carlana mezzalira pentimalli . photo: © Marco Cappelletti
Bressanone’s music school is not only an architectural project, but also an urban one. Designed as a small prototype, the project aims to reopen the debate on what it means to design a truly public building. Located in the northern part of the city, the building represents a new gateway, recovering the morphological settlement principles of the ancient urban fabric and reinterpreting the archetype of the city walls. The intervention is characterised by its compact, bold volume, within which a public urban void has been created.
The void is surrounded by an inhabited volume hosting public facilities and connecting devices between the different levels. The monumentality of the external façades is juxtaposed with a strong search for intimacy in the interior, which draws on the collective memory of the place. The large entrance foyer and the spacious circulation spaces are generous and welcoming public areas. Intimacy is obtained through creating a homely atmosphere in the interior spaces. This is emphasised in the external courtyard through a manual hammering treatment of the exposed external surface of the load bearing structure, made from pigmented reinforced concrete with porphyry aggregates. Art, architecture, engineering and urban planning come together as indivisible elements in the belief that architecture, more than making a statement, ought to contribute to the community by giving back a collective space to the city.
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