Schindler Award 2012: un museo della scienza a Berna - Svizzera | Carolina Mastropietro

The urban style of Schindler Awards is very arduous: creating a mix of optimized functions in order to satisfy the greatest number of people from the families of Altenegg and Altenterg, and tourists of the Kunstmuseum to drug addicts of Drogenanlaufstelle. In order to rationalize the work each needs of the previous mentioned groups were analysed and consequently the perimeter of the competition has been divided into 3 independent but integrated zones. The first zone, situated close to Altenegg is almost completely designed for the needs of the town and also serves as an intermediate level between the Altenegg hill and Reischule. A large urban park spreads over the ground level where an extended commercial part and car parking are situated. In the park four towers offer services for neighbouring residential districts and the university. In addition to reading rooms the big vertical library accommodates an archive for rare volumes and a multimedia room. The child day care centre, the preschool, the nursery but also the senior centre offer their services to the underprivileged. Finally the gym with a fitness and healthy centre is available to all the citizens. At south of the zone of facilities there is a very important transport hub: people who arrive from the town or from out of the town by car, by bike or bus are allowed to change their means of transport or to go on walking. The second zone, on the other hand, has a cultural propensity. In fact the first Museum of the Science in Bern is situated here and in it you can find an auditorium, didactic laboratories and the Addictions Consultancy. In the last two tables this museum will be better described. The last is the green zone that includes the Aare valley and ideally spreads along the river. The part which I consider is connoted as the beginning of the city route. In order to not weaken in any way the ecological and naturalistic function of the valley they are included in the project only a small wharf for boats and a building for a commercial zone. Even if the perimeter of the competition has been divided into 3 independent zones, the routes crossing them have been studied with particular accuracy in order to guarantee an easy integration and accessibility to the whole project. For example you want to go for a walk from Alpenegg to Altenberg and so you cross the three zone. To arrive from Alpenegg to the zone of the services we have to face remarkable drop of altitude. Three modalities of downhill slope are considered: two of them (towards the university and the Sidlerstrasse end) allow you to reach your destination quickly using comfortable lifts and stairs while a cycle-pedestrian paved route acts as ‘green’ link and ‘slow’ walk. When you reach the park, you can notice that it is predominantly a flat land with few ramps no longer than 20 m and with a less than 8% drop. The park is meant to be a large green flat land which not only gives access to the towers but represents an ecological resource for the town and a safety valve for the inhabitants thanks to its attraction . For this reason a thick but solid grassy lawn has been studied in order to allow people whose mobility is impaired, to use it completely. To go up the towers it is possible to use lifts and stairs and, on the other hand, to go down to the commercial level it is possible use ramps with a gradient of 8%, sliding scale or lifts. This is the wider altitude of the project which I try to keep as flat as possible . The pavement presents a degree of differentiated roughness that, on one hand, permits an easy orientation and, on the other hand, a practical crossing for people with impaired mobility. The road crossings are connected with ramps. On the way it is possible to use seating and rest areas to relax in the shadow of trees. With regard to the museum, it consists of a lower ground floor where you can enter using a ramp. From the lower ground floor it is possible to go back to the various shows by lifts and stairs. Note that there is no effective difference between the different vertical connection: both leave from the same point and arrive to the same place even if with different way, so no user will be penalized. Furthermore there is great attention to detail in the carrying out the exhibition areas in the museum : in the descriptive plaques the explanations are always put in the low part, the information columns for the orientation are adjustable in height so standing or seating people, children of all age can use them; also the experiments are planned at an adjustable and adaptable height . On the other hand, if you want to continue your walk beyond the museum towards the Aare valley, there are two possibilities. In the former case, you can follow an easy downhill that goes across the heart of the vegetation to reach the river walk and the wharf for boats. The path is meant as a green corridor that permits the observation of the various tree species and small fauna. The path consists of a particular pavement which ,on one hand, has the advantage of permeating the water and so it doesn’t damage the biological system, and, on the other hand, allows people to use the flat level for the pedestrian crossing. In the latter case if you want to go towards Altenberg, you can get to the building near the Lorraine bridge and so reach your destination through the new cycle-pedestrian bridge. My challenge is to guarantee an easy and clear orientation to be memorized both at urban and planning level, to assure comfortable areas accessible to everyone and above all to give users’ needs space. Hence the street is not designed as a sterile place of passage but as an out-and-out urban ‘living room’ where people can walk, sit down, talk, relax around the clock. In fact the street section consists of various useful elements: the real footpath, a line dedicated to seating and street lighting and a green line. The footpath consists of two types of pavement: a dark grey stone with low roughness and very light stone with more marked roughness . The dark stone interchanges the light one each 6 lacing. Thanks to this valid stratagem visually handicapped people can easily count the lines and consequently the distance, and so they can measure their paths with no trouble and orientate themselves better. In order to indicate the crossings and ramps Loges guides have been placed. At the side of this part there are the seating. They are planned with different heights to facilitate every age and state of health group; close to the footpath there is a part dedicated to the approaching of wheelchairs and baby carriages and next to it there are benches for children (30/40 cm high), for adults (50/60 cm high) and for seniors (70/80 cm high) to allow them to sit down and stand up easily. Finally the green part consists of small and big sized trees: bushes are a natural guide for their emanating smell and for their position. In fact they are such a border between the pedestrian and bicycle lane. The deciduous trees, on the other hand, let the rays of sunshine filter in the winter and they provide shade in the summer. But the real challenge was the planning of a museum perfectly accessible and usable by impaired physical mobility, visually handicapped, hearing and orientation impaired people in addition to children and seniors: a museum really for everyone. Firstly the attention was directed to an unique path guiding the customer inside the museum: in the industrial pavement, in fact, some elements were inserted in order to create a line on the floor leading to the various expositive areas. For example, coloured tesseras casually put on the floor indicate the museum path, floor tiles with grass indicate the relax areas, wood lathes point the toilets and rubbles the restaurant. In addition there are other natural guides that is to say auditive and olfactory guides. In fact the entrance and the exit are characterized by two noising water walls while the relax areas with benches are situated close to green walls where scented shrubs grow. The study about the type of exposition and its usage suitable for everyone’s needs was carried out carefully. In the museum there are expositive areas with descriptive plaques or information columns and experimental parts. As regards the very expositive part classical plaques are integrated with touch screens and videos of films and cartoons for a smarter usage by children. Written descriptions are often replaced by images and graphs to help the partially sighted. A remarkable part of the museum is dedicated to an experimentation involving all the five senses. For this reason there are tactile reproductions and new touchable materials , a wood where listening to music, flasks with perfumes and stinks (!) to smell, anthill gallery , earthquaking platforms and aquarium towers. The visit to the museum means a learning path opened and useful to everyone. Close to the museum there is a small auditorium for conferences and films. It is situated near Reischule so it is available also to this building. According to the natural themes of the paths in the park, there are didactic labs for children and adolescents. In fact in this big area studied for them, the new generation receives the right attention. Finally note that the museum was planned in order to optimize the solar radiation and lighting: most of the walls faces south-east an south-west in order to exploit the sun heat as much as possible during the winter while the shielding is guaranteed by deciduous trees sited along the streets during the summer. The inside courtyard is planned as a cavaedium of light and heat directing them to the lower ground floor through reflective metallic walls. Deciduous trees are here too. Last of all the roof : it has a pitch planned to catch most of rays of sunshine during the day and the year, photovoltaic panels which provide energy to the museum structure cover it. Inside the complex of the new museum of the science in Bern you can find the Addictions Consultancy too. The main reason of this choose is to integrate the Addictions Consultancy putting it in the city centre and near the new museum. The integration between these two buildings can be carried out through the restaurant and the bar services. In this way the Addictions Consultancy is moved from the suburbs to a new city centre both in physically and socially way but it maintains its helping vocation. In the lower ground floor of the structure there are a parking for the employees and a big restaurant with a bar usable also by Addictions Consultancy’s employees and guests. At Addictions Consultancy ground level they are placed the facilities for the direct and immediate contact with users while offices, conference rooms and staff rooms are situated in higher levels. A big broken metallic wall links all these levels and collects the windows light reflecting it into thousand mix combinations : this characterizes all the complex increasing its architectural importance. The Addictions Consultancy doesn’t stand for a ‘sterile’ or anonymous place because here the ‘addicted’ may take his/her identity back and so welcomed as a person and no more as a social excluded; here it is possible to choose the most suitable courses for the various solutions. Finally also the staff ‘s safety has been taken into great consideration: employees can relax and rest after a long and hard workday in comfortable and safe rooms.