The name “Reggiane” is strongly related to the city’s memory and identity. Therefore, through the redevelopment of the abandoned and deprived industrial area of the historic Officine Meccaniche Reggiane, the Innovation Park brings a part of Reggio Emilia back to life.
The area, about 26 hectares close to the railway station and the historical center of Reggio Emilia, in the industrial district of Santa Croce, is the scenario of the economic and social history of Reggio Emilia, an important story, made of massive production, of work, research and great innovations. The definitive abandonment of the workshops in 2008 left this strategic area “suspended”: now it’ s at the core of an innovative urban regeneration intervention, model of a new sustainable economic development, crucial for the future of the city.
The urban regeneration of the Reggiane area is part of a wider process of strategic-territorial planning and governance that the Municipality of Reggio Emilia, reacting to the effects of the global crisis, started in 2010. The project involves the entire North Area of the city, a territorial plan based on an economic model that is no longer only based on manufacturing but rather shifting towards the knowledge economy; a plan aiming at boosting the growth of distinctive skills, attraction of knowledge, talents, research and innovation, international exchange of experiences and relationships and at enhancing urban and life quality.