Restore to Impact, International Call for Ideas

Aim at soliciting indications of possibilities, solutions and form of intervention based on the principles of “kindness” and “connectivity” to reflect on the architectural future of the via Palermo site, Restore to Impact sought to call for individuals and/or interdisciplinary project teams divided into two categories: Professionals and Under 30s, who were asked to reflect on the 5 Regenerative Actions as a Force for Good conceived by Chiesi: Innovate to stay coherent / Restore to preserve: the heritage / Take care to treat / Dare for opportunities / Design to Impact.

“Restore To Impact represents a milestone in the company’s history of openness, of permeability to external communities close to the worlds of research and innovation. The rapid changes we are witnessing in all fields and disciplines today require the interconnection of increasingly specialised professionals who have evolving skills. But they also demand workplaces that are aligned with current notions of cooperation, inclusion, Wellbeing and where research and training are supported by state-of-the-art technologies. Innovative spaces where people are always at the centre. It is precisely out of these considerations that the idea of launching an international Call for Ideas took shape, out of the desire to put people and their ideas at the centre of the future regeneration project of the Chiesi site in Via Palermo, to invent and define new ways of approaching an urban setting that is a corporate headquarters but is also open to the community, in a project that goes beyond simple building renovation and opens up possibilities for new building and site development approaches.”

— Andrea Chiesi, Head of Special Projects, Chiesi Group, and Sponsor of the Call for Ideas

From the 31 concept finalists (26 for the Professional Category and 5 for the Under 30 Category), three Prizes were identified for each Category (Professional and Under 30) and an Honourable Mention for the Professional Category.

The candidate entries for the Call for Ideas “Restore to Impact” were examined and evaluated according to a high score allocation by the Selection Committee meeting in Parma and composed of: Andrea Chiesi Head of Special Projects Chiesi Group and Sponsor of the international Call for Ideas Restore to Impact (Italy); Giulia Baccarin CEO and Co-founder MiPU Predictive Hub Società Benefit (Italy); Emilio Faroldi Pro Vice- Chancellor of the Polytechnic University of Milan (Italy); Didier Fiúza Faustino Artist / Architect, Director Mésarchitecture studio (Portugal / France); Paola Liani Architect, Co- founder Paritzki&Liani Architects (Israel); Aura Luz Melis Architect, Partner Inside Outside (The Netherlands); 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 Accademia di Architettura, Mendrisio (AAM), Università della Svizzera Italiana USI (Switzerland).

Flexibility, adaptability over time, porosity understood as the ability to dialogue with the physical and social context and as the quality of the landscape and public spaces in relation to connectivity. But also sustainability in technological, environmental, economic, business and innovative terms. These are the criteria stimulated by the “5 Regenerative Actions as a Force for Good” and adopted by the Selection Committee of Restore to Impact to evaluate the ideas received.

PROFESSIONAL CATEGORY: 3 PRIZES AND 1 HONOURABLE MENTION
For the PROFESSIONAL Category, the three prizes and the Honourable Mention were awarded to project teams, either multidisciplinary or consisting of architects only. All were based in Italy, two specifically in Parma. An indicator, over and above the Call’s intentions and the international audience it reached, of how closeness and familiarity with an urban area, its history and its critical issues are fundamental elements for the development of an intervention concept such as the one stimulated by Restore to Impact, stretching beyond the confines of architecture and open to the generation or regeneration of a profound dialogue between business/territory/community.

Urban Scale Laboratory by Bodria Sportillo (Parma, Italy), a team composed of architect duo Pietro Bodria and Antonio Sportillo, imagines an incubator of ideas open to visitors and citizens, guaranteeing the highest standards for employees. Movement is stimulated through covered outdoor corridors, dynamic distribution spaces that become meeting places, multiplying opportunities for exchange and interaction.

Motivation: The ‘Urban Scale’ project develops parameters of flexibility and sustainability, indicating a scale of gentle intervention and permeability to the urban and social context. It shows the possible adaptability over time and, in its visual impact, directly reflects the degree of innovation of the activities taking place inside. The creation of two separate elements for the different activities and the open space also declares the fluidity of the interconnections that could be more defined in the future.

Chiesi FARM (Forest Academy Research Museum) was presented by the heterogeneous team Chiesi FARM (Parma, Italy) – consisting of Chiara Cocconcelli Digital strategies & Communication (Italy) from 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). The project envisions an innovative and open space to cultivate talents and ideas. It welcomes diversity and fosters relationships by imagining the future and opening up to education with the Museum of Pharmacy and Chemistry to offer visitors opportunities for research and discovery. A gentle regeneration concept for the neighbourhood and for the company.

Motivation:The parameter appreciated in the ‘FARM’ project is porosity. The combination of the compact volume of the building and the different types of green spaces is a clear gesture. Through the demolition of the existing, the generous recovery of a predominance of open spaces to the site is suggested. Expressing, on the one hand, the ability to reorganise the urban fabric and, on the other, the hierarchical delimitation, either clear or more blurred, between public and private of the different areas.

Restore to Impact presented by the team Studio 63 (Florence, Italy) + Edoardo Cesaro (Camerota, SA, Italy) rethinks the layout of the Site as a Continuous and Fluid Urban Park, on which the Centre for Open Innovation & Competence and the offices of the Chiesi Italia company “float”. The vision is that of an aerial building in a dynamic relationship with the ground and the external environment through the use of mediation spaces, tunnels, filters and semi-covered places to be realised predominantly with natural materials.

Motivation: The ‘Restore To Impact’ project approach tends to enhance the relationship with the context, through a visual transparency of the built environment and the presence of greenery. The conception of two levels of open space, diversified by function, succeeds in outlining the creation of a system that is interconnected and at the same time autonomous and independent.

The Restore to Impact Selection Committee also intended to award an Honourable Mention for the Professional Category to the Chiiiesi concept by CMJC (Mantua, Italy) – a project team composed 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). The three ‘I’s in the project title indicate identity, inclusion and innovation as the three pillars that carry the company’s legacy into a new era through a gesture, a simple and delicate element, an L-shaped building that frames the garden and curves inwards as an act of welcome and inclusion, creating a public space for the city.

Motivation: Of the ‘Chiiiesi’ project, the concepts of flexibility, adaptability and economic sustainability are emphasised in an intervention involving the design of lightweight structures that can change according to needs and allow for possible interaction with greater permeability on the ground floor.

UNDER 30s CATEGORY: 3 PRIZES
For the UNDER 30 category, the three prizes were awarded to undergraduates or recent graduates of Architecture from three different countries, Italy, the Netherlands and Australia. A geographical openness that denotes a different methodological approach of the three concepts, more inclined to propose flexible solutions in space and time.

On the Screen by Paola Mauti (Monte San Giovanni Campano, FR, Italy), a single- cycle degree course in Architecture, imagines a landmark open 24/7: during the day it is the workspace for Chiesi Group employees with public facilities and a natural park open to all, at night it becomes a large stage where the company’s activities can be promoted or events organised for Parma. A welcome to the city from the elevated railway line.

Motivation:The creation of two separate open areas in the ‘On the Screen’ project enhances the existing site by opening it up to the city and making it flexible in use. The screen façade and access to an underground auditorium further break down the delimitation between public and private space and highlight the potential interactive relationship with the community.

The Portico of Innovation by Yifan and Jingwen, (Delft, Netherlands) – a team composed of the duo Dong Yifan and Jingwen Gan, Master of Science in Architecture degree course – proposes a concept related to urban relationships to be stitched together through architectural language in order to re-establish a balance between the privacy needs of users and the spatial value of the urban community.

Motivation: The idea behind ‘The Portico of Innovation’ is a seam of the existing, with the addition of surgical interventions that enhance the relationship between inside and outside. These elements – interpreting criteria of flexibility and adaptability – are characteristically minimal and resilient to changes over time. They are able to propose different perspectives of access to the open space and enjoyment of the garden made public.

The Civic Campus by Robert Snelling (Ascot Vale/Melbourne, Australia), Master of Architectural Engineering, majoring in Architecture + Civil Engineering, envisions the Campus fitting into the existing neighbourhood by stimulating an evolution over time not through radical transformations but through small, thoughtful changes considered the most innovative change of all.

Motivation: The project ‘The Civic Campus’ amplifies, also in a cultural key, the dialogue with the territory, establishes a proper relationship of urban scale and expresses the connection between learning and sociality. Maintaining the built environment, it proposes an easily convertible, circular and sustainable system to accommodate future functional evolutions.

As stated in the announcement, the three deserving concepts for the Professional category have received € 12,000.00 each, while the three deserving concepts for the Under 30 category have received € 5,000.00 each. The Honourable Mention for the Professional Category has been awarded € 2,000.00.

As outlined throughout the Call for Ideas brief, the Selection Committee decided to allocate the unassigned amount to a social initiative. After careful evaluation, Chiesi chose to support a project promoted by a team of local group (Amici della Biblioteca di San Leonardo, Coop Ecole, Associazione Trachete), the University of Parma, and the Youth Commission of Parma, titled “Immagina la tua città”. The project engages students from the local area, challenging them to imagine and reflect on what the San Leonardo neighborhood – and, more broadly, the city of Parma – could become in the future.

On 29 November 2023, the Casa della Musica in Parma hosted the Restore to Impact Award Ceremony, moderated by Federica Sofia Zambeletti, Managing Director of KoozArch, and attended by Andrea Chiesi, Head of Special Projects at the Chiesi Group; Michele Guerra, Mayor of Parma; Michele Nebuloni, Project Lead of the Chiesi via Palermo urban regeneration project (now, December 2025, Head of Chiesi Gardens); the Selection Committee, the winners, and a large audience.
A multi-voiced event that allowed the Call for Ideas to be framed within a broader program, the first steps of which were taken in 2017/18.

The day after the Award Ceremony, the winners of the Call for Ideas were invited to attend Domusforum 2023 at the ADI Design Museum in Milan.