The S.P.E.R.O. company – an acronym standing for the Company for Extracting and Refining Oil – was founded between two wars, taking on a leading role in relaunching the local economy. In the period following the war, the business shut down and the factory was abandoned, becoming a symbol of blight and neglect. Now, for the S.P.E.R.O. area, the General Urban Development Plan provides for restoration of the existing premises as a conference centre and annexed facilities as its main allocation and housing as a secondary allocation. A company in the Teamnetwork group since 2006, S.P.E.R.O. S.r.l. has taken to heart the specific goal of winning this challenge, rescuing this area from the brink of degradation. Therefore, the “Meetho, Meeting & Hospitality” project was created. In addition to using the first letters of the two words which define its purpose, the name, when pronounced, re- calls the word MYTH, and the Greek mythology so closely linked to Syracuse.

The area of the entire lot, approximately 17,800 m2, has a permissible gross floor area of approximately 14,000 m2.The guiding criteria behind the architectural project were the optimization of the existing volume layout, the image connected to the industrial production and the few decorative stone elements. Innovative technologies and materials will be used to carry out the work.