Introduction

On January 1, 2016 the Municipality of Prato launched an international two-phase design competition for a new 3-hectare urban park in its historical city center, located within the perimeter of the city walls, where the former city hospital is located. Among its objectives, all aimed at interpreting the needs of the contemporary city, are the socio-economic development of the city center, the enhancement of its touristic vocation, sustainability and accessibility. After a first competition phase, that registered 230 candidates from all over the world, the international jury selected 10 teams that were invited to participate in the final competition phase.

On October 1, 2016 the international jury, chaired by architect Bernard Tschumi, evaluated a series of design proposals that all contributed significant ideas for the evolution of the contemporary city. All teams put forward new thoughts that reflect upon a renewed sensitivity towards the environment. The jury unanimously announced the winner : the team formed by OBR Paolo Brescia and Tommaso Principi with Michel Desvigne Paysagiste, that will be commissioned to design the final project for the new Parco Centrale di Prato.

Finalists announced

On Wednesday May 4, 2016 the jury – whose members are Bernard Tschumi, Massimo Nutini, Michelle Provoost, Sébastien Marot and Roberto Zancan – selected, among the 230 candidates from all over the world, the 10 finalists who will be invited to conceive a schematic design for the site.
Here are the finalists

Premise

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“Prato is a vibrant, contradictory, innovative, and conflictual city: a city that, from the start of the 20th century and in particular after the Second World War, has represented a formidable urban, social, cultural and economic laboratory where new models have often been tested.

The area of the former Misericordia e Dolce Hospital represents one of the main strategic objectives the Municipality di Prato is currently involved in. Its next transformation, object of this international competition, is about the creation of a new large urban park of around 3 hectares to serve the city.

A new large public space which must become attractive as a metropolitan area and due to the flows of international cultural turism thanks to the facilities contained therein and thanks to quality and innovation in the treatment of the green areas and the presence of art and architecture with strong contemporary connotations: a new modern-day place set within a historical and valuable context, capable of conveying the image of Prato as the city of the contemporaneity of Tuscany.”

From the introduction of Valerio Barberis, Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning, Municipality of Prato.

More in the Preliminary Planning Document

Project site

The area object of this competition, located inside the perimeter of the city walls where the former city hospital was built, represents a large portion of the south-west quarter of the Historical Center where the axes of ancient foundations can easily be identified: the Decumanus Maximus (the present-day Porta Pistoiese up to Piazza San Marco) and the Cardo Maximus (from the Porta al Serraglio train station up to Porta Santa Trinita). The heart of the city, represented by Piazza del Comune, around which the “center” of the Historical Center has developed, is still located at the point where they meet. The main architectural features of the city are concentrated here as well as a series of commercial and cultural enterprises set up to serve a regional user base.

The project area is characterized by the “void” created by the vegetable gardens of the hospital, which remained intact until the enlargement was built in the 1960s and 1970s.

For the city, the creation of the urban park in the former hospital area represents an absolutely exceptional and unrepeatable occasion. Creating a park of over three hectares inside the fourteenth-century walls is in itself highly unique. It rarely happens that we witness projects of such significant proportions within parts of ancient and established cities.

More in the Preliminary Planning Document

Brief

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The main aim of the competition is to completely rethink the former hospital area, creating an urban park that endows it with a functional and strategic role so as to fully include it in the network of city relations.

The new urban park must first of all be able to change the vision and perception not only of the new place that will be created, but it must also alter the perception of the downtown areas adjacent to it, conferring awareness that a new part of the city has been created inside the walls. Not an area closed off by walls and gates, but a prevalently open area capable of becoming a hub of vitality for the center and for the city outside the walls.

The project for the new 3-hectare park consists of two functional lots.

The first lot includes the complete creation of the green areas and therefore of the park, as well as a built volume with a minimum area of 500 square meter of gross floor area containing, among other things, the services essential to the park itself.

The second functional lot includes the creation of other buildings, up to a maximum of 3,000 square meters of gross floor area.

For additional information on the competition participation process you may download the Competition brief and the Preliminary Planning Document.

Please note: the competition notice has been modified, as per documents available in the Download area of this website and in the official documentation on the website of the Municipality of Prato.

Download

The official competition documents may be downloaded from the website of the Comune di Prato (at this link).

The documents are in Italian, since Italian is the official language for this competition. All interested may preview abstracts from the Competition Brief and the Preliminary Planning Document here below.

Timetable

(updated on October 30, 2016)

by December 31, 2015
Publication of the competition brief

by February 29, 2016
Deadline for receipt of applications for admission to the competition

by May 4, 2016
Evaluation by the board and subsequent dispatch of the invitation to participate in the competition to the shortlisted contestants

October 1, 2016
Selection of the winning design and entrustment of the final project and working plan

October 7 – 28, 2016
Exhibition of all design proposals

Modifications to the timetable can be made by the competition organizer for sound reasons and will be published on the competition website ilparcocentralediprato.it

Jury

The jury, appointed on the basis of specific expertise, at an international level as well in consideration of the distinctive characteristics of the procedure, is made up of the following people:

Permanent members

  • Bernard Tschumi, Architect (President) (biography)
  • Michelle Provoost, Architectural historial (Vice President) (biography)
  • Sébastien Marot, Philosopher and landscape design theorist (biography)
  • Roberto Zancan, Architecture critic (biography)
  • Francesco Procopio, Architect from the Municipality of Prato, in charge of the restoration of the city’s historical heritage (biography)

Temporary members

  • Marzia De Marzi, as a delegate of the Association of Architects of the Province of Prato
  • Mario Moscardi, as a delegate of the Association of Engineers of the Province of Prato

The Jury will examine the documentation submitted by the contestants and select a maximum of 10 entrants to be admitted to the competition phase. At the end of the competition, the Jury will select a winner who will be commissioned with the project.

Finalists

The ten finalists are:

1

Roberto Pasini (AUS pasini ranieri) – group leader
Kongjian Yu (TURENSCAPE)
Giovanni Grappeggia (Studio Verde)
Marco Francia, Deris Ortali (Eltec)
Andrea Ranieri (AUS pasini ranieri)
Matteo Giulianelli

Below are images of projects included in the portfolio submitted by the team in the first phase:

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2

Emanuele Barili – group leader
Alejandro Aravena (ELEMENTAL)
Gonzalo Arteaga Rozas (ELEMENTAL)
Cosimo Balestri
Teresa Moller (Teresa Moller Landscape Studio)
with Olivia Gori, Mattia Di Carlo, Knut Stockhusen

Below are images of projects included in the portfolio submitted by the team in the first phase:

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3

Massimo Alvisi (Alvisi Kirimoto) – group leader
Petra Blaisse (Inside Outside)
Maurizio Milan (Milan Ingegneria)
Alessio Montanari
with Giampiero Aresi, Aniello Camarca, Eloisa Susanna

Below are images of projects included in the portfolio submitted by the team in the first phase:

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4

Ferdinand Ludwig (Baubotanik) – group leader
Daniel Schönle
Markus Allman (Allmann Sattler Wappner)
Carlo Scoccianti
with Lukasz Lendzinski (Umschichten), Peter Weigand, Sergio Sanna, Bernhard Scharf (green4cities)

Below are images of projects included in the portfolio submitted by the team in the first phase:

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5

Dominique Jakob (Jakob + MacFarlane Architects) – group leader
Pablo Georgieff (Coloco)
Laura Gatti
with Francesca Borrelli

Below are images of projects included in the portfolio submitted by the team in the first phase:

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6

Rients Dijkstra (MAXWAN ARCHITECTS + URBANISTS) – group leader
with Franca Maria Luisa Neonato (PN STUDIO)

Below are images of projects included in the portfolio submitted by the team in the first phase:

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7

Paolo Brescia (OBR – Paolo Brescia e Tommaso Principi) – group leader
Michel Desvigne (Michel Desvigne Paysagiste)
Alberto Romeo (Intertecno)
with Tommaso Principi (OBR – Paolo Brescia e Tommaso Principi), Elisa Siffredi (OBR – Paolo Brescia e Tommaso Principi), Enrico Ferraris (Michel Desvigne Paysagiste), Massimiliano Marzo (Intertecno)

Below are images of projects included in the portfolio submitted by the team in the first phase:

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8

Dan Dorell (DORELL.GHOTMEH.TANE/ARCHITECTS) – group leader
Lina Ghotmeh (DORELL.GHOTMEH.TANE/ARCHITECTS)
Tsuyoshi Tane (DORELL.GHOTMEH.TANE/ARCHITECTS)
Franck Boutté (FRANCK BOUTTÉ CONSULTANTS)
Klaas De Rycke (BOLLINGER + GROHMANN)
Simone Murr (BOLLINGER + GROHMANN)
Laure Vandeputte (BOLLINGER + GROHMANN)
Gabriel Auger (BOLLINGER + GROHMANN)
with Marco Tosato, Leonardo Oprandi

Below are images of projects included in the portfolio submitted by the team in the first phase:

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9

Martino Tattara (Dogma) – group leader
Pier Vittorio Aureli (Dogma)
Luciano Aletta (Dogma)
Paolo Rigoni (StudioSilva)
Marco Sassatelli (StudioSilva)
with Elia Zenghelis

Below are images of projects included in the portfolio submitted by the team in the first phase:

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10

Benedetta Tagliabue (EMBT | Enric Miralles – Benedetta Tagliabue) – group leader
with Matteo Francesco Ruta (Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento ABC), Gabriele Masera (Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento ABC)

Below are images of projects included in the portfolio submitted by the team in the first phase:

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The five runnersup:

11

Gonçalo Byrne (Gonçalo Byrne Arquitectos) – group leader
Ribeiro Ferrera Joao Antonio Nunes (PROAP)
Zoilo Sanchez Juan Ignacio
Giorgio Baldisseri
Lorenzo Cipriano Marchetto
Massimo Zancan
Ilaria Conte
Ettore d’Angelo
Augusto Bottai
with Manuel Bellagamba, Giuseppe Franco D’Arteni, Nereo Bianchi, Michael Jakob, Eduardo Camacho-Hubner, Massimiliano Alessandro

12

Philippe Rahm (Philippe Rahm architectes) – group leader
Gabriella Chiellino (eAmbiente)

13

Iñaqui Carnicero – group leader
Lorena Del Rio
Zuhal Kol
with Carlos Zarco

14

Wolfgang Tschapeller – group leader
Niklavs Paegle
Christina Jauernik
with Lonny Van Rysvwyck (Atelier NL), Nadine Sterk (Atelier NL), Matthew Edgeworth

15

Alejandro Zaera Polo (AZPML) – group leader
Maider Llaguno
Andrea Boschetti (Metrogramma)
Alberto Francini (Metrogramma)
Sala Cheli
with Vittorio Peretto, Cristina Iglesias