The project is not only the architectural reorganisation and extension of a school building. It is also a centre for education on the landscape as a tool for understanding the place, its perspectives and its light. Under the castle, just beyond the Taro river and close to the sports field, the municipal school has been completely redesigned with the integration of a micro-nursery and the addition of a new building occupying the west side of the garden. The project actually redesigns the overall layout of the spaces by clearly dividing entrances and dedicated areas around the common stairwell system, the gymnasium and the communal garden. Therefore, the project was first and foremost a device for rationalising the structure and connecting these shared spaces, understood as common areas to be activated on a rotating basis. While the micro-nursery and kindergarten are located on the ground floor of the original building, the primary school occupies a large part of the new development. Here, four classrooms are arranged in pairs, on the west side of the entrance corridor (the fifth is located under the raised headroom of the existing building) and overlook the green expanse that stretches across the riverbed to the nearby mountains. A long horizontal opening allows even distribution of daylight to the four rows of the sixteen desks and, at the same time, guides the eye, from inside to outside, towards the Taro valley. On the other side, the gymnasium almost completely open to the garden occupies the entire architectural volume. A large square skylight, as wide as the corridor, illuminates the classroom exit on the two levels from above and the school entrance from below. Just outside, the sloping roof on the south face of the building, where a long slab of black slate was to be placed for drawing with coloured chalk, becomes a sheltered place for children waiting for their parents.
Comune di Compiano
Compiano, 2012-2014
Strutture Marco Pedrini
Impianti Studio Rainieri e Massimo Bocchi
Photography Carlo Gardini
