BIS, Mendrisio, 2012

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BIS
5° Prize - Competition for the new SUPSI campus of Mendrisio
Mendrisio, 2012

The elevation of a large part of the program guarantees better usability at ground level, as so at the level of the city, creating a large open and structured void for the community. The base is a work of earth, which responds to the existing topography: in a single gesture it digs a public courtyard, protected by a solid perimeter containment. Together with the raised body it defines a new multifunctional public space open to the city. The general design is completed by the underground car park organized on a single level, illuminated and ventilated through large round holes, from which plants emerge that enliven the square. The public space defines the character of the campus, which in all its parts is in constant relationship with the urban and social context: it does not create a private citadel of autonomous and self-referential research, oriented towards itself, but discreetly exposes campus life to the public and brings study and knowledge into dialogue with the entire city. The part used for study and intellectual work is concentrated in the volume located along the railway and raised above the ground, forming a sort of ideal city of knowledge, where the various disciplines intertwine in an interdisciplinary dialogue, favored from a generous structure, suspended in the sky. The base is tectonically expressed as a solid element, anchored to the earth on the sides, transparent inside, while the raised volume as an autonomous and precise construction. The top floor is expressed as a large industrial space, a place of work and concentration closed on the sides and open to the sky. The transparent spaces of the administration, classrooms and offices are hung from this body, which rests on large triangular pillars placed along the perimeter. All structural elements are in reinforced concrete.

WITH
Buzzi studio d’architettura, Locarno
Monotti Ingegneri Consulenti SA, Locarno