Scuola Tagliabue.
- Date: February 2024.
- Typology: Competition.
- Dimension: 1.500 m².
- Location: Villasanta, Italy.
The objective of the project is the redevelopment of the Tagliabue School in the municipality of Villasanta, with demolition and reconstruction works. The proposed architecture aims to integrate into the existing urban context, but at the same time an iconic project was opted for that guarantees the uniqueness of the school complex. Like an amphitheater, an inclined plane divides the space and distributes its functions. The aim was to play on the separation of private and public realities by offering the city an accessible space.
This large staircase, used as a playground, guarantees a protected environment that can be used by children and parents. A new model of public space and school center which aims not to separate the dynamics between private and public but to unite them and create a context where the two realities merge together giving life to a new space, experienced throughout the span of the day. Thanks to this design, the green spaces inserted in what can in all respects be considered a sloping park are multiplied. Despite the shape, an internal lift allows accessibility in all its parts via connections and walkways that cross the building and connect the various squares located on the sloping roof. Furthermore, the slope of the roof is ideal for the collection of rainwater, where collection channels are located along the lower perimeter of the roof and guarantee its collection in cisterns placed where the previous basement developed, thus saving costs and not damaging the land adjacent to the construction following the principles of DSNH and CAM. The structure made entirely of wood and almost symmetrical, anchored to the ground with a minimal concrete base guarantees perfect earthquake resistance by balancing masses and stiffness.
In the plan we wanted to respect the existing trees as much as possible and indeed enhance them. Squares are thus created that envelop them, protecting them and framing the view, the architecture functions based on the context in which it is inserted and here the perfect fusion between the natural and the built is found perfectly in a union that enhances both. The staircase thus allows the observation of the plants at different heights and the plants themselves allow the architecture to disappear and to shade the south-facing staircase thus appearing as if they had been conceived at the same time and completing each other. Internally the school spaces are divided by floors, the ground floor hosting the classes, the entrances and the classroom intended for physical activity which can be easily separated from the teaching reality and can also be used by external users without precluding the normal functioning of the school. Going up you will find inter-cycle and complementary activities such as laboratories and classrooms dedicated to teachers. A connection with the roof is guaranteed at all levels, functioning as a membrane between the outside and the inside to guarantee all functions a direct connection with the open air and nature.
Classes can be grouped and united into educational clusters for extraordinary training events and then reassembled for ordinary functions, while still guaranteeing the regulated fire and acoustic insulation requirements. The desire to physically unite two spaces is certainly, in addition to practical purposes, an important social metaphor linked to the sharing and integration of the single group with other groups that perform the same social function. All corridors (now an obsolete term) are designed as common spaces where children can move freely and socialize between classes. These spaces that create a whole with the halls become real paths that can guide children until they gather in certain larger areas and allow aggregation just as the streets and squares within a city, bringing the thus the child to the context that will see him grow.
Looking further at the lot it comes naturally to think of a possible future urban redevelopment which not only includes the area intended for the school settlement but which guarantees an optimal context for building the children’s future. This project aims to be the spark that guarantees the neighboring square a better future than the current one, a public place that gathers and unites, imagining that the cars that populate it today can be relocated to the multi-storey underground car park between via Camperio and via de Amicis thus guaranteeing a new place. The project aims to be an educational space given to the new generations to raise awareness and educate them on the issues of social life and sharing. A model is adopted that will find real feedback in the future community of Villasanta.