Palazzo del Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Banking palazzo in Colle di Val d'Elsa, Italy.
Palazzo del Monte dei Paschi di Siena is a banking building in Colle di Val d'Elsa featuring five floors that combine solid walls, glass surfaces, and metal structures. The ground level has open spaces designed to facilitate customer interactions and services.
The palazzo was designed by architect Giovanni Michelucci and replaced a former glass factory that once occupied the site. It opened in 1983 as a banking headquarters.
The steel frames shaped like trees, conceived as three-hinged arches with horizontal tie rods, carry the suspended secondary structures. The stone is Sienese travertine laid in opus incertum, and the three colours of white, red and brown mark the stone, the structural frame and the metal cladding. The covered ground-floor square, paved in travertine, is the surviving trace of Michelucci's intended public market agora.
Public access is through the stone tower at the south-west corner of the ground floor, which holds the stairs and lift; a separate metal stair on via della Spugna serves staff. The site is bounded by via della Spugna to the south and the narrow via della Ruota to the west, with the railway alongside the remaining sides. The covered square, walkways and belvedere balconies can be walked through freely.
The building features an irregular layout with red steel columns that pass through different volumes, creating unexpected pathways inside. This design choice makes every corner of the palazzo visually interesting.
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