Innovative Start Up/SME Award event also in attendance
On 18 September the winners of the “Swiss Federalism, GCBL and Milton Friedman” competition will be presented at the Schweizerisch-Italienisches Kunstgymnasium in Zurich
On 18 September, the prizes of the competition for start-ups and innovative small and medium-sized enterprises, launched in the winter of 2020-2021 by the Swiss Federalism association in cooperation with the Milton Friedman Institute and the Global Chamber of Business Leaders, will be awarded in Zurich.
Once the applications for the competition, for which registration expired on 15 July, had been processed, the organisers decided on the location for the final happening, which will take place in a mixed format: both online and in person.
Those wishing to attend in person can do so by sending advance notice of their participation to the e-mail address info@swissfederalism.ch.
The location chosen for the awards ceremony is the Schweizerisch-Italienisches Kunstgymnasium in Zurich, at 30 Parkring (N.A.P. 8027).
Video presentation of the “Innovative Start Up/SME Award”
“Dem Schönen”, a villa steeped in history and ancient beauty
The Liceo Artistico, a Swiss institute of higher education whose diplomas are also recognised in Italy, is located in a beautiful building: the ‘Dem Schönen’ villa, built at the end of the 19th century.
Dr. Adolf Friedrich Hommel, who had the villa built, was born in Chemnitz in 1851 and had moved to Zurich in the early 1880s, where he obtained his degree.
In 1898, work began on the construction of the ‘Dem Schönen’ building at Parkring, which was already finished the following year.
The design of the main body of the building was by the architect Friedrich Kühn. But already in 1902 and 1904, two museum spaces were added by the famous designers Chiodera and Tschudi.
The villa remained in the family’s possession until 1921. However, from 1918 onwards, it was used by Henri Poncet as a furniture shop for ‘high-class furnishings’, until it was purchased by ‘Dem Schönen’ in 1942.
The “Start Up/Innovative SME Award” on TV from Montecitorio
Ownership by the Canton of Zurich for school purposes since 1963
In 1963, the Canton of Zurich acquired the property for 2,900,000 Swiss francs, but as a building to be demolished: there were plans to build the State Archives on the site.
However, demolition never took place: the villa was temporarily accommodated as an extension to the neighbouring Kantonsschule Freudenberg. At the beginning of the 1980s, restoration work began under the direction of architect Tilla Theus.
In 1986, when the Department of Education of the Canton of Zurich decided to establish an Art School in cooperation with the Italian State, the villa seemed to be a suitable location.
On 21 August 1989 the new school started operating in the sumptuously restored premises.
A real prize to help ‘innovative’ start-ups and SMEs’
