ANSWER: For the last 40 years, people’s social and recreational experience outside the home has centered around dining, shopping, sporting events and concerts.
The rising generation of Millennials have introduced a new palette of interests, which puts a priority on experience and emotional connection ahead of purchases and other transactionally-based behaviors. The result is a demand for experiential environments which put a premium on social interaction and connection. This demands a new type of built environment. The first phase of that transformation is the creation of specially designed central piazzas that anchor each community and create a balance between family life and community life.
The Arcetri Italian Piazza provides that solution – a solution which can be replicated across the U.S.A.
ANSWER: The design and layout of an Arcetri Piazza influences the emotional and physical state of people. The entire experience of the Arcetri Piazza is designed to provide everything in one walkable place that accommodates a diverse range of tenants, clients and customers.
The proportions and layout of the Arcetri Piazza create a field effect that stimulates an energizing sense of well-being and belonging. The welcoming outdoor spaces encourage people to slow down, mix and enjoy. The beauty and symmetry create an experience of harmony. This synergy of form and function naturally attracts people. The walking, human-scaled environment will generate intense foot-traffic. The proximity of a diverse array of goods and services creates an economic engine that can be stand-alone or part of a larger development.
ANSWER: The modern real estate investment community is restrained by two things: 1.) short-term thinking, and 2.) a limited subset of asset classes. Humanity is part of the past, the present, and the future, yet we continue to pretend that the future never comes. In fact, it is bearing down on us every minute and the increased velocity of change finds us unprepared.
When real estate became the color of money, truly creative thinking was lost and a cookie-cutter mentality took3 over. The incremental fixes used by commercial real estate today are inadequate to address the true nature of the fundamental shifts taking place in world culture. This paradigm change is similar to the shift that is now occurring as we transition from gas-powered to electric vehicles.
We need a completely different approach: we need to start building for the truly long-term. We need to start building for forever.
ANSWER: For some time now, mankind has been acting as if we are separate from the vast, intricate, natural ecosystem that makes up our entire world on this beautiful jewel of a planet. This illusion of separateness has led to the creation of potential disasterous imbalances within the natural environment, a world we totally depend on for our sustenance and survival. Currently, most of our public spaces and buildings are based on this separation-based, transactional extraction economy.
The Arcetri Piazza concept provides a healing, corrective structure that is designed according to the deeper laws of nature, which humans have always been a part of. The present transactional mindset is inadequate to meet the challenges of our time. We can’t return to the past, but we can create new ways of living and doing business that re-establish our interconnection with the natural world and the unseen, the emotional, the transcendental.
Using ancient design techniques that enhance positivity, creativity and happiness, the Arcetri Piazza exerts a profound influence by creating an environment that addresses all the needs and aspirations of human beings.
The Arcteri Piazza provides the perfect antidote to our present dilemma by establishing public spaces that are based on the deepest, most profound laws of nature, and because of that, support and encourage healthy, harmonious and creative lifestyles.
ANSWER: There are a number of inspirations for the Arcetri Piazza. For example, the Piazza della Repubblica in Florence, Italy remains busy and fully occupied after centuries of continuous use. Current tenants include La Rinascente department store, the Apple Store and the Hard Rock Café, alongside historical cafes like Café Gilli (1733) and Café Concerto Paszkowski (1846).
When a commercial space is built in such a way that it spontaneously becomes part of people’s everyday life, it will endure. When such a space gives people the joy of gathering and being together, it will generate an easy, frictionless experience every day, it will generate profitable results for the developer and tenants. This revolutionary development concept will never go out of date because the fundamental human need for community and the enjoyment of being together is simply part of human nature.
ANSWER: Everyone seeks community, friendship, and social interaction. As the present pandemic plays out across the world, people are rediscovering the joys and emotions of being at home with family. As the pandemic reshapes our daily routine, the importance of office, shopping and dining out are being re-evaluated.
In the Italian tradition, the Arcetri Piazza has an abundance of outdoor space for meetings, dining, concerts and markets. As a central meeting place for the local community it has a special shared atmosphere in which we can interact, enjoy, work and evolve.
ANSWER: The Arcetri Piazza is really the story of Memory. It is an ancient-yet-revolutionary template for a civic structure that expands the boundaries of individual life. The Arcetri Piazza re-awakens our personal identity and connection to family, friends and the wider community. The piazza creates an energetic field that encourages the sharing of ideas and emotions, the building of friendships, the strengthening of shared destiny.
ANSWER: When you walk into an Arcetri Piazza you are transported to a familiar place. The Arcetri Piazza has abundant light and outdoor spaces that allow for individual expression and enjoyment. It establishes a shared reference-point that creates emotional and spiritual equity.
ANSWER: The most captivating and restorative force on earth is love. It is medicine for the soul. Love and all its aspects: friendship, family connection and romance reconnect us with things that matter and help keep us healthy and happy. But, for love and friendship to flourish and to mature into devotion, a context, a structure is required. We love the sense of participating in something that is bigger than ourselves. Living life this way is the greatest unifier. It inspires all the great journeys of life that lead to outer accomplishment and inner joy. It is the source of light that illuminates society. The effect of the structure of the Arcetri Piazza is to support, sustain and enhance these qualities of love and connection between people.
ANSWER: Modern developers commonly mistake a plaza for a piazza. A plaza is a place you walk through on the way to somewhere else. A piazza is a place that slows people down so that they may enjoy life again.
The mindset of the modern world is that we are always going somewhere. This revolutionary real-estate development concept addresses that fundamental affliction of modern life by combining ancient design principles with the needs of the modern world. At the intersection of Art and Architecture, this design emerges from the most refined aspects of the human heart. Its underlying goal is as much about the journey to the Self as it has to do with considerations of economic viability. The Arcetri Piazza fulfills the real and urgent need of our time by establishing a special, multi-purpose zone that provides the natural alignment of economic, societal and spiritual goals.
