The Project
The project concerned the construction of a primary school to accommodate a total 750 children in 25 classrooms, with a gym and dining hall annex and an additional 220-seat auditorium that could be utilised independently of the school.
The site falls within the 26,636-m² Ghiselli planning zone in the east of the Municipality of Formigine. The chosen location is to the west of the town centre. It forms part of a wider area that is largely given over to public buildings and facilities, including the municipal sports centre, council offices and a soon-to-be-built swimming centre.
From a social and urban planning perspective, the site integrates seamlessly with the surrounding area, however the school complex can operate as an autonomous entity in terms of usability and functionality.
In functional-technical terms, the school building was designed with the following objectives: to maximise the positive impact of the layout in terms of education delivery; to use innovative equipment to achieve both elevated levels of heat recovery and precise climatic control, combining these with the use of a “free cooling” system overnight in the summer that uses a combination of attractive, easily-maintained, eco-compatible materials of the highest quality as a conduit for releasing excess thermal energy; in terms of appearance, to draw on the example of the finest contemporary architecture.
