PLACE
Parma

STATUS
Achieved

CHRONOLOGY
2005 - 2011

CATEGORY
Places of work

he new Chiesi Centre is based on the processes of structural enlargement, organisational rationalisation and technical innovation, which are leading the design research towards the offer of new services in balance between the rapidity of changes and long-term needs.

The project aims to establish a dialogue with a landscape with a strong infrastructural character through an "urban" layout that sees its reference model in the concept of a "company citadel" articulated in open spaces and built elements of different functional and morphological character.

The functional arrangement of the buildings results in an integrated space offer. The centrepiece of the settlement is the building for the research laboratories and offices, around which are arranged the bodies and spaces that are instrumental to it in terms of technology (utilities plant and installations), functionality (warehouse and storage areas) and organisation (security, parking and ancillary facilities).

The planimetric form is the result of a process of optimisation of work spaces, and the search for quality is based on the non-homologisation of levels and the logic of circulation, in an attempt to create environments on a human scale within the large dimension: floors with different configurations, differentiated common areas, internal streets and squares.

The project appeals to the strength of the ordering element, enhanced by the large size through the textures rhythmically set off by the rigid structural mesh or the modularity of the façade components: the transparency of the central element is contrasted by the massive language of the bodies destined for the laboratories, the envelope becomes an opportunity for study and specialised design.
Through a variety of solutions, the project pursues the twofold objective of optimising heat exchange through high-performance components of the envelope, and generating its own energy with passive systems to meet, at least in part, the building's needs.
Like any work of architecture of high complexity, the new Chiesi Centre is the result of an integrated action between different skills which leads to the combination of architectural design and engineering solutions which are deliberately not spectacular, aiming at the measure, durability and real sustainability of an architecture which aspires to be a contribution to the urban value of a place and an expression of the ethical values of a company.