How NOA’s Expansive HQ Showcases Innovative Design

Established by architects Stefan Rier and Lukas Rungger in 2011, NOA has since grown steadily with projects across the globe, largely in the hospitality sector, one of which earned an Interior Design Best of Year Award. Naturally, the staff has grown, too, which has necessitated a move from the firm’s 4,000-square-foot office in Bolzano to larger, 11,000-square-foot headquarters nearby. (NOA, which stands for Network of Architecture, has also opened additional studios in Italy, in Milan and Torino, as well as in Berlin.) Rier, Rungger, and team took the relocation as an opportunity to showcase their aesthetic and experiment with what types of physical spaces are most conducive to connection and creativity.

Drawing on the upscale environments created for such projects as the Apfelhotel Torgglerhof resort in South Tyrol, a not-so-typical-corporate palette of violet, sage, and ochre highlights existing beams and skylights. Furnishings by the likes of Joan Gaspar and Patricia Urquiola add to the chromatic effect while providing clients with a showroom of sorts to test products. They also allow for a range of employee uses, whether formal meetings or coffee breaks. “Inspired by the versatility of a chameleon, spaces here unfold in constant transformation,” Rungger says. “The quick exchanging of ideas, arising of unexpected synergies, and building of close working groups that come with shared areas bring inestimable value.”