Pastiglie Leone factory, Collegno

Project:	Pastiglie Leone factory Collegno
Client:	Pastiglie Leone
Architect:	PIUARCH
Product:	Terratoscana.covering

The brief:

To create a statement, bespoke rainscreen cladding facade for this heritage Italian confectionery brand’s new factory and visitor centre. Pastiglie Leone dates back to 1857 and is renowned for its artisanal pastilles, candies, jellies, liquorice and fine chocolates.

Its brand colour palette is packed with tones that reflect the sumptuousness of its sweet lines and chocolate choices. A palette in-keeping with a company that is proud of its products that include a vortex of colours, flavours and fragrances that bring joy and happiness.

What makes this facade special?

The artisanal qualities of our Terratoscana.covering rainscreen cladding proved a perfect match for this bespoke brand’s requirement. To create a facade with a series of customised tones and textures in a clay product that complemented the pastel palettes to bring the brand’s sweet ranges to life at the entry point to the building.

Terratoscana.covering represents our ability to provide the most highly customised, handcrafted clay facade detailing, using specialist glazes and bespoke profiles to meet design vision in clay without compromise, thanks to generations of expertise from our master craftsmen.

Tradition meets modernity

Our brief was to transform the entry into the new Leone factory in Collegno near Turin, into an architectural statement that would be instantly recognisable from the outside, as a contemporary facade representation of a brand approaching its 170th anniversary.

Designed by Italian architecture and urban planning consultancy PIUARCH, the facade was intended to reflect this evolution of the brand: a contemporary production facility, open to the public, yet rooted in an identity shaped by tradition, memory and Italian identity.

A curtain to the art of confectionery

The exterior envelope was intended to enhance PIUARCH’s architectural concept, evoke the archetype of the brand’s historic Piedmontese factory and, at the same time, support Leone’s positioning towards a more experiential and contemporary identity.

Aliva’s role centred on the material and architectural interpretation of this vision through the facade concept that has been conceived as a ‘curtain’ that both invites and intrigues visitors to enter the iconic brand’s building and immerse themselves in its colourful character.

The concave and convex profiles of our Terratoscana.covering have created the undulation that evokes the sense of a plush colour packed curtain, with glazed colourways that reflect the brand’s sweet ranges beautifully. The body of the building has been complemented by the same undulation in rich brown toned tiles that evoke its fine chocolate ranges.

The services we provided for the project included consultancy and the design, supply and installation of this bespoke facade, created with two moulds and in lengths of up to 1500mm, with a natural terracotta finish on the unglazed Terratoscana.covering and a glazed finish on the pastel shades.

The choice of an artisanal clay cladding product is significant as it offers a contemporary reinterpretation of the traditional brick factory, whilst retaining a strong sense of expression, texture and identity in the building envelope.

The result here, c.1,000sqm of A1 fire rated, British Board of Agreement certified artisanal clay Terratoscana.covering rainscreen cladding, a sweet embodiment of the balance between tradition and modernity sought by PIUARCH for this iconic Italian confectionery brand.

The new factory has been built on sustainable principles and is LEED Gold certified, a globally recognised certification for energy efficiency in buildings.

“With the inauguration of the new Leone Factory, we aim to share with the public the values ​​of the brand and the quality of the ingredients in our products, which have been synonymous with taste, excellence, and Italianness since 1857.” says Massimo Pozzetti, CEO of Leone.