Secondary school in Puos d’Alpago

The project originated from an AWN design contest organised in 2018 by the Municipality of Alpago with the aim of countering population decline by investing in education.

The school is developed around the theme of a “covered square” inspired by an almost primitive idea of a settlement. It is configured as a volume suspended on four cores that form a sheltered space embodying a smooth transition between the exterior and the interior, able to act as a community centre outside of school hours.

The coloured concrete cores that embrace the utility areas mark off the central agorà, arranged around which are the workshop areas, enlivened by the wooden volumes of the reading room and the reception area.

The axis planted with trees featured in the master plan runs through the building, bringing the trees inside through perimeter courtyards that allow the light to flow into the collective areas. The classrooms alternate with workshops, arranged around the central square, engaging constantly with it thanks to the sliding walls and windows. The visual permeability between the spaces is the hallmark of the project, creating a sort of interior landscape.

The project explores the way in which shape, structure and material coincide, through a fair-faced concrete shell created using an advanced prefabrication technology, which does not require any additional finishing layers, and contains both the insulation for the building and the housing for its utility systems.

Both the indoor flooring and some of the walls were tiled using the terrazzo-inspired Le Ville collection, in the colour Pisani and in the 60x120 cm size; a total of 1,700 square metres of tiles were used.