The UNESCO CORRIDOR of Brescia awarded in Gubbio: an example of integration between history and city.

The UNESCO CORRIDOR designed by the architectural studio BOTTICINI + FACCHINELLI ARW for the Brescia Museums Foundation and the Municipality of Brescia received a special mention in the Italian Section of the Gubbio Prize 2024, directed by architect and professor Nicola Russi.

The XII edition of the award, whose award ceremony took place in Gubbio on November 29, was entitled Europe common ground and has collected the highest number of applications in the history of the event, with fifty-eight projects sent from Italy, nineteen from European countries and forty-four between doctoral and master's theses.

The Gubbio Prize is the most important Italian recognition for projects and reuse plans that intervene on existing heritage, in cities and areas of historical interest. It is awarded to the designers, public bodies and private operators who create them as executors or promoters and it is awarded by ANCSA, the National Association of Historic-Artistic Centres, for more than 60 years an Italian and European point of reference for the debate and design reflection on these themes.

The Gubbio Prize was established in 1990 and is awarded every three years. It is divided into three sections: Italian, European and University. Mario Botta, Juan Navarro Baldeweg, Renzo Piano, Philippe Prost, Alvaro Siza, West 8, Whiterford Watson Mann, as well as the municipalities of Bologna, Florence, Grenoble, Naples, Pisa, Venice and many others are among the winners of the last thirty years. Designers, critics, historians and researchers from all over Europe have participated in the various editions of the Gubbio Prize as reporters or jurors: Nina Bassoli, Nadia Casabella, Sasa Dobricic, Baptiste Manet, Sara Marini, Luca Molinari, Manuel Orazi and Giulia Ricci, among others.

The project for the UNESCO CORRIDOR proposes the integration of the landscape and the inclusion of monumental contexts not touched by the route, uniting and opening up previously closed places to the city, thus restoring a real promenade – section on the Roman and medieval urban history of Brescia. A “stone carpet” winds through alleys, squares, courtyards and monuments allowing everyone to enjoy these extraordinary places.

The Brescia project of the UNESCO CORRIDOR was awarded because it is one of the few cases in which an attempt is made to imagine an archaeological site not as a theme park, but as an urban environment: in the historic city of Brescia, the hybridization between the archaeological dimension and the life of all young people has been made possible.

Link to the project UNESCO CORRIDOR