In a society that is constantly and rapidly changing, there are many challenges that the construction industry will have to face in the future, starting with the growing demand for new housing, infrastructure and urban services and ending with the renovation and redevelopment of existing urban areas. “Today there are fewer and fewer spaces. – says Paolo Ceresoli, General Director of TOPTAGLIO – We must try to redevelop what is there. We try to do this in a beautiful, functional and durable way”.
TOPTAGLIO, a company that has been operating in the construction industry for 25 years, and today a General Contractor specialising in building redevelopment operations, has acquired, over time, a series of characteristics that make it competitive on the market: “We start from the assumption,” continues Paolo, “that you become a General Contractor over time: step by step you tackle the various sectors of the construction world, acquiring the necessary skills and expertise. Our ‘anomaly’, if we want to call it that, is that we specialise in all sectors and departments”.
This is not the only “anomaly” that makes TOPTAGLIO unique : “Why should major clients choose us today? – says Paolo – First of all because of the people, who I believe are a great strength not only for our company, but also for those who decide to entrust us with a job. Over the years, we have managed to train and bring in those craftsmen for each type of work that have all but disappeared today. The plasterer is an internal resource for us, not a supplier. In the same way, to give another example, so is the electrical installer, and so on, with the upholsterer and the wallpaperer, who for us are not subcontractors, but internal figures in our team, people who are fundamental to completing our projects“.
Corporate choices and philosophy
The shortage of skilled labour is a widespread issue in the construction sector, an element that has its weight in the challenges of the coming decades: “There is a shortage of workers and it will get worse in the future. – says Paolo – Those who have managed to keep and train them are very lucky. The difficulty is finding people who have the passion and desire to do these jobs. We at TOPTAGLIO have, for several years now, made the choice to be the « company of doing » and not just of managing. We have trained, retained or acquired the workforce in-house. Our people as well as the trust of our customers are essential for us to move forward and realize ever more ambitious projects. If at this moment I look back and think about all the years that TOPTAGLIO has been in business, I am happy and proud of the incredible journey we have made together. I would not change anything and I would do exactly everything I have done so far all over again, even the mistakes. You have to learn from your mistakes. If we hadn’t made them, we wouldn’t have made those steps forward today that have also allowed us to gain transversality. We do not have a sector of preference. Rather we would like to be present, equally, in all sectors”.
The importance of fit out for TOPTAGLIO
In the building industry, fit-out is a crucial process that transforms interior spaces into functional, safe, and attractive settings. This process ensures full compliance with current regulations and meets the well-being requirements of future occupants. TOPTAGLIO has always had an eye for fit out, committing itself to it personally and often making it one of its flagships: “Fit out,” says Paolo, “is about rearranging a space. Of course, where the budget allows it, being able to include the artistic part is fundamental. It is nicer and more fun. Sometimes you may not like it due to differing tastes, but the diversity adds a charming touch to each individual effort. I always like to give this example: take a room. When it comes time to fit out, if the choice is for commercial furniture, all you have to do is buy it and put it in. If, on the other hand, you put a single, but unique object in that room, it gives that room a totally different flavour, even if it were the only piece of furniture. That’s what makes the big difference for us”.
Fit out made by reusing materials from the world of strip out
Fit out and strip out, it sounds like a play on words, but above all, for those who know the meaning, they are two concepts so distant from each other, parallel like the rails of a track that never meet. For TOPTAGLIO this was never the case, because in the meeting of these two worlds so different and distant he saw an opportunity to be seized: “The recovery and reuse of materials that come from the world of strip out in a fit out,” explains Paolo, “is a different condition from simple furniture. It is taking an object and returning it to its native function, because it is not finished. To give an example, let’s imagine a bulb inside an electrical box: theoretically it has been exposed to UV rays (these terms are just technicalities), but in reality it has an infinite life. Why, then, not reuse it for its original function? In the same way, I can take a roadblock in one yard and put it in another yard, without any kind of problem, because it has the same years of life, it has reduced costs and, of course, its reuse, which avoids recycling, is good for the environment. Using a product that comes from the strip-out world with different functions would not be convenient. The product must be reused for what it was born for. Therein lies the real advantage: the reuse of materials”.
TOPTAGLIO, sustainability and future plans
What will TOPTAGLIO do in the future to become more and more sustainable? “Everything that can be done. – answers Paolo – We will try to better manage waste materials from construction sites, CO2 emissions… More than anything else, we want to pursue the concept of reuse, which I mentioned earlier. This is something I believe in very much. If I could convince customers not to buy new materials, but to reuse what comes from deconstruction and strip ut today, that would be a huge step forward“.
Paolo Ceresoli’s vision, like that of TOPTAGLIO, is far-sighted and ambitious, a bit like the company’s pictogram, born from the recent rebranding and inspired by the neighbourhood of a city seen from above: looking from great heights and being able to have an overall vision probably helps to make the right choices: “Yes,” asserts Paolo, “but if we could look from even higher up we would have an even broader horizon. What does it take to achieve this? You have to have a lot of patience and work every day to be able to keep going, as we have done so far”.
Regarding the sectors in which TOPTAGLIO will work in the future, what is the company’s vision? The approach is very similar to that with which projects are approached: “We have worked in many sectors,“says Paolo, ‘The important thing, in my opinion, is to try not to focus on just one sector. The great thing is to be able to change every day’. Perhaps this is why, when asked about his greatest satisfaction in his career, Paolo replies: ‘I haven’t had it yet. I’m still looking for it”.
