Primary and Secondary School / Bolzano

“A school in the park”: this simple definition would suffice to describe the substance of the project for the new school complex in Via Bari. An apparently simple building, a compact but light parallelepiped volume that rests on a large lawn. The two schools, primary and secondary, are housed in a single building. The dimensional variety of the planned functions, the interweaving of the different flows, the diversified modes of use throughout the day, determine an interior spatial richness that contrasts with the simplicity of the exterior form.
The building is placed in a barycentric position with respect to the lot and its location naturally defines various open areas, without the need for barriers and separating elements inside the area. Towards Via Alessandria is the reception and entrance area, to the south-east the recreation area of the middle school, to the north-west that of the primary school, and to the north-east the equipped sports area, common to the two schools.
The green space is in ideal continuity with the Semirurali Park, of which it constitutes the extreme offshoot towards the north-west, and is connected through the park itself to the larger system of green spaces that develop along the Isarco River. The school thus denounces its belonging to the territorial sphere of the entire city, as well as to the closer neighbourhood of the Don Bosco district.

Architectural concept
The decision to house the two schools within a single volume responds to the need to make explicit the fact that all the pupils belong to a single school community. The functions are arranged according to a principle of horizontal stratification: on the ground floor the collective functions open to the city – gymnasium, assembly hall, music spaces; on the first floor the spaces common to the two schools – library, laboratories, administration – and the middle school; on the second floor the primary school; on the third floor the common canteen.
The decision to place the large gymnasium hall inside the volume determined the choice of the structural system that characterises the entire building. Five large steel trusses, three storeys high, support the various floors and cross the gymnasium space in a single span. The beams rest on a ring of perimeter supports and a central row. The ground floor is substantially free of structures, transparent and flexible. The regularity of the structure, based on a mesh size of 8.10 x 8.10 m, allows great flexibility and adaptability of the spaces over time.