Megazzini Generali international ideas competition: awarded second place
Location: Verona, Italy
Completed 2000

For this new architecture, the intent is connection—people to buildings, buildings to buildings, buildings to zones, zones to neighborhoods and past to future. By forging ties between people, place and time, Verona South is revitalized…transfigured by accessibility, intrigue and beauty.

What lies common between buildings and zones is…the earth. Earth manifests connection. Meandering paths, monumental processions and direct thoroughfares are conceived by means of pronouncing the ground plane. This altered earth creates a pedestal for life. It reaches out to all ends and pulls people in. Arteries,. Life. Connection.

The Megazzini Generali is the heart of the complex and bustles day and night with activity at museums, galleries, theaters, parks and street markets. The existing market retains its past function, but is lifted by the design to revive the amicably integrated environment of vendor and consumer. The redesigned east and north entries encourage interaction between areas through piazzas and esplanades. The transformation of the ground plane constitutes the lifeblood of the project, creating avenues for the flow of life, ideas and history