Restore to Impact

“Restore to Impact: The next healthcare landmark for innovation and future-oriented competences” is an international call for ideas launched by the Chiesi Group and aimed at identifying innovative, evolutionary, transversal concepts that will be the basis for the guidelines of the future regeneration project of the Chiesi pharmaceutical group’s industrial site at Via Palermo, Parma. “Restore to Impact” also aims to state that—through a series of panels following the call for ideas—new paths and possible future scenarios are capable of launching a cultural journey in which Chiesi is a driving force for reflection and new approaches to building and open innovation.

Three years after the official inauguration of the Parma Headquarters located near the research centre, today the Chiesi Group intends to launch a second building/architectural redevelopment project with the regeneration of the historical industrial site in Via Palermo in Parma.

The objective is twofold: to create an innovative business playground: (Centre for Open Innovation & Competence), open to its own people, external communities that are both close to and transversal to the worlds of research and continuous innovation, and to provide its commercial branch with a workspace aligned to current notions of inclusion and corporate guidelines. To turn the via Palermo site into a driver for urban regeneration and a landmark of innovation that can reveal the interconnection between people’s health and the health of the planet, on the one hand, and the need to develop new skills in the art of healing, on the other.

For these reasons, the Chiesi Group is launching “Restore to Impact: The next healthcare landmark for innovation and future-oriented competencies,” an international call for ideas whose title encapsulates the ultimate goal of the architectural/building project: to maintain in its regeneration the focus on Chiesi’s internal “codes,” which remain true over time, as part of a continuous process of renewal. The title also becomes a broader message, indicating the company’s “circular” approach transferred to the architectural sphere. And, above all, a methodology.

The Call for Ideas has two categories of participation: Professionals (architects, landscape architects, designers, engineers, researchers and experts with skills in the disciplines listed below) and Under 30s (graduates or those in education in architecture, engineering, design and the disciplines listed below). In line with the principles of Open Innovation, the Call for Ideas is addressed to individuals and/or interdisciplinary Project Teams, trained to assist in outlining a balanced and collaborative understanding of concepts, with expertise in the following disciplines: healthcare, sustainability, spatial design, workplace, new technologies, Big Data, service design, landscape, humanities.

For the development of the ideas—aimed at eliciting possibilities, solutions, ways of reflecting on the future of the architecture of the via Palermo site in relation to buildings, outdoor spaces and indoor spaces—Chiesi developed Five Regenerative Actions as a Force for Good. These underscore the commitment and key points of the company’s narrative and point to the generation of an intervention strategy based on the principles of “kindness” and “connectivity” in the union between scientific and humanistic culture: Innovate to stay coherent / Restore to preserve: the heritage / Take care to treat / Dare for opportunities / Design to impact.

The concepts received—identified and assessed by the Selection Committee composed of leading figures from different fields of research (scientific and humanistic) united by a common innovative capacity in their field and whose names will be made public on the site restoretoimpact.com—will be awarded as follows: the three eligible concepts for the Professional category will receive 12,000 EUR each, the three eligible concepts for the Under 30 category will receive 5,000 EUR each.

The selection committee also reserves the right to select up to five honourable mentions per Category: Professionals will receive 2,000 EUR per single mention, Under-30s will receive 1,000 EUR per single mention. If only one or some of the ten honourable mentions are selected, the amount not awarded will be donated to a local organisation (the total prize money is 66,000 EUR).

The winners will be included in the elaboration and development phases of the future regeneration project of the via Palermo industrial site, and their names will remain in the concept development team, as developers of the design guidelines.

As a follow-up to the call for ideas, a series of panels open to the public, scheduled from June to November 2023, will provide continuity to the themes introduced with the Five Regenerative Actions as a Force for Good. Indeed, Chiesi’s aim is to become a reference point for a culture of innovation, future skills training and sustainability, promoting greater openness and interaction with the outside world. The first panel will be the venue for the award ceremony for the concepts identified by the selection committee.