Progetto CMR:
the word to the italian designers in China

Beijing, May 31st 2005 – Progetto CMR, an Italian design firm that has been active in China for several years, providing a significant contribution to the architectural debate, as well as to the built environment with several important projects being realized in the city of Tianjin, now extends it's influence to the cultural level, in the debate regarding the future of the city and it’s buildings, and in particular to the buildings dedicated to work.

In this context of cultural exchange, the architect Massimo Roj, C.E.O. of Progetto CMR, participated in the seminar organized by the ICE at the European Style Conference Center in Beijing, as part of the "Progetto Marco Polo", with a lecture entitled "Architecture and spaces designed for people. An investment in tomorrow’s office in the dimension of the contemporary metropolis".

The lecture originated from an analysis of the elements that have determined the rapid evolution of the city and the transformation in metropolis, in which the passage from a horizontal organizational model to a vertical one has resulted, more often than not, in the loss of liveability of the places, the rupture of the relation with the context, and the disregard for tradition, sustainability and quality of life. The technological and informational innovations surely have had a strong impact on the organization of the city and on the buildings and workplace environments. The development of the city is planned through an investment in "the architecture and the value of the project", in which the design and building of the city respond to the dimensions of the new domestic and workplace environments.
The element that allows for a coherent and structured management of the evolution of the city is "the project" that places the person at the base of the creative process. The planning of the city and it’s spaces is the true functional motor of the project that proposes an aware and integrated approach as the wining strategy for building a city that responds to technological change, while acknowledging the human scale, the context and the presence of the past.

Inside the city, the buildings are the catalyst and prototypes for the future; the unity is reflected on to the city and it's organization. The buildings are, in fact, complex systems that must be capable of responding to problems concerning context, typology, management, aesthetics, appeal, etc. But a building is also a complex system of relations between economic realities and protagonists such as the owner, developer, agent, tenant, and facility manager that interact with each other from the onset of the design process to the end of the building's life cycle.

The lecture ended with the posing of a question: what will tomorrow's metropolis be like? Certainly a place for the expression of each individual's creativity, a condition necessary for change. The designers of Progetto CMR have undertaken the task of finding the right ways to anticipate changes while working as partners with any public or private company in the process of innovation.

A vast, attentive and competent public, representing institutions, investors, developers, and journalists, participated in the seminar, demonstrating a great interest in the humanistic vision of tomorrow's design, a vision of which Progetto CMR are bearers.