The brief entailed providing a student housing building within the historically sensitive city of Mantova, Italy that would link to the Politecnico di Milano campus, which is a 10 minute walk south of the site.

 

The project first began with an analysis of the city to understand its history and context. This was followed by an introduction of an urban scheme to enhance the urban fabric and improve the link between the student housing and the university. A series of open spaces was found along the street that connected these two elements and were made public. The neighbouring lake was then brought through in the form of a canal once again unifying the link between the site and university. The canal celebrated the element of water through its varying speed, depth and sound as it passed along the street.

 

The site was placed adjacent to a church and San Leonardo Square and so sensitive design was a prerequisite. A public courtyard was introduced but raised so as to differentiate between the public courtyard and the public square. It has an ‘L’ shaped that houses the student’s room on the upper two floors as well as a lecture room, laboratory and restaurant on the ground floor opening out onto the public courtyard. The ‘L’ shaped plan complies to its rigid surroundings and allows for there to be a ‘freely’ oriented building (that houses a library) enclosing the courtyard.

Views of the building when approaching the site were deeply considered and taken into account when designing the form and facade of the buildings. Exposed brick was the material used as it was considered to be more sensitive to the surrounding buildings.

The concept of a place for learning continues through into the public courtyard as well, where it is made into an urban agricultural field that will be used by the students studying there as an experimental garden. The planter beds are raised up onto a sort of pedestal and a public path is carved into it allowing pedestrians to enjoy the garden and learn from it.