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Real estate is back in Turin with a hi-tech twist

18 April, La Stampa

“In Italy, it takes 15 years of paperwork to be able to start a 100 thousand Sq m project”. With this introduction, Giuseppe Roveda Aedes Siiq Ceo gives an idea how far the country is from an “urban rebirth”. Aedes Siiq is the company that developed in 2000 the first McArthurGlen outlet in Italy, in Serravalle Scrivia. He speaks using the future. Even the title of the conference has the word future in it: “Turin has a future”, as Aspesi (the real estate promotion association) believes. But we have to take a leap of ten years to imagine the future, as also the economist and Einaudi Centre director Giuseppe Russo says. By then there will be already the Caselle Open Mall, another creation by Roveda, presented yesterday at the Industrial Union conference: a 113 thousand plein air shopping arcade, two steps away from the airport, 200 shops, 15 thousand Sq dedicated to entertainment (included a park designed by National Geographic), 8 thousand parking spots. “It should be ready by 2020”. Aedes started working on it in 2005. In the meanwhile, after pleas, paperwork and authorizations, “I changed my mind. The initial project was for a traditional shopping centre. Now things have changed, the market wants something different”.

According to Mario Crespi, Aspesi president, “the situation might change. The technology and the society are continuously evolving”. After his intervention, the feeling is that the key element might be indeed real estate. An extraordinary, avant-garde, and innovative concept of real estate. These are the characteristics of many projects in the pipeline that are meant to change to look of Turin (already the capital of robotics). Like Thovez 11, that will open in October in Borgo Crimea, featuring wifi for the whole condominium and charging stations for electric cars, it’s created from the reconversion of the old sisters’ schools Sacro Cuore. Or Domus Lascaris, the new project concerning a rationalist-style building behind Piazza Solferino, 80% of the apartments have already been sold. Or Quadrato, the reconversion project of the former Informa Giovani located in the Augustinian cloister in Via delle Orfane. Or the recently inaugurated Santander building in the Isvor building, formerly the Fiat headquarters. These are a few examples that make see things with optimism. “Production and manufacturing will return to the city”, promises Matteo Robiglio, coordinator of the Board of Architects. However, it will be a new concept of manufacturing. “We have to understand what the necessities are, how logistics will work, who the workers will be and consequently how they will relate to the city”. Work in progress, to sum up. But with the awareness that “Turin has a future”.

Source: La Stampa

Translator: Cristina Ambrosi