Architettiverona Prize 2021: here are the winning works
From teacher to teacher. After the 2017 Ceremony which celebrated the figure of Libero Cecchini, the Architect Award, promoted since 2009 by the homonymous magazine of the Order of Architects of Verona, it returns to reward the best Veronese architecture of recent years and pays homage, with the Special Recognition “Ad Honorem“, Luciano Cenna and Luigi Calcagni (1929 – 2020), two great architects who in Verona, and beyond, have left an indelible mark with their decades-long professional partnership “in terms of ability, human and intellectual caliber”.
The award ceremony took place in the late afternoon of Friday 24 September, at Murlongo Park of Costermano, the complex of holiday homes built in the early 1970s by the Milanese architect Angelo Mangiarotti, a place of high architectural value and significance which, this year, accomplishes 50 years and which, for the occasion, was open to the public. An elementary construction in the means, expression of a “free living”, an exemplary case for the successful inclusion in the landscape of the morainic hills on the eastern shore of Lake Garda.
To reward the four winning projects and the two special mentions, were present Paola Bonuzzi, vice president of the Order of Architects of Verona, Alberto Vignolo, director of the Rivista Architettiverona and the editorial staff of the Rivista Architettiverona.
The winning interventions
I am four winning projects, in addition to the two special mentions, made in the Verona area which – in the respective sections of the 2021 Call for the award: “Equipment and interiors“,”New construction“,”Restoration and recovery“And”Public spaces and landscape “- win there sixth edition of the 2021 Architettiverona Award that enhances a living and quality Veronese architecture and the professionals who interpret its values and ideas with originality.
For the section “Equipment and interiors“The winner is the project of”Illumination of the hypogeum of Santa Maria in Stelle”In Verona by Studio LuceArchitettura of architects Lorella Marconi and Cinzia Todeschini, who knew how to“ work light ”as a“ thread and narrative element ”, enhancing“ the uniqueness of the underground spaces and their history ”; for the category “New construction“, Awarded the”Villa T”In Peschiera del Garda by the Studio Ardielli Fornasa Associati of the architects Marco Ardielli and Paola Fornasa. The work has convinced for the interpretation of the theme of domesticity, where the solidity of the rural house has been reworked in a contemporary key ”; Studio Ardielli Fornasa Associati also wins the first of the two mentions always by category “New construction” for the project “Villas in Albisano”In Torri del Benaco which highlights“ the ability to define an articulated system with respect to the high difference in level of the land ”, giving autonomy to the housing units and“ a double front also in a microclimatic key ”; for the section “Restoration and recovery“Winner the”Recovery of the Monte Tesoro Fort “ in Sant’Anna D’Alfaedo – on a project by the architect. Fiorenzo Meneghelli – “for the cultured and accurate character of the intervention conducted with a philological approach”.
For the section “Public spaces and landscape “, the award goes to the “Brolo of Cantina Gorgo “, Custoza Sommacampagna of Studio Bricolo Falsarella Associati of the arch. Filippo Bricolo and Francesca Falsarella “for the construction of a representative landscape of the wine-growing context through the use of narrative sequences composed of plant elements and constructed elements”.
There second mention for the category “Restoration and recovery “ go to “Country house in Chievo “, in Verona, project by Studio wok associated architects, architects Marcello Bondavalli, Nicola Brenna and Carlo Alberto Tagliabue for the reinterpretation of the rural building for domestic use with “a rich and articulated spatial quality both in the interiors and in the definition of the garden spaces” .
Selected among the 41 candidate projects, a convince the Jury – composed of Mariano Zanon, architect, winner of the Italian Architect Award 2020, Maura Manzelle, lecturer at the IUAV in Venice, Laura De Stefano, vice president of the PPC Order of Architects of Verona e Davide Fusari, director of “A”, Journal of the PPC Order of Architects of Trento e Alberto Vignolo, director of ArchitettiVerona of the Order of PC Architects of Verona – were the figurative and realization coherence of these creations with respect to the themes, the design scales and, above all, their ability to bring out, in an innovative and personal way, the qualities of the urban context and civil in which they have been inserted, making these works essential components of the cultural and civil fabric of the community of which they are an expression.
The “Ad Honorem” awards
The Special Lifetime Achievement Award goes to architects Luigi Calcagni (to the memory, 1929 – 2020) e Luciano Cena, for the multi-year professional partnership that has designed the modern face of Verona and its territory – since 1984 they have created Studio Arteco together – and for having known “embodying the figure of the intellectual architect” in academic commitment, in city administration, in the writings and in the civil debate.
Both graduated in 1957 from the University of Venice, in the same year they enrolled in the Register of Veronese Architects: one, Calcagni with card no. 45, Supper with n. 46. As recent graduates they win the national competition for Cas elderly in via Don Carlo Steeb in Verona; them the hospital project
of Legnago. Then, the revisitation of the exhibition spaces of the Gran Guardia; the Palladio complex and the interventions at the University Campus in Veronetta for the Frinzi Library and the Court of San Francesco, but also for the medical and scientific faculties in Borgo Roma. The latest work still in progress, the intervention on the Palazzo del Capitanio by the Cariverona Foundation.
Among the works outside Verona, we remember the renovation of the Olympic Stadium in Turin and the restoration of Palazzo Fulcis in Belluno for the Civic Museum.
Arch. Paola Bonuzzi, vice president of the Order of PPC Architects of the province of Verona
«The Architettiverona Award represents, together with the AV Magazine – the Order’s quarterly magazine -, a concrete tool that promotes the fundamental role of quality architecture – also in the Verona area – and the indispensable figure of the architect. In this historical moment of particular difficulties
in which the pandemic has been added to the severe crisis in the construction sector, enhancing the quality of transformations in the territory by giving “voice” to innovative, sustainable design models contextualized in the landscape and focusing on the quality of architecture as a quality of life, in private spaces , in public areas and in the natural environment, it is an essential strategy to relaunch the profession ».
Arch. Alberto Vignolo, director of the magazine Architettiverona, councilor of the Order and member of the Prize Jury
“This year’s edition of the ArchitettiVerona Award, the sixth – underlines the architect – returns to highlight an overview of architecture in the Verona area in recent years: a still image that, through the awarded works, underlines the values cultural and representative of architecture in the different ambitions in which it can be recovered, from interiors to restoration and recovery, from new buildings to the scale of the landscape. What emerges is a rich, vital and critically updated panorama, an example for everyone, private clients and public administrations, to invest in the planning skills that Verona offers ».
Arch. Luciano Cenna, winner of the “Ad Honorem” Prize together with Luigi calcagni (in memory)
«The honorary recognition for the work carried out by Calcagni and me, conferred on us by the Rivista ArchitettiVerona, makes me happy and I agree. I don’t know what you think Gigi: when I get the chance I’ll ask him. But, I am sure, he will share the excellent initiative ».