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There's much talk, both in Italy and worldwide, of the villages and places whose populations will diminish over the years, revealing ever greater numbers of derelict and deserted buildings and constructions crumbling through neglect and lack of maintenance. The new Harmonic Innovation Hub in Tiriolo, near Catanzaro, illustrates a model put forward by Progetto CMR to provide an innovative response to this issue: it is backing regeneration and the rebirth of Italy in terms of villages, proposing new technological hamlets with the accent on innovation and knowhow.
The project redevelops the infrastructure site occupied by a former Telecom building, with an upgrade of its in internal and outdoor spaces to create a multidisciplinary center to support businesses and the local area in the challenges of the digital and technological transition as well as the green, circular, social and economic ones, applying a logic of convergence between tech & social innovation.
The Harmonic Innovation Hub project has been developed through an initiative by Entopan, an integrated provider operating in open innovation and digital transformation. A total of 40,000 m2 will be given over to start ups, research centers and spaces for professionals, with completion scheduled for 2024. The news was announced by Massimo Roj, CEO of Progetto CMR, the studio appointed to design the new digital village spaces.
"We're proud to have been involved in designing the largest ecosystem for innovation in Southern Italy. The project is an opportunity to give shape and solidity to fresh development of this territory, pairing eco-sustainability with digital innovation and encouraging a new way of living and working."
Massimo Roj, CEO of Progetto CMR
The design of this digital hamlet places the Tiriolo hub as one of the largest ecosystems for innovation, and the activities it groups will have positive knock-on effects not only for the south of Italy but also for the whole Mediterranean macro area, which is directly connected with the Middle East.
The Harmonic Hub spaces will accommodate business services companies, an academy, a permanent research and technology-transfer center, a certified incubator and accelerator, and co-working spaces, as well as co-housing areas, to make the complex a true pioneer project for future innovation villages.
What makes the approach especially interesting is how the idea of workplace is extended to other types of settings, thus converting traditional work spaces into livingplaces. The goal is in fact that of endowing work spaces with greater dignity and flexibility, blurring their edges and making them more penetrable, to foster greater interaction and synergy between the teams operating there. The macro categories the complex is structured on are co-working, training, co-living and welfare, and these will be open, relatively seamless and able to prompt sharing and collaboration between the various Harmonic Hub inhabitants.
In more detail, the ground floor will house the reception and the new communal spaces, as well as office spaces, four meeting rooms and a nursery. The first to third floors will accommodate work spaces, while the fourth storey will provide double bedrooms, single bedrooms and suites. Further conference rooms and office space will be on the basement level, effectively converting the former garage into a vibrant context.
"This project displays a high level of creative and technological cross-influence, with a strong identity of social capital and building for the common good, this in the Super smart society 5.0 era. Within this, and by fully implementing this new model of harmonious innovation, stability can be given to the dialogue between different disciplines and worlds, exploring effective and productive exchanges between scientific, technological, social and moral research."
Francesco Cicione, president of Entopan and founder of Harmonic Innovation Group
Location: Tiriolo, Catanzaro, Italy
Developer: Entopan
Architect: Progetto CMR
All images courtesy Progetto CMR
