New Offices | Regione Molise | luigi valente

The urban context: The place of transition
The area where the regional headquarters is expected to be built may reasonably be defined as a place of transition. From the urban standpoint, it is presented as a "historical node" due to the fact that the old structure of the suburban gardens has been superimposed, with a different orientation, by the “Murat city” of the early nineteenth century. Upon this node, after the precious pieces of architecture of the early twentieth century, a speculative overbuilding has developed which, while retaining the old urban fabric, has substantially distorted the formal aspect of the area.
The goal of the project, in compliance with the guidelines of the competition announcement, aims to mend the breach with the past while respecting the hints of history, placing itself as an element of formal exaltation of the expectations of both the regional and the local communities; the first expecting a reorganization of the administrative apparatus through a pleasant architecture, and the latter expecting a social refreshment through the creation of a remarkably high quality urban park.
The sign of history: two cuts and one weft
Two strokes of blade and the cut volumes take on the meaning of the history of Campobasso, the capital of Molise region. A region that makes of its own urban evolution the reason for its rebirth, cannot be indifferent to one of its oldest traditions linked to the production of cutting tools.
Two large volumes scenically dominate the Region Building as if they had been cut off by a perfectly sharpened ancient blade. Two simple strokes that makes the intieriors visible. The two cuts, then, take a clear direction that is strongly influenced by the urban weft, which repeats the structure of the old suburban vegetable gardens of Campobasso upon which the design of the Murat city has been superimposed. The two overlapping wefts, along with the remains of the Stadium, now reduced to an useless sports relic, represent an opportunity to give dynamism to the planimetric development of the designed volumes.

The demolition of the former Roxy Hotel is a chance to rationally reconnect two levels, that are now physically separated, by an eleven meters drop, which represents a real barrier also from a psychological perspective. The external connection, that for disabled people is facilitated by pursuant elevators, in fact constitutes a functional urban integration between the natural level of the new Urban Park and the one located in Savoia Square that, thus, comes to constitute a sort of new urban node with the existing urban park of the historic Villa de Capoa.
The design of the internal distribution has been developed faithfully respecting the planimetric limit of sqm. 13,000 of surface and keeping the parameters set by the competition announcement.
Particular care has been placed into distinguishing the areas assigned to the assemblies of the Regional Council, which are open to the public (sqm. 500), from those reserved to the Regional Board, which are not accessible to the public, and related services (approximately sqm. 200). The Council-Room, although it is located in a different complex from that of the Board-Room, will be connected to it through an air passage.

The need to undertake a radical reclamation of the area also for the removal of the upper layers of the obsolete sub-services and arrange for a pursuant total makeover of them, made it possible to include a large underground car park, located in the area occupied by the new volumes to be built. The expected surface is of sqm. 5,300 developed on two levels. The entry and the exit of the car park are parallel to the Duca di Genova Road with related deceleration ramps.

The project aims to create an urban park that places the physical activity of citizens, regardless of age and individual condition, at the center of their recreational activity. Its articulation suggests the alignments of ancient routes, like the one of the current Albino Street at that time blocked by the construction of the Stadium.
The project takes into account the existing urban context notoriously characterized by a low level of architecture. Therefore, it is entrusted to the tree species, appropriately selected, the task of defining a sort of filter with the surrounding environment, yet without creating an impenetrable barrier from the visual point of view. On the contrary, the "seeing and not seeing" will also determine the psychological condition of the "improvability" of the urban condition.
The routes develop into a spatial sequence in which the diversification of the used materials used is associated with an "interactive park" where the programmed and programmable electronic installations allow users to become actors of an interesting artistic game, especially at night thanks to the possibility to associate lighting effects to musical sensations.