In the village of Gualdicciolo, in the microstate of San Marino, a far-sighted client opted to bring archiNOW! in on a project to revamp a dilapidated old building and turn it into a key part of the area, dynamically interacting with the context. The zone is a mix of factories, businesses and homes, but sorely needed public spaces where people could gather and enjoy a sense of community. The decision to refurbish an existing building is paradigmatic of the approach to regenerating this built-up area. Banks are often closed, silent structures that jealously guard their own land, rather like forts, but this time, the building is open, interconnected, permeable and transparent, a cultural and social magnet for the area. The exteriors lead into the surrounds, encouraging people to enjoy their time together through urban furniture, flowerbeds, water features, and covered walkways, some heading to the parking lot. They also connect to the adjacent shopping arcade and a small amphitheater. The public is invited into these spaces, helping to regenerate the local urban fabric and encouraging social interaction. Modelling the existing volume was central to the new design, forging solids and voids with meticulous additions and subtractions from this original.The exterior composition drew heavily on a careful analysis of the surrounds, with an identifiable, raised silhouette in a uniform, neutral hue that merges into the local area, almost like a silent, measured presence. At the same time, the façades have their own, syncopated rhythm created by the placement of glazing and dry zinc and titanium panels in a pattern that echoes the fragmentation of this urban zone. The glazed ground-floor perimeter lightens the structure, creating visual permeability with the public areas and a rather charming sense of floating upper floors. At night, such transparency takes on a whole new meaning. The copper-tinged lighting turns the complex into an urban lantern, flooding the interiors with light to make them visible from the road. The interiors were planned using rigid functionality premised on integrating the traditional spaces of a bank with new outlooks for the future, such that informal meeting areas, breakout spaces and co-working areas are never in short supply.The basement level floor is dominated by a 180-seater auditorium equipped with the technology, acoustics and annexed spaces to host almost any event. Asset Banca's new headquarters thus become a dual invite. On the one hand, the public are welcomed back into the public spaces around the building. On the other, the bank is showing, through this experience, how a bank can become an open, innovative place that adds quality to the local area.