Pupils in the Lombard Township will be able to share their play and educational activities full-time without shifts thanks to the new spaces.
The school reality in Urgnano
At the Bergamo village of Urgnano, characterized by steady population growth, there is the School Campus city, which can be accessed from 68 Bersaglieri Street and 73 Carnovali Street, including theComprehensive Institute “B. Colleoni” consisting in turn of the Secondary School, the “Don Sturzo” Primary School and Preschool. However, this prized complex retains some structural problems, especially in the face of the steady increase in pupils, which make it necessary to replace the current cafeteria. In collaboration with Briane, the administration then expressed its interest in preparing an intervention consistent with the lines of the PNRR on school construction within the notices prepared by the Ministry of Education, in implementation of the DM December 2, 2021 and preliminary to the formation of the next Regional Three-Year School Building Program. School canteen service is currently provided in the refectory built inside the Secondary School. The requirements due to the pandemic for the 2021-2022 season had already made it clear that this space was inadequate, and from this need came the current project.
The structural design
A plan has been submitted to build a new building dedicated as a refectory to be located in the north garden, in an area of about 1,360 square meters, located between the elementary school gymnasium and the present school cafeteria. This new structure will be built with prefabricated, modern, high-performance elements while maintaining the linearity and verticality of the surrounding structures. Fundamental to thermal performance management, including window frames and shading through external sunbreakers. The connection to the Secondary School’s thermal power plant will be provided by an underground cavern that will partially exploit the existing crawl space of the Secondary School. In order to provide as much space as possible for the cafeteria service, the new building will consist of an open space, with a corridor in the middle for “sorting” students, who will arrive from opposite sides of the structure. Both the covered walkways for access to the cafeteria and any machinery that will enable energy efficiency in the facility will have a low visual impact.
The vision of designer Silvano Zanoli
“Designing a cafeteria today means dedicating important spaces for functions that are used in a narrow time space, namely that couple of hours needed for lunch, while the rest of the time the space remains empty. So the design aims to make the spaces multipurpose and available for other uses as well. We studied and imagined it with the characteristic of an open plan, that is, without interference of pillars within the halls. A fairly simple version, with a composition of prefabricated elements on which we worked trying to give an aesthetic taste anyway, with an architectural model that would fit softly within an already urbanized context. Varying it, compared to the rest of the Campus, with a touch of color and at the same time a feature of modernity, favoring an innovative structure from the point of view of facilities. A project that includes cutting-edge technologies in the field of energy efficiency, from the photovoltaic system to LED lighting to low-cost heating, in other words, all devices that make it “energy-saving.” Going back to the impact on the kids and the community, we planned to use brick, earth tones as coloring, avoiding “grays,” thus allowing it to detach itself from the buildings around it. We want a structure that is shareable and playful for the kids, both inside and outside, in the full potential of the Campus. The Urgnano Campus is undoubtedly among the most valuable and beautiful, because in one large space it gathers both school classes and sports facilities, and certainly this cafeteria will be able to give support not only to the school but also to the territory.”
Mayor Marco Gastaldi’s motivations
“In collaboration with the Briane study, a method was identified to collimate local needs with the proposed goals of the NRP. The development of project intentions resulted in obtaining funding for two interventions, consistent with the proposed missions. These are: the project for the new refectory and the upgrading of the elementary school gymnasium. The current refectory is undersized compared to the needs of the modern school campus in which, by a shrewd past choice, kindergarten, primary and secondary schools are included. Today’s social dynamics, in fact, the need to make even the enjoyment of the meal an educational moment and the need to support families where both parents work, find a limitation in the obligation to make two or more shifts of the refectory service, also implying an inevitable inconvenience in the management of the school campus schedule. The funded projects will make it possible to overcome this inefficiency, thus managing the school cafeteria in a single shift, reorganizing school operations. As a corollary to the investment, the current refectory will be able to be used to expand the number of school classrooms and set up laboratories, thus optimizing space. The new refectory facility will be energy state-of-the-art, equipped with photovoltaic panels and fully insulated, entailing a green and environmentally sustainable approach as well as significant savings in public resources. The redevelopment of the gymnasium will focus on two guidelines: energetic and structural. The energetic one will make it possible to bring an environment, by its nature energy-intensive, back into a sustainable and environmentally friendly field, consistent with the kind of educational message embodied there. The structural one, earthquake-resistant consolidation, will return a safe and renewed sphere, capable of facing a new play-educational period. Having hit two objectives such as those presented will make it possible to give luster to one of the socio-educational centers of the area, fundamental for the urban connective structure and the defense of a place that welcomes children in a growth environment that they can enjoy both in the school and sports spheres.”
