Imagine a 300,000-square-meter logistics park whose building facade is transformed into a canvas to accommodate the creativity of internationally renowned urban artists. The place where the artwork is camped on a large surface. In the process of transforming the 40,000 square meters vertical wall into an open-air art gallery, the expressions of eight urban artists, each with their unique style, and inspired by a series of keywords suggested to them to create new works. These include "change, innovation, future," "culture and talent," "inclusion and diversity", "integrity," "passion", "empathy", "sustainability", "commitment", "teamwork", "excellence", "nature"
This is what is happening for the first time in the world at Prologis Park Lodi, where art is coming in to make it aesthetically more beautiful and create continuity between the buildings and the surrounding environment. This project is possible thanks to the collaboration of CEVA Logistics. This company operates from the logistics park and a team of professionals, including TUNED, the business unit of Lombardini22 Group specializing in neuroscience in architecture, and the art director Enrico Sironi HEMO.
The works can be observed, studied, and admired by the "inhabitants of the park" both through service areas designed and arranged as terraces of the "belvedere" and through a new path created inside the park. The realizations of ETNIK, FONT, HITNES, MADE, MACS, SEA CREATIVE, JOYS, and VESOD, are part of the PARKlife™ project developed by Prologis at an international level and which aims to focus not only on the logistical needs of customers but especially on the personal needs and well-being of their employees.
The artists are already at work and will remain engaged in the field until early June to create pieces that, although different in style and interpretation, build a close dialogue between them and the surrounding environment and that is at the same time an exciting snapshot of the best urban creativity active in Italy. In addition to the keywords, the leitmotif is the connection with nature enhanced by vertical gardens in some of the works.
The PARKlife™ project in Lodi also foresees the requalification of part of the green area with the introduction of tall trees with different colors that rebalance the spaces and the environment creating a natural dialogue with the works present on the buildings. It is also foreseen the realization of flower beds with herbaceous perennials that ensure more chromatic variability and lawn areas for visitors to the park.
PARKlife™ is a paradigm shift in the development of logistics parks by Prologis. The objective is to think of the logistics park as a place of socialization, a small urban center where it will be possible to find a series of services that will enrich the working day: from public transportation to services, from possible leisure activities to opportunities for meetings. The concept of sustainability continues to expand, and it also becomes the availability and livability of space. Hence, more and more attention is paid both to the internal areas, such as relaxation rooms, multifunctional rooms, etc., and the external areas, with the creation of recreation and leisure spaces, playgrounds, safe pedestrian paths, health trails, and bike paths, shaded areas, redesign of the green areas, which allow those who live in the park to exercise or relax.
The pilot project at the Prologis Park Lodi will allow us to draw essential indications to identify which PARKlife™ elements are more appreciated and contribute to the park's users' greater well-being be introduced at a later stage in other Prologis logistics parks in Italy.