#002 Space to Culture
YAC Competition Submission
2014, Bologna, IT
Team: Collective East + 100ideas
Status: Honourable Mention
YAC’s third competition to rethink a disused industrial building in Quarto Inferiore (Granarolo, Bologna) which used to be an important factory. and transform it in a lively space for culture, art and public relationships. Due to market’s contractions and thanks to the building’s unique features, Nute’s CEO was aiming to radically transform the former 15.000 m2 industrial park into a space for leisure time, culture and arts.
The main concept we proposed tackles the idea of creating a dynamic spatial framework where the different fragments of the cultural world have the possibility to clash in unpredictable ways. The underlying theme of the proposed cultural centre was defined by the world of fine arts.
The world of art is one of the disciplines affected by these transformations and the cultural institutions should take into account these gaps. Although the notion of interconnection seems to be today’s leitmotif, the creative industries suffer of a dissociated process of fragmentation. The curators have festivals of their own, the artists run from institutions, while most of the museums suffer of budget cuts.
We live in a world of contrasts, of fragments, of paradoxes, where living in between different realities (Anne Friedberg’s virtual spaces, internet’s space, physical spaces – private and public etc.) constantly change the way we relate to space. We live in a world of change, of various transitions and transformations; a world of fuzzy borders where the focus constantly shifts from separation to connection.
Within this framework, we asked ourselves what could a cultural centre mean nowadays.
One of the goals was to allow the inherent introverted world of creation to be exposed in multiple manners to the extroversion of the produced art. As such, we proposed an open building mixing a variety of art related programs - university satellite spaces, workshops, art studios, museum exhibition space, bookshop and library, concept store, bistro, children's corner, art hotel, artist residency as well as a multi-functional auditorium.
We believed that the consequential dynamic of the created cultural centre would become an icon valued from a local to an international level.
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