Exploring neighbourhoods, fragments of urban fabric, urban design objects, entire portions of the city with their own identities and imagining what they will look like in the future. Developing new ideas for improving the quality of urban living, focusing on solutions that are specifically applicable to infrastructure, services, metropolitan profiles and urban planning. Interpreting the spirit and style of such modern, vital and technologically advanced cities as Bologna, Modena, Reggio Emilia, Sassuolo and Imola and fostering the sense of pride and civic engagement of its inhabitants, who are called on to contribute personally to developing the places in which they live in a rapidly changing society. This was the aim of the ideas competition entitled “Emilia Romagna, urban polis future”, organised by Cersaie in cooperation with the online social network site Zooppa and the daily newspaper Il Resto del Carlino, in which readers and community members (65,000 subscribers) were invited to submit proposals for improving the quality of urban living in the form of computer graphics or videos. Judging from the number and quality of the submissions to the Zooppa site, the experiment was a big success.  

“We are proud and pleased to have brought an initiative like this to Cersaie, an exhibition that over the years has grown both commercially and in terms of ancillary events,” commented Confindustria Ceramica chairman Franco Manfredini. “We have invited world famous architects and organised exhibitions in Bologna in cooperation with acclaimed designers. In particular, the events Cersaie Downtown and Emilia Romagna, urban polis future engaged directly with the city. We are promoting this initiative because we are convinced that culture adds value to an industrial product. If we are world leaders in this sector it is because our entrepreneurs are good at producing and innovating, but also because this is part of our culture.”  

“When we thought of this initiative,” said director general of Confindustria Ceramica Armando Cafiero, “we set ourselves the goal of creating even closer ties with the local area, not just with Bologna but with these five cities where 80% of Italian ceramic tiles are produced. And we set ourselves the goal of improving these cities that lie at the heart of our manufacturing district.”   “Better city, better life”, commented Manfredini and Cafiero, referring to the slogan adopted by the Shanghai Expo. A better city is also one that is open to debate, to a discussion of ideas and proposals in newspapers and online.  

“As a newspaper, we devote constant attention to the ceramic district, and especially to the cities in the Emilia-Romagna region,” said Pierluigi Visci, editor of QN - Il Resto del Carlino, La Nazione, Il Giorno. “They are cities that merit attention, especially from the institutions. As a newspaper we provide constant support to entrepreneurs in some of the richest and most productive areas of Italy, from Emilia-Romagna to Tuscany, from the Marche to Lombardy.”  

“We believe in the importance of this initiative,” added deputy editor of Il Resto del Carlino Pierluigi Masini who coordinated the award ceremony, “and the presence of so many young people today demonstrates that Italian industry can still be successful, precisely because it is able to combine culture and business.”                

The social community Zooppa was set up with the precise aim of promoting an exchange of ideas with a view to achieving concrete results that are significant for the local area, for people and for businesses.  

“The challenge faced by our community is that of harnessing all the potential of the web to satisfy the needs of people, businesses and the local area,” said Zooppa founder Luca Messaggi. “This can be done by fostering ideas, discussion and debate. We asked participants by submit specific proposals relating to the city. The response was excellent in terms of both the quantity and quality of the proposed ideas.”  

The winning ideas explored a wide range of themes, from energy to quality of living, from wi-fi connections to road signs and through to ideas for waste management. They even added a touch of beauty, “that beauty that alone will save the world” in the words of one of the creators of the winning projects. There were two categories, video and graphic design. The five best ideas in the graphic design category received a USD 500 prize and those in the video category USD 1,000. The proposals were displayed during Cersaie at an eponymous exhibition featuring installations and panels.