The objectives of the synergy between the institutions are twofold. The first, of an economic-environmental nature, is aimed at cutting operating costs and land waste by using all the tools that technology offers to create efficient archives and regional centres (hubs) for the optimal storage of archival material. Unused areas, even peripheral ones, are reclaimed for new documentation logistics, with important economies of scale. Archives are the sector of choice where digitisation can help reduce management costs and increase the use of documentary heritage.
The second objective is cultural and social: regenerating buildings that are reminders of the history of cities and large compendiums of monumental value that house the State Archives, into 'places of people' and relations, with a mix of functions, rooms open for consultation, multifunctional and digital, documentation available on the web, public green spaces and places of accommodation. Consultation and exhibition of the testimonies of our past constitute a new cultural offer, together with the possibility of rediscovering valuable buildings, treasures within our urban centres, hitherto little accessible.
The project for the opening of Palazzo Senato in Milan joins other important projects concerning the State Archives in Naples; the project for the recovery of the Santa Maria della Ripa convent in Forlì, which will become a centre for State and Municipal archives, damaged by the 2023 flood, and will host university residences and multi-purpose consultation rooms open to the public together with a large livable cloister; the re-functioning of the Setti barracks in Modena, which will host inter-provincial archives in a mix of functions; the large military compendium 'VIII Cerimant' at Tor Sapienza in Rome, former industrial warehouses bearing the clear sign of a bomb that pierced the roof of the Nervi warehouses during the Second World War, where it is planned to build ministerial archives, state archives, a recovery art centre with exhibition and museum spaces, the archiving centre for the historical films of Italian cinema, open consultation rooms, a regenerated green space for the city with attractive facilities the former Papareschi compendium, which is transformed from industrial warehouses into open archives, university laboratories and a centre of attraction for young people. Located in a strategic position between historical architecture, public spaces and creative environments, the compendium will become a vital pole for culture and collective participation.
The objective is to bring these places of documentary preservation to life as inclusive cultural spaces. The redevelopment concession for Palazzo Senato is the second public-private partnership procedure to be opened as part of a change shared by the Agenzia del Demanio and the Ministry of Culture that favours new projects on public properties in dialogue with the cities.
Director Agenzia del Demanio
