The project, which won the PRUACS (Urban Redevelopment Programme for Sustainable Rental Housing) regional call for proposals, creates a new public centre in the San Rocco district. The project, which is the subject of an Urban Recovery Plan, directed the restoration of the former school building towards sustainable housing. It did so as part of an overall design to reconnect with the surroundings by opening up new road traffic and vehicular access connections and enlarging the existing public gardens. The project for the building maintains the structural system of load-bearing walls unaltered while adapting the new distribution layout of the accommodation units – which follow the Parma ERS (Social Residential Housing) Guidelines – by preserving the original window system with the addition of small, clearly distinguished openings. An extra level is created by raising a new horizontal volume beyond the eaves line. Around this intervention, the urban design focuses on the development of pedestrian paths that cross the entire area, differentiating between driveways with parking spaces on one side and pedestrian paths that lead into the park. The instrument for this distinction is the civic rooms, which bring condominium spaces out of the historic building and offer them for public use. The new architectural body is shaped by this assumption of responsibility, becoming a visually sensitive diaphragm: on one side it is closed to hide the view of cars and protect against the noise of traffic, and on the other it is opened up as a backdrop for the enlarged public park. With this choice, the project reorganises and strengthens the San Rocco district’s only public central space. In this way, the rooms, divided into a large space for meetings and conferences and two smaller areas designed for cultural associations, accompany the path towards the historic centre of Borgotaro on the other side of the river.
Comune di Borgotaro
Borgotaro, 2010-2018
Strutture e impianti Giuseppe Stefanini
Photography Carlo Gardini
