{"id":545804,"date":"2026-03-19T02:09:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T02:09:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/545804\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T02:09:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T02:09:16","slug":"design-competition-turn-a-ruined-italian-brick-factory-into-a-civic-center","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/545804\/","title":{"rendered":"Design Competition: Turn a Ruined Italian Brick Factory Into a Civic Center"},"content":{"rendered":"


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In Italy, not all ruins go back to the time of the Romans. Take this impressive seaside edifice in southern Sicily. Its original date of construction? 1909-1912.<\/p>\n

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Called the Fornace Penna, it was built as a brickworks. The location was purposeful: A nearby port facilitated export, a clay quarry was nearby, and the coastal winds made short work of the smokestack’s exhalations.<\/p>\n

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The facility was engineer-designed and efficient, employing over 100 workers. You might wonder how a 20th-century industrial structure has gone derelict after barely a century. Sadly, the factory ran for just a dozen years before an arsonist torched the place. The culprit was never found and the owner, Baron Guglielmo Penna, chose not to rebuild.<\/p>\n

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The structure remained, derelict, in the Penna family; in 2024 it was owned by no less than 26 Penna heirs. That year the Region of Sicily negotiated with all 26 family members and purchased the place. Now Reuse Italy, a social impact organization, is holding a design competition called Reuse the Kiln<\/a> to repurpose it. They’re asking architects, designers and students to “to reinterpret the ruin as a civic center: a place for public services, with spaces for meetings, study, and work.”<\/p>\n

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Submissions will be in the form of a single A1 sheet. First prize is \u20ac3,000 (USD $3,300), 2nd prize is \u20ac1,500 (USD $1,650) and 3rd prize is \u20ac500 (USD $550). The deadline is August of this year. <\/p>\n


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