Concorso EURAC, Bolzano, Italy, 2014

Gianluca Milesi with Attilio Stocchi and Attilio Terragni

Collaboration by Amit Anafi and Cecilia Marcheselli

“The shape of mind (synapses) creates unexpected perspectives on sites: architecture is not the perfection of the experience (wisdom) or just a representation, but is the capability to produce images, the virtue of a person who learned to imagine and to push his or her imagination further”.

The building for Eurac in Bolzano, Italy, is a totally hypogeal system, technological, organized, characterized by it’s image of a green square and wants to give an image of efficiency and modernity but also of new researches and perspectives  to the people working or visiting Eurac.

The building and the square are the physical and poetic link to the surrounding buildings, respecting them and their quality, but without creating new density that could break the harmony of the environment.

The work environment is organized around 3 inner representative courts that light the new architecture the new workplaces in an original functional mix of traditional way of working and new parameters (lighting, air conditioning, acoustic).

The façade system of the courts is a combination of performing aluminium window frames and selective double glazing (low-e), integrated my curtains.

In order to favour the natural ventilation, according to the orientation, the facade system is enriched by an external  metal structure with diagonal sectors and different density aluminium sunblind. This structure is partially covering the green square above and is a support for vegetation.

For the Energy requirements and their impact to the environment (passive-active systems) geothermal energy is proposed as the nature of building suggests.

The plan of the building is a traditional cross plan with corridors along the perimeter. The spatial distribution of the offices is regulated by a 6 meters by 6 meters weave. The office spaces and the workshops are distributed around the not regular courts, standardized but formally and spatially dynamic. In 5 corners created by such a distribution are located the meeting rooms and the common areas, acting as small “squares” interrupting the corridors and creating pleasant places for socialization. 

The result is a sort of “small city”, an underground  working place with streets, squares, coffee shops, places where is possible to meet or to meditate, work and relax.

The ”small city” is just below a pleasant green public square.