The project for a new education campus in Puos d’Alpago suggests a landscape infrastructure becoming architecture; the future school interacts with multipurpose facilities existing on site or new ones.
A set of linear elements defines different open spaces and connects all the buildings on site. A continuous system of protected pathways defines a safe, but permeable, place, and encourages the crossing of the site and suggests the interaction between the various proposed programs.
A widespread proposal is opposed to a dense and compact intervention, where buildings are held together by the open spaces that follow one another and reactivate the surrounding areas.
The path system, recalling the form of rural tracks, delimits the areas of exclusive use of the school and defines the moments of interconnection with public spaces. This network protects from the sun, wind and rain and allows the installation of solar panels and the campus signage. In this environment where indoor and outdoor activities blend perfectly, users can play on the grass fields, read or use the computer with friends under the canopy.
The proposed structure and its possible extension fit perfectly the phasing of the site and it is also very functional to define a multi-level perimeter. The site is divided into 4 thematic areas corresponding to the requested program: the middle school, the polyvalent space, the community services and facilities (gym, cafeteria and media library) and the sports field.
Recalling the concept of community schools, the traditional learning experience is integrated with other activities and facilities offered by the campus, so that the school, the neighbourhood and the territory exchange and dialogue.
The project imagines a set of outdoor areas of different nature, green or paved, with controlled or totally public access, interconnected by the network of cycle-pedestrian routes.
A central spine divides the site north-south defining the area of the school on the east and the public spaces on the west. The school and its facilities are enclosed by a safe perimeter including the outdoor spaces. From this safe zone the access to the shared facilities and to the public square are controlled.
The future middle school is located in the centre of the site. The structure mixes steel and wood. The large cantilever surrounding the building protects the walls exposed to solar radiation and about 50% of the envelope is opaque. A semi-permeable canopy protects the atrium of the school and creates a shaded area in the warmer months; in winter, when it’s closed, it becomes a greenhouse. The learning spaces open to the park while the circulation space faces to the internal courtyard. The classrooms are faced towards the east and the service rooms are arranged along the road. The extension of the fourth section completes the volume.
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School complex in Puos d’Alpago, Italy
EDUCATION NETWORK
location: Puos d’Alpago, Italy
year: 2018
status: Competition
client: Puos d’Alpago municipality
program: classrooms, laboratories, facilities, canteen, library, offices
team: Lucia Zamponi, Filippo Nanni
