Project Overview

As one of the world’s most widely recognised FMCG brands, The Kraft Heinz Company partnered with Unispace in its search for a new home that would embody their strong and globally known brand aesthetic and fun-loving personality.

Kraft Heinz wanted to make their Italian presence known and spice-up the palette of business located in Milan. Their brand DNA needed to be purposefully woven throughout the entirety of the space to strengthen the sense of belonging amongst its staff, as well as creating a destination workplace that is a flavourful embodiment of the brand, its products, and its people.

A key area would be an extensive and creative multifunctional kitchen area that, fittingly, sits at the heart of the space, proudly showcasing their locally loved and globally known products.

The workspace is one that is by its very nature, fun. This really is a destination workplace to which team members will be drawn time and time again…

Project Commissioner

The Kraft Heinz Company

Project Creator

Unispace

Project Brief

The Unispace team was challenged with finding and creating a new home for Kraft Heinz in the beating heart of the centre of Milan. The space needed to meet two design principles to ensure its success: firstly, to create a space that truly embodied the Kraft Heinz brand and secondly, the design needed to play a key role in engaging its employees to return to the office.

Previously located in a suburban area, far from the vibrant centre of Milan, Kraft Heinz decided to relocate to new premises that would support their continued growth and expansion. The team at Unispace were challenged with finding a new home for Kraft Heinz before creating a space that would provide team members with an unsatiable appetite to return time after time, thanks to a design inspired by powerful and iconic global brands.

Far from serving a purely aesthetic purpose, once the ideal space had been found the design needed to include a diverse variety of space typologies for maximum productivity and efficiency in use. The space needed to cater to people of all generations, with different working patterns, different priorities, and backgrounds.

“The most important element of the design was to create a space with strong brand identity. That means a space that is representative of who Kraft Heinz Company is, what they do and also their people because it is people who we place at the very heart of every project.” Marco Brucato, eCommerce Lead, Kraft Heinz

Project Innovation/Need

The workplace vibrantly showcases the brand’s playfulness as well as its internationally renowned range of products. Colour, energy and fun sit at the heart of the space that comprises designated workplaces, and collaborative and social spaces in the form of kitchens and hospitality suites, where teams can relax or entertain guests. The extensive kitchen facilities are particularly impressive and fittingly find themselves at the heart of the floor.

Walls are bedecked in logos and illuminations of many of the Kraft Heinz brands that are recognisable from Milan to Melbourne, serving as a constant reminder of its global reputation. Vibrant signage adds a dash of fun throughout the space and an iconic Kraft Heinz ‘bottle’ shaped, illuminated doorway greets team members and visitors as they step into a unique world of flavour and spice.

The workplace can be summarized with one small word: fun. The space is a living, breathing temple to the Kraft Heinz brand as the brand DNA quite literally oozes out of every nook and cranny. For a space measuring 15,000 sqft, the workplace manages to stylishly provide an engaging experience of colour, brand immersion, and funky local Italian influence, whilst facilitating greater collaboration and cooperation between team members, in a space that lies somewhere between the home and office.

We are proud to have delivered a space where real belonging and togetherness flourish as teams uncover together the fun of the new environment that is the Italian home of all things Kraft Heinz.

Design Challenge

Understanding a unique brand:
The alignment of the strategy phase with the design phase proved to be a complex process, given the sheer variety of brands that are housed under the Kraft Heinz name. With such a wealth of expression, a diversity of colour, and multitude of logos to encapsulate within a single space, the only way to identify a way forward was by establishing a strong and collaborative creative relationship with the client project team.

Before setting pen to paper, Unispace’s design teams collaborated with the US based marketing team, to gain insight into their brand guidelines to influence the space design. Working hand-in-hand with the Kraft Heinz team, great importance was placed upon the creation of a space that lives and breathes the brand DNA.

A change in location:
As well as this, the project direction took a considerable turn once the wheels were in motion as the space dedicated to the creation of Kraft Heinz’s new home changed from the third to the first floor of the same building, meaning spatial plans needed to be reconfigured to optimize the use of the new floor. Open communication and a constant dialogue were key to managing these issues together.

Sustainability

Achieving Kraft Heinz’s sustainability goals:
During the process of designing and constructing this new space for Kraft Heinz in Milan, our teams collaborated with the Kraft Heinz Environmental, Social, and Governance teams to ensure that Unispace practices could support in achieving their business goals and ambitions regarding employee health and wellbeing, diversity, inclusion and belonging, environmental stewardship, and responsible sourcing.

Locally sourced supply chain:
Our designers approached the spatial creation with sustainability in mind from a people, place and performance perspective. This meant ensuring that the products and finishes we specified were sourced locally to minimise carbon footprint and benefit the broader local economy. Supply chains and sub-contractors are favoured that prioritise environmental and sustainability credentials that support us in our endeavour to create places that spark brilliance, without extinguishing the spark of the ecosystems and landscapes upon which we all rely.

Prefabricated elements and stringent waste management:
Unispace endeavours to use prefabricated components wherever possible. For this project, the team used prefabricated structural elements to minimise on-site waste, and where not possible, on-site waste was diligently sorted and recycled (including recycling existing materials such as fixtures and fittings).