School Campus Mazzacurati Rome, Italy

Within Rome’s Public Residential Building Plan, which includes “Il Corviale”, the kilometer -long building designed by Mario Fiorentino from 1967 to 1970, there are also two architecturally similar building structures: a cultural center-library and a school structure. The school, built in the late 1980s, underwent a marked, progressive deterioration, and already at the beginning of the 2000s was underutilized with respect to its potential and in need of reorganization. The decision of the Municipal Administration to bring the building up to standard provided the impulse to create a new structure with the participatory action of all the actors involved. The aim of the transformation project is to make the school more functional, with a focus on energy-saving, and to revive the complex within the district. Its prefabricated construction makes it possible to intervene on the existing structure with subtractions and displacements of some parts and expansion of others. The scheduled interventions are: the creation of a “conservatory-patio” in the school, the introduction of a new central block to use as a theatre with about 200 seats, the construction of a new lab building, the restructuring of gym-related services, the redevelopment of the custodial quarters in order to create a small day-care center, the enhancement of the façades with the introduction of a new casing and a micro-greenhouse, and the complete reorganization of the sections, and the redevelopment of the park . The introduction of the patio is intended to make the current atrium area a pleasant place to use, to improve its bioclimatic performance and, thanks to the large glass walls, to make the spaces that overlook it more luminous and pleasant. On the typological level, the corridor becomes a pathway with equipped wall space, true showcase-windows, where students can exhibit their projects and objects made in class. The school complex is surrounded by a garden park that is completely reorganized, creating an intense relationship with the surrounding landscape and creating a large area of green filter. The new arrangement provides for various spatial arrangements: there are steps for shows and performances, “green open-air rooms” for educational activities, spaces for sports activities, all with the aim of opening the school to the neighbourhood and the surrounding area.

Credits: Design Architects: Tstudio – Guendalina Salimei | Structure: ing. A. Bozzetti, M. Traversari

MEP: ing. Beniamino Nutile, ing. Piero Saraceni |Landscape Design: arch. Giancarlo Fantilli | Contractor: De Santis Gianni Costruzioni ed Appalti s.r.l. |Construction Supervision: ing. A. Bozzetti; ufficio D.L.: G. Salimei con L. Pergolesi

Photography: Luigi Filetici

Published in: SALIMEI G. “Trasformazione del Complesso scolastico Mazzacurati al Corviale, Roma” in Industria delle Costruzioni – Spazio e Formazione. Trenta architetture per le recenti scuole italiane – Quaderni di Architettura ANCE, maggio 2018 pp. 72 – 79 – EAN: 9788878641327 • Metamorfosi Quaderni di Architettura n.4, Lettera Ventidue Edizioni, Siracusa 2018, pp. 32-35 ISSN 1590 -1394 – ISBN 9788862422659 • SALIMEI G., Scuole e Periferie in IOArch n.72 Ottobre 2017 pp. 70-73 ISSN 2531- 9779 • Prestinenza Puglisi L., Casadei G.M., Marchetti F., Pani M. M., AIAC, (2017) (a cura di), Now Next ed. Lettera Ventidue, Siracusa 2017, pp. 396-401 ISBN 978862 422369 • Bulgherini F. (a cura di) 100 Progetti, Riccardo Dell’Anna Editore, Roma 2017, pp. 194-195 ISBN 9788894142181 • Martini M. (a cura di) Mirabili. Presenze, Efesto Edizioni, Roma 2016, pp.139-154. ISBN 978 88 94855

067 • De Cesaris, A. Mandolesi D. (a cura di) Rigenerare le periferie urbane, Aracne, Ariccia 2016 ISBN: 9788878641198 pp. 88-95 • Pisani M. (a cura di), Architettura e Paesaggio. Atti del congresso di Genzano, Il Formichiere, Foligno 2015, p. 76. ISBN 9788898428519 • SALIMEI G. (2012- 2° ed. 2015), City Landscape. Bari: Ilios Editore ISBN 9788890802430 pp.124-129 • Frontera M. A Roma la nuova scuola firmata T Studio è (quasi) pronta per il «rammendo» di Corviale, in Edilizia e Territorio, 10 Giugno 2016.