Lago Patria (NA), Italia

International Bid - Preliminary Design of a Primary, Secondary and Higher Secondary-level School - Allied Joint Force Command Naples

ALBERTO PARDUCCI, Fiorenzo Petillo, Enrico Carafa, Generosa Cacciapuoti , Vincenzo Guadagno

planimetria generale (autore arch. F. Petillo)

Morphological and fruition Quality of the project The assigned site is located in the south part of a part on which the new General Headquarters of Joint Force Command is under construction. Sets in proximity of lake Patria, the military enclave is a structure of great importance and it will constitute primary element and natural pole of reorganization of the area. Relation with the lot and general layout The lot has a rectangular form. The privileged access is placed on the east border along via Madonna del Pantano. The new scholastic complex will owe in fact to be “open” toward the outside to constitute a natural element of connection with the context. The south border looks at the countryside, returning the sense of a landscape of cultivated fields, of rows tree and, far, of hilly profiles among which dominates, for suggestion and beauty, the top of Mount Epomeo. The west and north fronts are less interesting for the proximity to the satellite dishes system and for the presence of a platform for helicopters. The regularity of the lot is fictitious however because limited by some ties that permit to build only on a “L” part along the south and west border. Orientation, positions and modular grid The scholastic complex is built on three primary positions. The first one follows the course of via Madonna del Pianto. The second (north-south) is that used in the master plan of the new general headquarters. The third (north-east/south-west) lines up with the satellite station and points toward Ischia, geographical reference of greater charm visible from the site. The interference of these three positions and the grids built on them determines the course and the layout consistence of the buildings. The square module has a distance of 8 m that it is structurally compatible with an only span. Morphological organization of the complex The scholastic complex has been conceived as an orderly system in which the various buildings have a relationship between them and with the context. The complex, lined up on east-west, is organizes with a sequence of squares with different spirit and character. The great entrance square is the public place: welcomes people, mediates the relationship with the city (the outside) and gives strength and formal homogeneity to its “monuments” (the gymnasium, the refectory/auditorium and the main staircase). The whole perspective is not immediately declared but it is conquered by walking. The end of the square is closed by the atrium, a structure that is the real distributive motor of the whole composition. From it the entrance to every single building. Through its glazing can be seen the other two inside squares: the first, closed on four sides, and the other, open to west, that frames the perspective of the new general headquarters. The transversal disposition of the atrium separates functionally also the spaces. From a side, toward the road, there are the collective spaces, usable also for initiatives open to the city; from the other the spaces reserved to the students, to educational and administrative staff. The spatial sequence from east toward west is therefore also a path that selects the operational level in relation with the role of users. Great attention has been put to the accessibility for disabled people. Same attention to the safety normative in work places (D.Lgs. 626/94) and to safety norms on fire for scholastic buildings (D.M. 26/8/1992). The external spaces External areas are been conceived as inseparable integration of building structures from architectural and functional/educational point of view. Along the road it opens an ample triangular square doubly fenced for safety reasons. It protects the entrance and exit of the students from the traffic vehicular particularly intense along via Madonna del Pianto. To the inside an important role has the great area prepared in correspondence of the east front of recovery/auditorium building and the north park. The first one wants to be an ideal place for the interaction of parents, children and for summer demonstrations in which the presence of spectators is wide. Remains however assured the integrity and the possibility to inspection of the underground cistern (water compensation tank). The second is the open place for sport. The didactic gardens in the nearby of classrooms integrate this general organization. Dimensioning the scholastic complex The dimensions of the complex recalls the call for bids integrating the demands with the Italian legislation on scholastic housebuilding and, particularly, with the D.M. 18.12.1975 to verify its congruence. The school has been organized on the number of classrooms rather than the students. The index of overcrowding is 20 students for classroom. Organization of didactic spaces: the three scholastic components The scholastic complex sees the contemporary presence of three different didactic models (IBO, UK and Greek), each with a number of classrooms and different scholastic levels (32 classes for the IBO, 8 classes for the UK and 7 for the Greek). The adopted principle has been the maximum integration of the laboratory and common activities and the maximum autonomy of the didactic spaces so to optimize the available economic resources and to effectively manage the teaching contemplated by every organization. Cafeteria, auditorium, gymnasium and the services are therefore placed in common buildings. Such spaces, together with the great atrium, are the most vital in the organizational hierarchy of the school. The didactic spaces and the three administrations have also been placed in two buildings accessible from the atrium. The first one, with a closed court, host the Greek and English area, and, at the ground floor, the maternal school and the three didactic organizations. Such choice is motivated by the wish to favour the relationships among children in a period of their formation in which are free from conditionings and, therefore, more open to accept with simplicity the common life. The proximity to the entrance and the protection that gives them the inside court answer besides to the advanced demands from the developer related to the relationship with adults and young scholars. The laboratories and the special classrooms in this building are common to English and Greek. The Middle Years Programme and the Diploma Programme of the IBO are placed instead in north buildings near the sporting park. Dimensioning the IBO, in lack of a precise division of classrooms for the scholastic levels, 16 classes are assigned for the Primary Years Programme (6 of which Pre-school), 10 for the Middle Years Programme and 6 for the Diploma Programme, maintaining in this way the proportionality of the progression of American system (6 years of primary, 4 of middle and 2 of high school). Regarding the Italian normative, to the 10 classes of elementary school must be added 5 classes of “inter-cycle” that are susceptible however of different destination (laboratories) if necessary. All the demands in the call for bids have been completely satisfied both as regarding the number of classrooms, that of laboratories and services. The three administrations occupy autonomous and near spaces to the different didactic areas. The distribution paths, favouring the linear organization of the complex, are never only corridors but educational spaces, for meeting and observation of the different surrounding landscape. The students and staff services have adequately been prepared and sized on every floor.