Ducati China Training Center is a place to learn and grow. Here, the historic Italian motorcycle brand, trains its new employees. The subjects taught are: motorcycle mechanic theory and repair, sales and marketing strategies.

For this 350sqm, the client requested a flexible and open space but with separated areas for each of the subjects. Another request was to have a small office and a big storage for motorcycle parts, sales and marketing material.

The client requests set the principles to design the space. We decided to take advantage of the double height of the existing space and designed a mezzanine in the form of an elevated volume. In this way we created a big storage room and, at the same time, visually divided the space in two areas. The ground floor is kept open and accessible, for both people and motorcycles.

Under the elevated mezzanine we placed a big pantry/hot desk table. We wanted this space to became a meeting point, where the students can have informal meetings, have a coffee together or simply bump into each other.

Conveniently, next to it there is a small pantry fully equipped with snacks and Italian espresso. An additional storage at the ground floor is reserved for heavy load engine parts.

The office is located on the mezzanine, over the pantry. It is reserved to teachers and administration. We opened up the office through two big windows to let natural light in and to overview respectively the sales and mechanic area.

The existing space was a dismissed concrete warehouse. The design style complements the brutalism of the space, adding a “street” feeling that match the character of Ducati motorcycles.

We chose to keep the original floor of the warehouse, properly reinforced and polished, for its old-hand feeling. Stairs and mezzanine structure are in dark metal and illumination is simple and industrial. Fascinating is the big barrisol light hovering over the motorcycle stations and creating a “stage” effect.

As final touch, we painted in red and yellow some corners of the space to visually recall the brand identity of Ducati.