All projects
Context
Graduation thesis at Politecnico di Genova, in Sustainable Architecture. Rather than an academic topic, I looked for a real need: in 2016 I contacted Ragusa's Education Department, proposing a definitive design for a new nursery school. The university work became a kind of informal public commission, developed over a year with Chiara Di Tucci and Francesca Rossi, under Enrica Cattaneo and Adriano Magliocco.
The layout
The layout grows from a reading of Ragusa's rural landscape, fragmented by the historical division of the land. The six teaching units sit as juxtaposed volumes around a central space, on a single storey: classrooms around a core (refectory, services, free-activity areas), each opening onto the garden, with a continuous path that avoids the feel of a corridor.
The bioclimatic logic
The logic is bioclimatic: orientation, openings and heights studied against sun, winds, light and comfort — the real challenge being the Sicilian summer. An extensive green roof over the whole building (thermal inertia and pedagogical value), an envelope with U-value 0.20 W/m²K and 16-hour thermal lag, radiant floor, MVHR, heat pump and photovoltaics: class A4, 24.81 kWh/m²/year.
Structure and feasibility
Initially conceived in CLT, the structure was revised — Sicily's 2016 timber supply chain being insufficient — towards porous brick, natural insulation (wood fibre, kenaf) and fibre-cement panels, with prices verified with local suppliers. Delivered to the municipality in 2017; the expected tender was never published and the school was not built, but the work remains a complete experience of public, sustainable and technically verified design.
