In 1874, the Galleria Subalpina first opened its doors as the new centre of the city’s effervescent social and commercial life. The inspiration came from the Parisian passages, the eclectic décor combined Renaissance and Baroque elements to a large iron and glass roof.

In 2011, PAT. curated the first project for Ottica Gallery, an optical store stretching between the street and the Subalpina, under the vaults of the old city centre buildings.

In 2024, the shop moved to a new location, completely opening on the Galleria, and dialoguing with such significant architecture became the driving force behind a brand new project. The interiors take up the colour-blocking code in shades of red, white and blue that inhabited the first shop, and combine it with the warm tones of the original wooden floorboards. The shop windows propose a brutalist discourse to the gallery, a Paul Rudolph-like suggestion: a landscape of truncated columns generated by industrial pipes, and sharp geometries generated by light.