’s leather goods and footwear collections, the offices of Prada’s manufacturing administration and services, an auditorium, various equipment rooms and the Prada group’s data processing centre.
 
The site is composed of four separate buildings: the main building, with the warehouse on the ground floor and the sampling workshops on the first floor; the equipment rooms, including the energy, thermal and hydraulic plants; the offices and the canteen.

In Valvigna, Prada and architect Canali replicated the ‘garden factory’ concept they had already adopted at the Montevarchi and Montegranaro sites, striving to regenerate a degraded local area and minimise the impact of the new buildings on the landscape. The site is set in a natural environment rich in vegetation and water features, which also serve as energy reserves.

“With Guido Canali, we developed a shared vision of how to approach the creation of manufacturing sites and the working environment, starting from three main premises: respect for factory workers and their activity, a shared understanding of the concept of ‘no-compromise quality’ and a recognition of the significance of details as signs of efficiency,” said Patrizio Bertelli, CEO of the Prada group. “The Valvigna industrial site incorporates these principles: its architecture respects the natural environment, is able to foster responsible, sustainable efficiency and to strike a balance between the site’s building and the landscape surrounding it,” added Bertelli.
 
At the Valvigna site’s inauguration, Prada presented the book ‘Guido Canali Architetture per Prada’, on the collaboration between the architect and the luxury label, curated by Italo Lupi.