Dogma

It’s Fun to Lose

The area of the school has a trapezoid form. The main design decision consists in developing the longer side of the area in the form of a long gallery/pergola which connects with one simple gesture all the programs of the school: the gym, the classrooms and the gardens in between. Along the gallery/pergola, the new buildings are placed in such a way to create a clear sequence of built and unbuilt space. The school volumes are kept as simple as possible in order to emphasize the unbuilt space as the protagonist of the complex. The gym is a concrete structure clad in shingles made of maiolica while the interior is lighted by monumental clerestory openings whose semi-circular form echoes the solemnity of thermal windows. The classrooms building is conceived as a timber structure configured as a three-dimensional grid whose module is the same of the gallery/pergola. The structure allows classrooms to be flexible spaces that can be open or closed, increase or decrease in size according to necessity. All the classrooms are open to the veranda that face the garden. The gym is placed in proximity to the entrance facing piazzetta Isabella D’Aragona; in this way it is directly accessible from the public square and can be used as a hall opening to the local community beyond school time.