The student accommodation project develops the idea of a place where the accommodation and hospitality functions are combined with shared services and socialising spaces open to the outside world. The entrances provide dual access (for those coming by car from the neighbourhood car park to the west and for those coming by public transport from the nearby Via Emilia to the east), defining a diagonal crossing axis of the area around which the typological layout of the project is organised.
The complex is spread out over three connected sections: the service centre and the accommodation section, parallel and projecting northwards towards the green garden area and the view of the existing historic private park, and the wedge of the entrances and stairwells as a connecting element linking the two parts and between the two entrances. This layout allows most of the rooms to be arranged with east and west (as well as north) views, avoiding southern exposure and the related problems of overheating in summer.
The red-coloured service centre expands to make way for a large auditorium with interior balconies – designed as reading areas overlooking the hall and at the same time the garden – a fitness gymnasium, the necessary facilities and ancillary rooms. This is the part that can be used separately by the neighbourhood and the city. The blue-coloured accommodation block, on the other hand, is a structure reserved for residents. It accommodates 108 beds organised into living cells consisting of two rooms and a shared bathroom, two communal kitchens at the ends of each floor (8 in total) and a place of worship on the third floor designed as a prayer space open to all religions. The wedge of entrances and stairwells, which is white in colour, in addition to the walk-through lobby on the ground floor, houses a west-facing space on each floor for communal activities (computer and study room with 25 seats or recreational spaces) next to the main staircase.
ADSU Azienda per il Diritto allo Studio UNIPR
Parma, 2005-2009
Strutture e impianti ACER Parma
Photography Giovanni De Sandre
