R A I N B O W | Jasmine Ben Ali

Rainbow is a reuse project that transform the building, now home of the municipal kindergarden of Bellinzona, in a day center for minors with mobility problems.
The proximity to the sports center, the public swimming pool, the schools and the future kindergarten is cause for integrating these boys as well as an upgrading of the area and the city. A meeting place to motivate young people with disabilities to move more and to boost their possible activities.

The building is small in size and extends on a single level. The surrounding flat land is a further stimulus to the movement.

Inside the spaces are organized in order to have a broad agenda with: a large living room for all sorts of activities (gatherings, parties, group games, ...), a gym whit all stuff for the development of muscles, a small room for fixedly - therapeutic exercises, a rest room, where relax or sleep, a medical room, the refectory (with kitchen), a office room for the monitors and administration. Outdoor an accessible area communicating with other municipal infrastructures.
In the large common room there are mobile walls which allow to adapt the space according to the needs and activities.
For the division into various rooms are used wall units, measure calculated for the differently abled.
The carrier building layout remains the same as the existing one. It is a symmetric system, and very smooth. To overcome this static nature, with reference to the work of the architect Charles Moore, I worked with a free form on the inside.

The building is composed of three blocks: two wings and a central block with a courtyard.

The two wings are turning to the outside park. The central block serves as the core of the main building activity. The open courtyard that is located inside it is the dynamic element of the project and its purpose is to articulate the spaces and make them communicate through glances and transparencies.
Its technical configuration is based on that used in the outer skin. It is uprights of wood planks, fixed, in contrast with those in facade.

The courtyard shape is similar to that of a heart. The heart is the poetic symbol that represents a gesture of love for the disabled, sharing a space with the heart, ..., seeing "beyond" through the heart.