La casa della ricerca/The house of research. Centro Ricerche Chiesi, Parma

The book tells the story from concept to completion of an architecture for research through the contribution of academic experts expressing their opinions on the subjects of architecture, landscape and research. The design of the new Chiesi Research Centre aims to achieve reconciliation with a landscape dominated by infrastructural works, by means of a structure having very urban characteristics. The new research centre, which involves investment of 90 million euro, occupies an area of 60 thousand square metres, provides a surface area of about 28 thousand square metres housing a total of 181 laboratories and 254 offices. The heart of the complex is the building accommodating the research laboratories and offices, around which are arranged the buildings and spaces housing the Ricerche various essential support services which can be summarized as technological (utilities and plant), functional (warehousing stores) and organisational (security, parking and ancillary buildings). The layout of the floor plan of the main building came about through a process of optimization of the work space and customization and differentiation of the various Chiesi functions without sacrificing their integration: three wings (two used for laboratories and one for offices) connected by a barycentric element (the atrium) intended to form an interconnection point as well as a meeting point containing services and areas set aside for social interaction. The design relies on the power of the elements of orderliness and rationality, heightened by the generous dimensions, expressed in the even spacing of the rigid structural framework and the modularity of the components of the building envelope, the material, chromatic and technological properties of which are strongly linked to the organization of the activities within. As with any architectural project of high complexity, the new Chiesi Centre is the result of a systematic integration of collective contributions focused on a common goal, from the initial design phase to the completion of the execution: an integrated collection of activities by different professions that brings together architectural design and engineering solutions aimed at the creation, durability and real sustainability of an architecture that aspires to make a contribution to a town’s urban values and to be the expression of a company’s ethical values.