Restore to Impact Award Ceremony and Domusforum 2023

Restore to Impact | Award Ceremony

Casa della Musica

Parma

Domusforum 2023

ADI Design Museum

Milan

Restore to Impact Award Ceremony and Domusforum 2023. Two events for a reflection dedicated to the themes of urban regeneration and the future of cities. From the winning ideas of the Call for Ideas, to think about the prospects of the Chiesi Group's historic industrial site in Via Palermo, Parma, to the case studies and contributions offered by Domusforum. Between society, environment, architecture.

_______________

Regenerate, rethink spaces in use and time, expand the physical and operational limits of one's company boundaries to a future open to participation and collaboration. Innovate and transform with the intention of creating value, for the company as well as for the community, through processes and by investing in the development and training of future skills. 

These are the concepts and intentions anticipating virtuous models at the centre of the debate on the urban regeneration of the Chiesi Group's historic industrial site in Parma, in the San Leonardo district, more precisely in Via Palermo: a space inaugurated in October 1955. An international, research-oriented biopharmaceutical group, which develops and markets innovative therapeutic solutions in the field of respiratory health, rare diseases and special care, Chiesi Farmaceutici decided in recent months to launch ‘Restore to Impact - The next healthcare landmark for innovation and future-oriented competences’: an international Call for Ideas, aimed at identifying innovative, evolutionary, transversal concepts to solicit possibilities, solutions, forms to reflect on the future of the architecture of the via Palermo site in relation to the buildings, the interior and exterior spaces.

A process that aspires to become the concrete example of a new methodology in which ideas, people, the territory, with its socio-economic context, and the environment concur in formulating - according to an ecosystem logic - an osmotic and dynamic ‘regenerative’ idea. The ultimate goal is to transform the idea itself into a permanent language that can express the possible scenarios of continuous evolution.

It is precisely these ideas, this approach and this vision that fuelled two intense days of celebration, discussion and sharing between Parma, the venue for the Award Ceremony of the Call for Ideas, Restore to Impact, and Milan, which hosted the Domusforum 2023. The protagonists are not only the winning project teams of the Call for Ideas, but also the Ideas Selection Committee, the sponsors and the institutions.

Restore to Impact | Award Ceremony

In Parma, the spaces of the Casa della Musica were the setting for the Award Ceremony of ‘Restore to Impact’ moderated by Federica Sofia Zambeletti, Managing Director of KoozArch. A multi-voiced event that allowed the Call for Ideas to be framed within the background of a broader programme. As Andrea Chiesi, Head of Special Projects of the Chiesi Group and promoter of the Call for Ideas, explains: “The first steps were taken in 2017/18. Through the urban regeneration project of our historical site in Via Palermo, and no less so with the Call for Ideas, we activated a bottom-up rather than a top-down process. The objective? To receive external input to understand the role of our company space over time, explore different scenarios to leave an impact in and on the city and company stakeholders. The urban regeneration intervention we are thinking of is intended to be an act of attention and care towards the San Leonardo district and the city of Parma: it is starting from this place that the Chiesi Group has had a trajectory that has led it to become an international player.”

A concrete ambition echoed in the words of the Mayor of Parma, Michele Guerra, host of the Ceremony: “Our administration is investing a lot in the San Leonardo district. Wo.Pa., Parco Nord and the freight yard are possible examples of projects taking shape in this part of the city: within a few years San Leonardo will have a completely different appearance. This is also thanks to private intervention: the urban regeneration project that the Chiesi Group is about to launch in Via Palermo is an example. This neighbourhood is an open-air laboratory, which demonstrates the importance and necessity of constructive dialogue between institutions and private actors.”

The Ceremony then continued by giving voice to the International Call for Ideas Selection Committee: a jury diversified by professional background - it is composed of architects, artists, university professors and thinkers, digital entrepreneurs - and by geographical origin (Italy, France/Portugal, Israel, the Netherlands, Switzerland). The following were present: Giulia Baccarin, CEO and co-founder of MiPU Predictive Hub Benefit Society; Didier Fiúza Faustino, Artist/Architect, Director Mésarchitecture studio; Paola Liani, Architect, Co-founder Paritzki&Liani Architects; Aura Luz Melis, Architect, Partner Inside Outside.

Completing the selection committee are Emilio Faroldi, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Polytechnic University of Milan (Italy); Ingrid Paoletti, Scientific Coordinator Material Balance Research Lab Polytechnic University of Milan (Italy); and Matteo Vegetti, Professor of "Theories of Space" Supsi (DACD Mendrisio) and Lecturer at the Academy of Architecture in Mendrisio Università della Svizzera Italiana USI (Switzerland). Together, these professionals had the task of examining and evaluating the 31 finalist concepts of the Call for Ideas ‘Restore to Impact’ (26 for the Professional Category and 5 for the Under 30 Category). From these projects, three Prizes were identified for each Category and an Honourable Mention for the Professional Category.

The criteria that underpinned the selection committee's assessment were flexibility, adaptability over time, and porosity (understood as the ability to dialogue with the physical and social context and as quality of the landscape and public spaces in relation to connectivity). Sustainability in technological, environmental, economic, business, and innovative terms was also influential.

On the stage of the Casa della Musica, which hosted the Award Ceremony, the winners took turns as individuals or representatives of project teams.

For the Professional Category, the three prizes were awarded to:

• Urban Scale Laboratory by Bodria Sportillo (Parma, Italy), a team composed of architect duo Pietro Bodria and Antonio Sportillo;
• Chiesi FARM (Forest Academy Research Museum) heterogeneous team Chiesi FARM (Parma, Italy) composed of Chiara Cocconcelli Digital Strategies & Communication (Italy) of Officine On/Off, Luca Bocedi Visual Designer (Italy), Francesca Giannini Architect (Italy), Giulia Ghidini Architect (Italy), Domenica Fiorini Architect (Italy), Veronica Pinetti Project Manager & Instructional Designer (Italy), Simone Spotti Designer (Italy), Ximena Malaga Palacio Sustainability Manager & Financial Officer (Italy);
• Restore to Impact presented by the team Studio 63 (Florence, Italy) + Edoardo Cesaro (Camerota, SA, Italy);

The Selection Committee of ‘Restore to Impact’ also awarded an Honourable Mention for the Professional Category to the Chiiiesi concept by CMJC (Mantua, Italy) of the project team consisting of: Martina Baratta, Architect (Italy); Cristina Roiz de la Parra Solano, Architect (Italy); Camilla Federici, DE&I Consultant (Italy); Julian Raffetseder, Urban Climate Consultant (Switzerland); and Giorgio Notari Renderist (Italy).

For the Under 30 category, the three prizes were awarded to undergraduates or recent graduates in Architecture from three different countries: Italy, the Netherlands and Australia.

• On the Screen by Paola Mauti (Monte San Giovanni Campano, Frosinone, Italy), Single Cycle Master’s Degree Course in Architecture;

• The Portico of Innovation by Yifan and Jingwen (Delft, Netherlands), a team consisting of the duo Dong Yifan and Jingwen Gan, Master’s Degree Course in Architecture;

• Robert Snelling'sThe Civic Campus (Ascot Vale/Melbourne, Australia), Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering, Major in Architecture + Civil Engineering.

The Award Ceremony closed with a speech by Michele Nebuloni, Project Manager of the Chiesi Group, who is coordinating the urban regeneration project of the Chiesi site in Via Palermo. Nebuloni offered a preview of the next steps: “Restore to Impact was the first step in a long process, which we approached with a totally new spirit. In the meantime, the Call for Ideas helped us to define the principles behind the redevelopment: attractiveness, connection to the context and safety issues, inclusiveness and collaboration, and attention to the environment are the design principles developed so far. We want to continue along this path with the same exploratory spirit that has animated us so far, consulting international architectural firms, selected for their projects that are consistent with the design principles we have defined. In 2024, we expect to arrive at the definition of an executive project and to start the construction site in Via Palermo, after the necessary war reclamation of the land. We expect to be able to inaugurate the new site in Via Palermo in spring 2027. This space will house the new Chiesi Center for Open Innovation & Competence and the offices of the Italian affiliate. The new element will be the open and connective spaces that enable a physical dialogue between the Chiesi Group and the local area.

Domusforum 2023

From the very beginning, the essential matrix of the urban regeneration project of the Chiesi Group's industrial site in Via Palermo, Parma, has been the desire to promote debate, stimulate new relations linked to the culture of innovation, future skills training and sustainability, interacting in an increasingly continuous and frequent way with the outside world. Beyond architecture, beyond the built.

On this basis, the Chiesi Group started a process of sharing and presenting the results achieved during the project development phases, starting with the participation in the Domusforum: the theme chosen for the 2023 edition was ‘The Future of Cities’. Andrea Chiesi, Head of Special Projects of the Chiesi Group, illustrated the case history of Via Palermo during the round table ‘Public, private and third sector at the test of urban regeneration’. Moderated by Massimo Valz-Gris, the meeting was attended by Sergio Urbani, Managing Director of Fondazione Cariplo, and Maurizio Ambrosini, Sociologist, State University of Milan.

Hosted at the ADI Design Museum, permanent home of the Compasso d'Oro collection, in Milan, Domusforum marked the sixth edition of the international conference organised by Domus. The central themes are those of Inclusion, Mobility, Tradition, Transformation, “four keys to interpreting reality”, to quote the organisers, “which can represent the horizon of tomorrow. [...] In search, as always, of a synthesis that is the starting point for producing fairer, safer, more inclusive and sustainable urban centres.”

In this context, Andrea Chiesi's speech gave an overview of the Via Palermo urban regeneration project according to a narrative thread that started from the meeting of two of the four key words, Tradition and Transformation. It all started in the mid-1950s, when Giacomo Chiesi decided to give an industrial imprint to what was a small artisan pharmaceutical laboratory, moving the business to Via Palermo.

“San Leonardo is a district that, over time, has lost the industrial characterisation with which it was founded to assume a residential one. Population density is significant and as much as 28.5 per cent of the population in this area is now made up of immigrants, compared to a city average of 18 per cent and a national average of just over 9 per cent. Aggregation spaces are lacking, while large commercial areas abound. And there are former industrial spaces that are unfortunately in a state of disrepair. As a group, we decided to take care of the neighbourhood by redesigning our site. To do this, we adopted a collective dynamic, gathering ideas through the involvement, in subsequent steps, of several hundred people, from company employees to external professionals. The intention for 2024 is to actively involve the world of associations that give life to the district. This has resulted in an interdisciplinary work programme in which different skills converge. Having a concrete positive impact on people and the community is essential for a company like ours, which is a Benefit Corporation in Italy (since 2018), the United States and France and is B Corp certified since 2019. It is no coincidence that we launched the Call for Ideas ‘Restore to Impact’ to understand how best to open up to society. A call that had the merit of creating not only the guidelines for the urban regeneration project, but also an interdisciplinary and international Advisory Board in which the members of the Selection Committee and the winners of the Call converge. The Advisory Board will accompany us on a long journey, in an open and shared project perspective.”