Campus _ Elena Lucrezia Cornaro | MADE associati

The scholastic campus is composed of a complex organism: the new primary school, formed by 10 classrooms, teachers rooms, specialist rooms, computer rooms, library, and school canteen with relative service areas, (the gym and infants school will be in the second phase), the vegetable plots, civic areas and educational agricultural park. The area destined for the new construction is composed of a totally free field space surrounded by areas destined for agricultural use. Land settlement principles utilize the resources of the location as an element of quality for the school itself. The planimetric distribution of the building was organized in such a way as to construct a strict physical/visual/functional relationship with the open spaces. The disposition of the buildings, all single story, are arranged to intersect the view, the contact and the use of the open space both in relation to the possible educational sporting activities of the school and in connection with the possibility of fruition for public activities outside the hours of those educational. The perceptive/functional osmosis applied on various fronts optimizes the relationships with the exterior landscape (thus maintaining also the sense of belonging), to define the interaction between architecture and ‘nature’ (allowing the building construction to settle and find the right balance with the land outside), to qualify the visibility from the inside (giving an educational role to the perception as, for example, the confrontation between the different seasonal transformations), to improve the quality of environmental comfort (improvement of local micro-climate, sunshine management,....). The recreation area outside the school, entrance square, was designed with the insertion of diversified play areas of interest such as the basketball zone, and ‘street games’ (posting on the ground of pavement games like tic-tac-toe, 4 cantons, hopscotch,....). This area represents the point of interest at the access of the school activity but is intended to be above all a meeting point and place for socialization by all those who use the school and available also for free utilization and occupation after school hours. The building was modulated in the plans and orientated to best exploit solar radiation. The 10 educational classrooms point to the east so as to find the best exposure and look out over the free communal area. The classrooms each measure 45 sq.mt. and have a wide aspect looking out towards the outside, and screened by vertical brise-soleil blinds that orientate the direct sunlight. Each classroom is fitted with an autonomous system for darkening. The library is the access and distribution point, a place for receiving and welcoming and at the same time relational, fulcrum of the scholastic mobility. It was decided to locate in this advanced position a place for reading books as a school presentation element and as a transit element permeable to be seen between the external spatiality and the more controlled internal spaces. The connecting area between the different rooms is composed of a space that distends towards the garden; here the hygiene services, specialist activity rooms and a storage room are located. The area limits of the school are characterized by an embankment (made with material from the excavation), a gentle slope, that going up allows for a direct vision of the agricultural landscape and the historical road, that itself represents a downward slope/amphitheater for educational activities, outside classroom, protected by a large flat covering and delimitated by an external wall in cement with a coarse untreated finish. Approximately 70% of energy requirements is generated by a geothermic system originating from the water table, whilst the remaining 30% is sourced from the ENEL electrical power net. The energy quota part that is derived from the water table is to all effects renewable, because the terrain foresees a continuing transmission of energy received in turn by the sun. By virtue of the choices taken in the installations adopted, and of the excellent characteristics of the insulation foreseen, the building is classified as energetic class A. The adjacent area to the school measure approximately 10,000 sq. mt. and has been thought of for ‘field’ experience. The educational-agricultural park is organized to create moments of diverse activities in the open field, with accessibility and differentiated uses between users and maintenance and management actions. The usage themes of the proposed area allow for clear examples of ‘natural’ movements, cultural transformations, but also mutations of the vegetation, placing in parallel controlled spaces with those free to evolve themselves, dry areas, wet areas, production areas, observation zones, ... On the terrain adjacent to the new Sant’Elena school an ‘agricultural campus’ will rise up with the aim to: - reintroduce the typical elements of the local ecosystem - plant fruit trees - re-establish ditches and hedges - realize a series of organic vegetable plots and short paths to walk along and stops for pause