1991
RESTORATION OF THE
FORMER ERIDANIA AREA
“The Impossible Project”
for reutilization of the
former Eridania sugar
factory - Parma
international
competition
|
project start
date |
1991 |
|
location |
Parma
, Italy |
|
promoter |
Istituto Gramsci
di Parma |
|
architects |
Marco Meozzi -
Massimo
Lastrucci - Luca
Piantini - David
Fanfani - Elena
Gai, Architects |
|
publications |
LABORATORIO
COMUNE Idee ed
architetture
del Settore
edilizia
Pubblica del
City of Prato -
2000 Electa
Pub., Milan,
p.160 |
The project proposed
re-using the former
Eridania building and
adjacent area as the
site for a new
headquarters to promote
and support innovation.
The structure,
conceived to fit into
Parma's productive
context and into the
existing technological
infrastructures, was
conceived as a reference
point for the
development and
establishment of new
highly innovative
technological and
scientific activities in
the form of new
businesses.
Therefore we planned an
area appropriately
equipped with advanced
technological
infrastructures
(research laboratories,
offices for consulting
and organization) as
well as with integrated
services of a public
nature (convention
center, scientific
library, exhibition
center) and a group of
residence facilities for
the future personnel. To
this end the project
called for the recovery
of the two main end
walls which, freed of
their floor and roof
supports, constitute a
gallery for public
passage as well as the
complex's main
distribution axis. This
space is crossed by a
long theatrical stairway
which connects two
opposite points: on the
one hand, the innovation
and research center,
made in a 'crater' in
the earth (in fact it is
housed in an underground
structure) and, on the
other, the exhibition
center conceived of as
an extruding 'hill'.
The structure, standing
on an area used as a
park, is a kind of urban
“hinge” that can bring
together, via
radiocentric bicycle and
pedestrian paths, the
northern productive
area, the southern
residential zone, the
historical center to the
west as well as the
western peripheral
areas.