Towards 2023: taking stock, alliances and prospects
Towards 2023: taking stock, alliances and prospects
We realised that digitisation and project integration, condensed into a single interlocutor, are an added value for a market, both public and private, that increasingly needs parties capable of completing investments within budgets and on time.
Start of the year, time to take stock and make new resolutions.
The year 2022 marked the end of a very special three-year period, characterised by the pandemic and the consequent rethinking of how to support our clients. We realised that digitisation and project integration, condensed into a single interlocutor, are an added value for a market, both public and private, that increasingly needs parties capable of completing investments within budgets and on time. Sensitivity to issues such as the sustainability of the planet and the wellbeing of people has also grown exponentially, which have become essential indicators for determining the quality of the built environment.
This is why DVArea, which arose out of DVA’s propensity for multidisciplinary integration and contamination, is growing steadily and significantly. April saw the birth of Urban Pixel Construction (www.upconstruction.it), a company that aims to support investors who want to focus on the transformation of the built environment. With services ranging from area selection, to real estate product conception, to determining a business plan, UPC brings all the added value of DVArea’s integrated services to the real estate industry. The “BajoUP” operation (www.upconstruction.it/bajoup) – the completion of the Bajo neighbourhood -, created in Gorle in the 1970s, should be seen in this context; a recognised and much sought-after place, a stone’s throw from Bergamo, in which UPC proposes a new approach to living, based on sustainability and well-being.
In October 2022, DVArea also acquired 33% of the company Strobilo (www.strobilo.life), a tech company that uses state-of-the-art neuroscience techniques in combination with artificial intelligence to study the relationship between human beings and planet Earth. This operation was preparatory to the birth of ODUElab (www.dvarea.vision/nasce-oduelab), an entity that investigates and promotes the relationship between architecture and neuroscience, starting from the awareness that the tangible and non-tangible physical space which we live in influences the quality of our lives. ODUElab arose out of the networking activities of CSMT, the Innovative Contamination Hub of Brescia, proving that our relationship with the Brescia area is constantly growing.
The design core is growing. The services one is trying to find its position.
DVA’s mission is clear: to consolidate a market field not covered by either traditional engineering or architectural studios, at the project’s service to ensure its quality, at all stages of the process. In this respect form and composition are not regarded as a mere background element, but as the synthesis of an activity based on data collection and analysis, through the common thread of digitisation and sustainability, which hold all the group’s souls together. With 2023, a new three-year period begins, which will lead us to the completion of DVA’s 10th year in 2025. It will be the three-year period of becoming aware of our value, to find our position in the global market for architectural services.
The growth of the DVArea system will continue with new satellites, and in these days we are finalising the formalisation of our entry into “BuildTech”, a spin-off of the University of Genoa, in order to be more incisive on research and development issues, with a special focus on sustainability and innovative materials (www.buildingtechnology.eu).
Satellites closely linked to the design world such as DVA, DVS and DVMep have had to deal with the difficulties of the construction supply chain, I am referring to the increase in prices of raw materials, more generally to procurement, but also to the uncertainties related to the 110% Superbonus. 2022 was a challenging year, some orders were postponed and this slowed down the schedule, but this did not prevent DVA from achieving a turnover of EUR 8.5 million, exceeding the 8 budgeted twelve months ago but, more importantly, up from the 6 in 2021. DVS and DVMep also grew, to half a million and 1.5 million respectively, proving that the group’s multi-disciplinary focus makes it much more resilient and will enable it to have adequate tools to cope with the uncertainties that the market will present to industry players in 2023.
In the design market, the group remains particularly active in its city, Brescia, where 15% of its turnover is from public and private assignments.
Recent assignments include the completion of the LDV74 urban regeneration subdivision in Via Leonardo da Vinci (www.dvisionarchitecture.com/rigenerazione-urbana-brescia-centro), a stone’s throw from the city centre, which involved DVA in all design phases. There is also, in the hinterland, the redevelopment project of the former Faini area, in the municipality of Concesio (Bs) (www.dvisionarchitecture.com/un-progetto-di-rigenerazione-per-concesio), which saw DVA enter the field to recover an area of 60,000 square metres which had been abandoned for 15 years, integrating a new residential system in a landscape that needed to be reconstructed, through an installation which amplified the liveability and well-being perceived by residents. The end of 2022 was also marked by two significant new assignments, a project for a new primary school in the municipality of Montirone (Bs) and the renovation of the “Casa dell’accoglienza” (homeless shelter) for the municipality of Brescia. Other new projects outside the city walls include the Balduccio 12 residential complex in Milan on an area of 6,000 square metres, which is part of the Porta Romana redevelopment commissioned by AbitareIn, as well as the redevelopment of the façades and functional layout of the Verona Province offices, where all the companies making up the DVArea group will be involved. DVS and DVMep also had a 2022 year-end with important prospects of involvement in international orders.
Some final points.
I would like to thank those who, together with me, have helped design the trajectory we are following, first and foremost the founders, then the associate partners and the partners of the various satellites. But also all the senior staff, who have been with us for so long and who are helping the younger people to fit into an inclusive and collaborative environment. At DVArea we think about the future, or rather we act to prepare the future, and it is in this perspective that we should place, for example, the passing of the baton between myself and architect Alessandro Vitale (35 years old), who last September took over as CEO of Bimfactory, one of the group’s most innovative satellites. Talented young people must be promoted and given the right space, it is only in this way that we can guarantee a future for companies, beyond those people who founded them and helped them grow.
Tag:
#takingstock #perspectives #future #digitisation #growth #sustainability #development #environment #neuroscience #startup #research #projects #innovation #integration #group
Armando Casella:
Architect. Co-founder DVArea e CEO DVA. Innovation Manager MISE.
