ROME: Several Italian architectural projects are due to be unveiled in 2017, following three main themes: restoration with new functions, spaces that meet productive needs, and post-earthquake reconstruction involving locations with high social value. A new location for Italian food marketplace Eataly was inaugurated on Tuesday in a former wine warehouse in Trieste in north eastern Italy, redesigned by Archea architects, with commercial and catering services. Last week production started in the new Bulgari jewelry plant designed by Open Project in Valenza in the Piedmont region. During the first few months of the year, several projects will open in the Emilia area: a house of music, a center for sports and culture, a youth center with a co-working area, a gym for dance and a disabled people’s center. They are five small architectural projects by Mario Cucinella Architects linked to a fund supported by employers association Confindustria with the trade unions Cgil, Cisl, Uil and Confservizi, which was activated after the 2012 earthquake.
Among some of the stand-out Italian architecture projects due to open in 2017, there is the High Speed Railway station planned at Napoli Afragola, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects (pictured). More in general, there are several projects for company headquarters, shopping centers and cultural and residential centers due to open in big cities and elsewhere in the country. In Turin, Cino Zucchi will cut the ribbon of the new Lavazza headquarters. Verona is waiting for the resolution of the situation of its Arsenal and in the spring of 2017, the large Adigeo shopping center will be inaugurated there, promoted by the German fund ECE Projektmanagement with CDS Holding. La Spezia is heading for the final rush on the work site of the new library planned by 5+1AA and carried out by restoring an abandoned plant. Considering some of the projects in the pipeline, the metropolitan area of Milan is again one of the most dynamic. Zaha Hadid’s Generali tower is due to open in the Citylife residential and business district of the Lombard capital, and Coima will inaugurate their new offices in the Porta Nuova area.
The Park architects will complete the restructuring of an office building in via Chiese, regenerating a complex from the early 1980s from an energy and distribution point of view for Generali Real Estate. Lombardini22 will deliver the new offices of EY in the historical heart of Milan in 2017, redesigning the existing building and innovating with the layout of the office spaces; other projects include the restructuring of a building in the Porta Nuova area in via Sassetti and the restyling and expansion project of a productive building with a part dedicated to offices for SEW-Eurodrive in Solaro. The youth of Modourbano are at work in the Bicocca district of Milan on a new residential building, after the success of a project in via Procaccini. In the spring the architect Filippo Taidelli will cut the ribbon of the new Humanitas University of Rozzano (Mi) campus for the University of Medicine and Nursing, while in February in Castellanza in the province of Varese he will deliver the new headquarters of metal and mining services company Tenova, a project involving the renovation of the existing plant and the planning of external spaces of the company.
