Brescia, the new Borsoni Theater is born, replacing the dismantled “Ideal Cinema” building

Brescia, the new cultural center of Via Milano, the beating heart of the “Oltre la Strada” project, takes a further step forward. In the council meeting held this morning at Palazzo Loggia, the Administration has formalized the naming of the new theater to Renato Borsoni which will be built at number 83 in via Milano, taking the place of the now dismantled Ideal Clima building. A necessary act, which required an administrative formalization which in the Covid months had taken a back seat compared to much more pressing emergencies. The Borsoni Theater will be one of the central points in terms of supporting street resilience Milano and the enhancement of well-being, of the quality of participatory life in the neighborhood. The new Borsoni Theater will not simply be a new cultural space, but a intervention with a strong redevelopment and innovation value. It is being built to replace the old Ideal Clima factory and is a concentration of architecture, energy infrastructures, digital services that make it unique in the national panorama and a prototype for safe, sustainable and fully accessible places of culture.

Recognizing its value, the Ministry of Culture communicated to the Municipality and the CTB the assignment of the funding foreseen for the competitive "Culture Fund". The notice, published last May 20, 2021, was intended only for public bodies pursuant to art. 1 of law 31 December 2009, n. 196 and had the objective of “support investments and other interventions for the protection, conservation, restoration, enjoyment, valorisation and digitalisation of the tangible and intangible cultural heritage in accordance with current legislation”. As part of the agreement for the use and management of the Nuovo Teatro Borsoni, signed between the Municipality of Brescia (owner of the Theatre) and CTB Centro Teatrale Bresciano (managing body), the CTB has nominated as leader a project to be on the new Borsoni Theater with a total value of just under 1,3 million euros, of which the Ministry guarantees approximately 1 million.
The MIC Commission rewarded the completeness of the design and the complex technological integration imagined for the new theatre, capable of offering new services to the public of every generation, of making the structure safe and comfortable and of opening up the use of all the performing arts to every user, especially to the most fragile or disabled people. In the MIC project there is a chapter dedicated to digital infrastructure, with automatic ticket machines, information panels, sensors for maximum comfort in all environments, video surveillance with artificial intelligence, automated access, public connectivity distributed in every environment.

The innovation project of the new Borsoni Theatre
The new Borsoni Theater is not simply a new space for contemporary performing arts (music, theatre, dance, etc.) but it is configured as a real POC (proof of content) which combines culture and technology in an integrated, dialogic and sustainable way. In addition to being an energy-independent building, thanks to the large and efficient photovoltaic system located on the roofs behind the scenic tower and related energy storage, since its construction it has presented an evolved and adaptive "smart building" approach: a building equipped with various digital and infrastructural layers capable of creating a comfortable environment, adaptive towards users, responsive for ordinary and extraordinary activities, capable of saving energy, guaranteeing the highest levels of safety (of things, people, air, environments, workers, performers) and be able to support, over time, the insertion of new devices that replace or enhance the performances of the Theatre, its liveability, the accessibility of the most fragile users. The Project therefore includes the costs necessary for the design and construction of the internal infrastructure of the Theatre, through devices for regulating and controlling energy consumption (smart plug), access and space security (VLC with AI software) and value-added services. added necessary for the Bergamo and Brescia Capitals of Culture 2023 appointment.

The street theater Milano 83
The new Borsoni Theater is a fundamental part of an ambitious urban regeneration plan that the Municipality of Brescia is implementing on one of its most difficult suburbs: the one overlooking the street Milano. In this process, cultural activities and in particular theater have an essential relevance: the activation and management of the new Borsoni Theater by the CTB Centro Teatrale Bresciano will guarantee multiple interventions on the neighborhood in the long term the desired effects in terms of quality of the cultural presence, identity and redevelopment of the area. The redevelopment process promoted by the Municipality of Brescia intends to "return the Porta district to the city Milano".
Located near the junction of Via Metastasio on the opposite side to the south, in correspondence with the Ideal Standard, the Borsoni Theater in full activity will offer two performance halls in total, with an independent refreshment area, offices, new external urban spaces. In place of the former changing room canteen, a building will be located which, set back from the road compared to the current building, will free up a new square on the east side. Architecturally, the new theater looks like a parallelepiped with a plan of 21x64 metres, 9 meters high. At the centre, the body is equipped with a 19-metre scenic tower capable of offering the city a high-quality function for the show from I live.

Renato Borsoni (outline)
In 1952 Renato Borsoni participated in the birth of the Piccolo Teatro della Città di Brescia, the first Italian cooperative in the sector; in 1961 he was one of the seven founders of the Compagnia della Loggetta theater group, which he led until its transformation into the Centro Teatrale Bresciano (1975), of which he was director until 1988. From March of the same year he was a member of the Società del Teatro Grande of Brescia, then president until June 2010, the year in which the Foundation was established of which Borsoni was appointed vice president and of which he also held the position of board member until his death in 2017. Finally, it should be remembered that in 2014 Renato Borsoni received the Vallesina Special Lifetime Achievement Award from the then President of the Chamber of Deputies Laura Boldrini.