This new school in Romarzollo di Arco (Trento province) was designed by Gasparin & Meier Architekten, although Krej Engineering altered some of the architectural language without changing the building plan or key features. Surrounded by a grass area, the school is divided into two wings, with the former housing three floors of classrooms and the latter, a single floor with a gym and canteen. The interior with the classrooms is arranged around a central full-height hall, with balcony corridors running right around each level. The use of colours helps define each level, making it easy to read how the spaces are distributed. The school is meant to instil - in the children - a sense of belonging and safety that will support them and stay with them as they grow, learn, play and socialise. Health and comfort are central to both the interior and exterior spaces, with a range of techniques used to achieve these aspects: reducing heat emissions and water consumption, natural ventilation, management of lighting systems, acoustic comfort, air quality control and green roofs on over 50% of the covered surfaces. For the facades, the designers used Schüco technology to ensure high-levels of lighting and air quality comfort. Large glazed elevations create connections between the classrooms and the outdoors, striking the right balance between internal artificial and external natural lighting. Each room has two or more windows that open vertically with the Schüco TipTronic automated system for natural ventilation. The windows can be opened and closed manually and automatically, integrating them in to the mechanical ventilation and air-conditioning systems. The automated Schüco TipTronic devices ensure constant air quality, while optimising energy consumption for cooling. The Schüco EFC system for the natural removal of smoke and heat was installed in the central hall as this not only improves natural ventilation, but also improves safety as it activates automatically in case of fire. The combination of technical, design and building decisions helped this school in Romarzollo earn “LEED for schools” platinum certification.
Schüco International Italia Via del Progresso, 42
I - 35127 Padova
Tel. +39 049 7392000
Fax +39 049 739 2402
www.schueco.it
