Our proposal for the new Pizzigoni school in Milan has two main objectives: first the urban redevelopment of the area through the creation of a school campus and civic center integrated into the context and contributing to the quality of the surrounding urban fabric by catalyzing the regeneration of the Villapizzone-Cagnola neighborhoods. Second designing a new state-of-the-art school building both from a pedagogical and sustainability point of view, following the guidelines of Italian Ministry of School and Ministry of the Environment.
The existing parking along Via Grugnola segregates the area of the middle school, our proposal provides a redesign resulting in a new "linear" square that develops from the library up to the middle school in order to reconnect all the existing public functions. The campus must be optimized for sustainable mobility: a new bike path from Via Console Marcello is planned. In the new square there are new bike sharing stations and charging point for electric bikes. The school building is divided into three interconnected but well-defined and independent volumes: the spaces for educational activities, the complementary spaces and the gym. The volume for educational activities is in direct relation to the new square to the east, it develops over two floors above ground around a central patio that guarantees the natural lighting of the circulation spaces. The administrative and complementary spaces occupy a volume of three floors connected to the previous one on the northwest corner. The volume of the gym lays on basement level to the west and is connected to the building for educational activities via an underground atrium. The roof of the main building is treated as a garden with educational spaces to grow vegetables. The main entrance brings into a double height atrium-agora which is the center of gravity of the teaching spaces together with the patio. It develops into a staircase that descends from the ground floor to the basement. The agora is a multifunctional space: usable as a refectory, as an auditorium, as a meeting space for socialization and informal learning. The home-base of the classrooms for normal educational activities and workshops/ateliers develops around these two spaces in a flexible relationship, mobile partitions and furniture allow reconfiguration for diverse educational settings. The building is designed with state-of-the-art technological solutions with the aim of achieving the NZEB standard in line with the best international protocols for sustainable design (LEED).
