Milan - Microsoft Italia has opened its new offices in Milan in a building designed by Herzog & De Meuron Studio for the Feltrinelli Foundation, in the Porta Nuova district. This is a space 'open' to the city, which hosts Microsoft employees offices, a showroom, and spaces for educationals, professionals or firms which wish to experiment with information technologies. "This is the completion of a project we began two years ago. The idea is to no longer have the traditional closed-in offices for employees only.
This is an open space that anyone can look into and enter and there will be a continuous flow of visitors because we are located in the centre of Milan," said Carlo Purassanta, CEO, at a press conference. The investment for the construction of the new premises of the 'Microsoft House': 10 million euros for 7,500 square metres spread on 6 floors, plus an extra 10 million euros a year for operational expenses. "The space is flexible as it can be configured according to requirements, and dynamic as no one will actually their own desk," added Mr Purassanta.
By opening its premises to the city, in 2017 Microsoft aims to welcome over 200,000 visitors, 10,000 professionals, 4000 students and 1000 school principals, with the aim of making available technology, skills and training. The group intends to expand its corporate services, which to date have supported 3600 start-ups, 1375 active business projects, generating 4,000 new jobs. The glass building designed by the Swiss architects is the first they built in Italy. The ground floor will host the showroom, which was set up in partnership with Intel, and which will be open every day from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and the Digital Class, a multimedia space devoted to educationals.
The marketing and operations director of Microsoft, Paola Cavallero, announced that the corporation signed an agreement with the Lombardy Region's education offices for the organisation of free training for 300 teachers on the digitalisation of schools. The first floor will host the Microsoft Technology Center dedicated to firms and professionals, while on the fifth floor is The Loft, a space decorated as a private apartment and designed for top events. The other floors are laid out as open spaces, where employees will have their workstations. (AGI).
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