“I like to communicate with the place where we are going to intervene, to feel the capacity of that place to evoke emotions”. With these words Giovanni Musica summarizes a vision that brings to the center not so much the brand, but rather the people and the connections between places and people. Among the most interesting examples of MGAlab’s signature design concept is the Milanese restaurant Bioesserì, which is part of a restaurant group engaged in issues of environmental sustainability and in the enhancement of the raw organic materials. During the search for the location for the venue the studio considered an abandoned site close to the skyscrapers of Porta Nuova, one of the main business districts of Milan. Although the plant constraints made it a location not suitable for a restaurant, Giovanni Musica and his team saw in it a story to be narrated and a potential to be disclosed.

This dialogue that was established with the place immediately outlined the design approach and the lines to follow, which in this case were those of the restoration of the original state of the structure. In fact, MGAlab accomplished an excavation action to resurface the red bricks from the master walls in contrast with the grey concrete floors. The sense of it was to give back a soul to the place by restoring the old decorated floors and embellishing the interiors with subtle colour contrasts. Ultimately, leaving a patina of imperfection represented in this case an important design insignia.