Italian studio C+S Architects has accomplished a nursery close to Bergamo that includes a crimson concrete retaining wall engraved with representations of the animals from a well-known Nineteen Fifties puzzle by designer Enzo Mari.
The playful wall welcomes kids to the nursery in Alzano Lombardo, which was designed by C+S Architects and native studio Capitanio Architetti to reference each its setting and the historical past of Italian design.
The constructing is located inside a historic park advanced and contains a big pavilion-like construction clad in white glass mosaic tiles and punctuated by bronze-coloured frames that encompass the home windows.
The location for the nursery was beforehand the park’s vegetable backyard and is bordered on two sides by excessive partitions constituted of stone and concrete that separate it from an adjoining road and a neighbouring home.
The pigmented concrete wall references the stone retaining partitions, that are a standard characteristic all through the Val Seriana area, and incorporates aggregates chosen to harmonise with the encompassing panorama.
A sequence of ramps descends from the road in direction of the nursery’s entrance. The wall reverse the principle door is adorned with embossed interpretations of the puzzle items created by Mari in 1957 as a toy and studying software.
C+S Architects co-founder Maria Alessandra Segantini defined that her recollections of taking part in with the puzzle as a baby knowledgeable the choice to engrave these shapes into the concrete floor.
“The heat of that second was saved someplace in my reminiscence to resurface once I began eager about the Alzano college,” she stated of the challenge, which the studio has referred to as Noah’s Ark.
“I needed each baby to really feel that heat in my college – that concept of being collectively, that pleasure of taking part in whereas studying.”
A number of of the creatures carved into the wall are given added features, with the hippopotamus housing the pram and bike storage, whereas the pig and bull incorporate air flow for the heating plant.
When considered from road degree, the nursery constructing is generally obscured by the monolithic partitions. The one half that’s seen is a sequence of saw-toothed roof profiles that reference the area’s industrial heritage.
Alzano Lombardo is understood for the manufacturing of a white concrete that knowledgeable the selection of white mosaic for the nursery’s cladding.
Internally, the single-storey constructing is generally rendered in white to boost the brightness of areas that obtain pure gentle from the massive facade openings and clerestory home windows beneath the roof pitches.
A big atrium features as a multi-use communal area and because the most important circulation, offering entry to lecture rooms on one aspect of the constructing and facilities together with the gymnasium, first assist room, workers rooms and kitchen on the opposite.
A pair of inner courtyards that includes mushy flooring adorned with Mari’s animals flank the central corridor. These glass-walled areas provide a line of sight during the constructing and can be utilized as secure, open-air play areas.
The inner format was designed with flexibility in thoughts, guaranteeing that each area can carry out a number of makes use of. This permits the constructing to perform as each a nursery and a facility for neighborhood use throughout evenings and weekends.
“We’ve designed a ‘area of potential’, the place each area may be remodeled by the creativity of the academics or the neighborhood that revolves round it,” recommended Segantini’s co-founder Carlo Cappai.
“All distribution areas are beneficiant and may be remodeled into areas for particular actions, even throughout after-school hours,” he added. “On this approach, the college turns into an epicentre for the neighborhood and strengthens its identification.”
School rooms organized alongside one aspect of the circulation space characteristic glazed doorways and enormous home windows that create a visible connection between the corridor and the actions going down inside.
Inside every classroom, the white linoleum flooring is engraved with one of many animals in a singular color that’s matched by the tiles used for that part’s corresponding lavatory.
The animals recur within the type of plywood cutouts on the classroom partitions. The alternative partitions are lined with built-in storage that extends the total size of the area.
Every classroom has direct entry to an exterior portico that includes metallic pillars that assist a sequence of angled blinds designed to increase in direction of the facade with out touching it.
On the reverse finish of the doorway is a big canteen that opens onto a backyard and play space incorporating two giant circles of soppy carpeting into which the animal silhouettes are as soon as once more engraved.
Noah’s Ark is the most recent college challenge accomplished by Segantini and Cappai’s studio, which has been engaged on academic buildings for greater than 30 years.
The agency, which has workplaces in Italy and the UK, goals to develop culturally delicate options that discover revolutionary technical and materials prospects. Earlier examples embrace a vibrant main college with contrasting window particulars and a courthouse that includes a mysterious darkish gable.
The pictures is by Alessandra Bello and Maria Alessandra Segantini.
