The contest “IDEATO “ was sponsored by Fabrica Immobiliare SGR S.p.A. and coordinated by INARCASSA. The main focus is on finding the best architectonic and environmental project, which is suitable for the qualification of La Piazza (the square of the campus). The spaces involved are in fact the entering area and the central area of the university campus.
The buildings, situated in Via Caraglio, in the immediate area of Turin, present structures of five, seven and eight floors. MULTICULTURALISM AS INSPIRATION The campus offers accommodation to those students who need a comfortable place to study, learn and socialize but also live, sleep and eat. That is the reason why the buildings accommodate students from all parts of the world, that have decided to make Turin as destination to complete their own study growth.
Our governing principle, during the designing phase, was based on the multiculturalism, a concept that indicates a determined place where different cultures meet and interact. As the surface of our planet is divided into continents, so five areas with the names of the landmasses are noticeable in our project. Every area is characterized by a specific peculiarity, depending on the continent mentioned. We emphasized it through a discipline that describes its story and traditions.
That is the reason why we divided the university campus into 5 distinguished area. Hence the Piazza was ideologically transformed into our planet, with its landmasses and oceans. The presence of imaginary lines such as meridians and parallels is a surplus value to our project, whose purpose is to connect people, creating multiculturalism. To achieve this, we ideated a particular flooring that presents in its unity a light line, showing the mainland of the Earth. THE FLOORING To make our guiding principle concrete, we designed a hazel brown pigmented flooring, that reminds of Earth colours. The net is characterized by vertical and horizontal lines of quartzite stone and this shows a clear similarity to meridians and parallels. Furthermore, as already described, the unique effect of LED lights inside the flooring, recalls the dry land. Hence, in proximity to entrance stairs, a coloured cement column is collocated to put in evidence the entrance. The specific colour used for these elements is the one of the adjoining building they refer to. We decide to create a strong contrast between the flooring stone and the airy and transparent material of the buildings.
5 THEMATIC AREAS The wide Piazza is divided into 5 thematic areas: RELAX AREA: Characterized by a vertical bush and a little waterfall, here you can find benches offering a relaxing place to sit and listen to background music. It is a proper celebration to nature through green plants and flowing water, an atmosphere evoking tranquillity. FUN PLAZA: The central area of the Piazza is a crucial point. In the middle a photovoltaic platform is present, which, with sunlight stored during the day, releases radiant coloured shadows at night. Due to its position, FUN PLAZA is the beating heart of the campus, a place where students can meet each other, have fun and where events take place. As already mentioned, the stored energy in the platform is used for the LED lights in the flooring, at night. STUDY ZONE: the external area is located near the study hall and presents a green area of 160 square meters with solar armchairs called Soft Rockers, from a MIT Professor’s idea. These particular armchairs are actually solar store systems that release energy and light when a student is laying down on them. The energy released can be used for USB portals, as charger for devices such as PC, tablets or notebooks or even just as a lamp.
FOOD COURT: this area shows a movable furniture, such as tables and chairs, and it is collocate in a strategic position: between the campus kitchen, the dining room and the bar. ART SHOW: it is a free space where everyone can expose its art: sculptures, paintings, videos, artistic installations, scale models, projects and so on. This is the best way to valorise this area, that includes exterior spaces, canopies and metal pergolas. Furthermore, the presence of artistic expressions and the absence of access-limiting architectural features turn the campus into a cultural and interesting point for the whole city of Turin and its area.
THE ROLE OF THE LIGHT In our project we paid particular attention to the use of light, as valuable element for the campus and the entire environment. If during the day the flooring seems quite uniform and you can distinguish meridians and parallels of the net, at night the structure shows new coloured perspectives. It is the moment in which the mainland is more visible. The lights go through the Piazza as guiding line that invite you to explore every part of it. Beside the use of lights in the flooring, we decided to make the entrance stairs more visible. That is the reason why we ideated two coloured cement columns with the same colour of the building they refer to. The photovoltaic platform of the FUN PLAZA and the Soft Rockers of the STUDY ZONE transform the energy stored during the daylight into a light show. Lights, shadows and colours mix together in a spectacular show which surprises with thousand shades.
During the night the Piazza becomes a theatre where colours play, you can see it even at distance and distinguish this place as scenic, dynamic and characteristic. REALIZATION Immediately after the news of the contest victory, FABRICA SGR has offered us the position of Artistic Director, in order to let us follow the realization of our project. The Art Direction is necessary to ensure the respect of designer’s intent. This is a consultation about the work actualization and it is offered during the construction management. This was the perfect occasion to collaborate and get actively confronted with the construction site staff, such as the company, installers, agronomists and the Work Supervision. The very first thing we have done was adapting the project to the budget. Our purpose was to redefine materials and the furniture, to make them conform to what economically the Work Supervision required. The coloured cement was substituted with yellow squared self-locking blocks. Their colour reminded us to the Earth one, as we ideated in the first project. Thank to the contribute of a topographer, we have been able to maintain the Meridians and Parallels design, which was realised with grey squared self-locking blocks.
We have maintained the LED lighting that draws the mainland, even if drastically reduced from 600 mt to 126 mt. What is still clearly visible is the net that invites and conduces the visitor to the core centre of the structure: the Fun Plaza. The green flowerbed – designed for the Study Zone – has been reshaped after the change in the executive project, even if its position remains quite unchanged. The Soft Rockers in the Study Zone, which only represent prototype nowadays, have been replaced by chairs chaise longue. The tree planting areas have been identified with the agronomist’s help: we have decided to preserve the project’s original idea of a monochromatic blooming, also by using the principles of colours’ psychology. In particular we have used the orange colour as ideal tint for concentration during the study. Due to its high cost production, the Fun Plaza photovoltaic system was replaced with a little living room with detachable furniture, in order to maintain it as central pole of aggregation.
