Labics defends Palazzo dei Diamanti competition project in Ferrara

Architects Maria Claudia Clemente and Francesco Isidori of Labics have published an open letter defending their winning competition entry for the restoration and redevelopment of Palazzo dei Diamanti in Ferrara. The project, developed with 3TI PROGETTI, Elisabetta Fabbri, and Vitruvio s.r.l., proposes a detached pavilion in the brolo (ancient orchard) behind the palace. Critics, including art critic Vittorio Sgarbi and professor Pier Luigi Cervellati, have argued that the intervention would suffocate the monument's relationship with the city, constitutes an illegal expansion, and violates cultural heritage code. Labics refutes each claim: the brolo is already walled off from the city; the pavilion is an addition, not an expansion; the project complies with Legislative Decree 42/04 (reversibility, recognizability, minimal intervention); and the article misattributing ignorance of the palace's architect was not written by them. They argue that architecture must remain 'alive' and cite historical precedents such as Baldassarre Peruzzi's addition to the Teatro di Marcello, Gwathmey Siegel's addition to the Guggenheim, and Mario Botta's tower for La Scala. The competition was organized by the municipality with public funds, and seventy firms participated. Labics insists that halting the process would waste years of work and that the pavilion, unlike past temporary structures, is a serious architectural intervention.