Vaccinations, Italy ready to say goodbye to primroses designed by Stefano Boeri

With the removal of Domenico Arcuri from his post as extraordinary commissioner for the Covid-19 emergency (replaced by General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo, chosen by Prime Minister Mario Draghi to manage the next phases of the pandemic), the “primroses” project, the large pavilions that, in Arcuri’s intentions, were to be erected in squares throughout Italy as temporary anti-Covid vaccination centers, also disappears. The primroses had been designed by Stefano Boeri, an architect, owner of the Milan-based firm of the same name and president of the Milan Triennale, who had developed the architectural and communicative concept for the vaccination campaign, lending his work free of charge.

As early as mid-February, it was taken for granted that the “primroses” project would be shelved: the call for bids had been postponed, plus there was the strong opposition of the regions (which, according to Repubblica, had even refused to appoint the member of the commission that would decide who would be entrusted with the construction of the pavilions) and there was the critical opinion of the Conference of Regions, according to which primroses were not the most effective solution to speed up vaccination. Criticism was also voiced for the high cost of the operation: each primrose involved a cost of about 400,000 euros, and since between 21 and 1,200 were planned, the total cost amounted to between 8.4 and 480 million euros.

New vaccination strategy

In fact, the new vaccination plan prepared by Figliuolo, while keeping Arcuri’s as a basis, envisages the use of alternative centers: so-called drive-throughs, i.e., mobile stations run by the armed forces and civil defense (accessed by car and nurses administer the vaccine without people leaving the vehicle), field hospital-style tensile structures, and according to La Stampa reports probably barracks and hangars as well. The goal is to reach about 500-600,000 administrations per day (currently we are traveling at a rate of just over a hundred thousand).

According to what we learn, Figliuolo would like to involve 1,700 military personnel and 300,000 Civil Defense volunteers in this massive operation. At the moment, however, many aspects remain to be clarified, and tomorrow, Friday, March 5, there will be a new summit attended by the government, the regions, Commissioner Figliuolo and the new head of Civil Protection, Fabrizio Curcio, which will have as its object precisely the vaccination campaign. It seems almost certain, however, that we will hear no more about primroses, except for communication reasons: in fact, it is likely that the primrose will remain as the logo of the vaccine campaign. But this, too, is something that awaits definition.

Vaccinations, Italy ready to say goodbye to primroses designed by Stefano Boeri

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