Heritage & Urban Regeneration

ADA Ex-Officine DeAgostini

Location

Novara, Italy

Year

2016 - ongoing

Client

Investment fund (Finint · CdP · DeA Capital) - historic vehicles Immobiliare O.G. srl / De Agostini s.p.a.

Typology

Regeneration · Refurbishment · New build · Infrastructure works

Status

Ongoing · Construction design (SUE obtained; plan variant and agreement with the Municipality signed)

ADA is the regeneration of a former industrial area on the outskirts of Novara: a disused manufacturing district in a highly visible position, which Base Engineering reads as an opportunity to stitch the city back together and give it a new mix of residential and tertiary uses. The project starts from a careful reading of the context, not from a blank slate. The strategy distinguishes what deserves to remain from what has exhausted its function: buildings of intrinsic value are retained and reactivated, structures without value are demolished, and on this basis a new masterplan of routes and public spaces is established. The area stops being an enclosure and becomes a hinge between the residential neighbourhoods that surround it. Developed in collaboration with the architect Benedetto Camerana and on behalf of an investment fund bringing together Finint, CdP and the family of the historic owners (DeA Capital), ADA is an XL-scale intervention: a multi-year transformation in which industrial memory, sustainability and new urban life coexist within the same design.
Project Site Plan
Existing Conditions

The Project

Overview

The project concerns the requalification and renovation of a former industrial area on the outskirts of Novara: the recovery of the historic De Agostini works, starting from an analysis of the context and of the city's specific characteristics, in order to establish the functions best suited to the regeneration of an abandoned area. The identified end uses cover activities and spaces of a productive and tertiary, commercial, recreational, residential and educational nature - all set within a large, publicly accessible pedestrian green area. The client is an investment fund involving Finint, CdP and the family of the historic owners (DeA Capital), through the vehicles Immobiliare O.G. srl and De Agostini s.p.a. The project was born in collaboration with the architect Benedetto Camerana, with the aim of giving new life to a disused industrial complex.

The Challenge

The challenge was to take on a vast, entirely abandoned area, carrying out - even before planning proper - research on development possibilities supported by the search for tenants. After several meetings with the Municipality, a planning variant was reached and, subsequently, a planning scheme for the area that also considered its architectural aspects. Having identified the functions of the buildings, we chose which to retain and which to demolish - in order to "clear out" an overly congested area - grappling with the difficulty of recovering imposing industrial buildings of considerable size and with little natural light.

Pre-Development & Governance

The preliminary phase took the form of an in-depth study of the area's development possibilities. Having identified a number of tenants, we addressed the question of the functions to be included in the masterplan, opening discussions with the Municipality of Novara. Once the zoning-plan variant had been obtained, the preliminary design set out the planning scheme for the area in accordance with the plan's rules, up to the Municipality's authorization through the Executive Urban Planning Instrument (SUE), which launched the detailed design of the individual buildings. The intervention included the design of the infrastructure works transferred to the Municipality, in order to meet zoning-plan standards, with the signing of an agreement between ownership and administration. The masterplan was accompanied by a specific traffic study - with a new roundabout on Viale della Vittoria - and by an extensive campaign of surveys and geological and environmental studies, which established that the intervention would not involve excavation.

Systems & Technical Coordination

To address the different aspects of an urban regeneration intervention, we carried out extensive work to identify the most suitable professionals for the design of structures and systems, with proven experience in similar projects. In the masterplan and preliminary design phases we developed a series of 3D simulations to study volumes and architecture and, above all, to verify the impact of the intervention on the surrounding urban grid. For the execution phase we will favour BIM design, so as to more readily highlight interferences between the specialist designs and to manage the entire system, including in the future maintenance of the complex.

Process Management

The process is still ongoing and involves numerous professionals, including Eng. Dario Luetto for structures and building services and the firm Genovese & Associati for the geological-environmental component. Coordination of the various parties takes place through scheduled weekly meetings, also with the client, in order to identify the most appropriate solutions together. The final deliverables of each design phase and each discipline are coordinated and checked before every official submission, in order to guarantee documents that are always consistent with one another.

Value Added

For the client: the realization of a real-estate operation that began in 2016 and that, through a long process of planning variant, urban planning and design of the individual buildings, has reached a concrete phase with the detailed design, which will launch the tender and the worksite. For the territory: the possibility of recovering an urban area and enjoying it freely, with services and green areas available. For the end users: buildings explicitly conceived around the needs of each, in an area of the city that needed more services and residences - including a student residence. For us: the possibility of addressing themes ranging from planning to the design of individual buildings, tackling delicate environmental issues and succeeding in an operation to reconnect a space unused for years, giving new life to a dilapidated and disused industrial complex.