Gregorio Pecorelli

The little town of Bevagna, in Umbria, needs a new school complex able to host a the old primary and middle school together with a new kindergarten and shared sport facilities. The administration’s will is to provide the community a new school complex meeting with high energetic efficiency and didactic innovation. The plot is located in an agricultural area with beautiful landscape features north-east to the medieval walled town. 

The school complex is articulated as a system of terraced volumes blending in the landscape surrounded by fields and oak trees. The access to the sport hall and the middle school is located east, to the top side of the hill, while the primary school, the kindergarten and some shared facilities take access west, in the lowest part of the slope. Different green spaces meet the children’s pedagogical process of growth. The kindergarten green areas are introverted and calm, while the primary school integrates a large playground in the traditional didactic spaces. In the upper part of the plot, the garden overlooking the school give form to a sport complex working together with the sport hall and open to the students and the citizens of Bevagna.

The shape of the school comes from the shape of the ground. The general layout follows the slope of the lot in the creation of a system of volumes grafted on multiple levels. The tension between the different elements of the complex and the orography generates spaces with different hierarchies: some closed and more intimate, others opening up and framing views of the surrounding countryside. The school complex, through limited soil remodeling operations, carefully adjusts to the conditions of the context: the topography, the heliothermic orientation, the views (what is perceived and how the building is perceived), the accessibility conditions. The ultimate aim of the project is to make the building able to engage with the calm and powerful Umbrian landscape: giving to the children a school within a hill.

Competition organized by Comune di Bevagna.
Pedagogical consultant Andrea Bellincampi. Images by Alberto Pizzoli.
Budget € 4,5 mln.
6.800 m2.

the medieval walled town of Bevagna and the new school complex located north-east

blending the school complex into the hilly topography

the school complex and the surrounding fields

the building is articulated as a terraced complex with shared communal areas

general masterplan of the area

different green areas integrate the learning process in the growth of the child

ground floor plan. Civic center and access to the new Piazza Sant’Anna

first floor plan. The agorà gives access to the Kindergarten, the Primary school and a block with communal services

second floor plan. Middle school block and the shared sport hall

the Kindergarten courtyard

cross section of the school complex

the agorà

technological section integrating prefab concrete structural solution

structural elements, prefab walls integrating technological didactic elements, furnitures allowing a flexible spatial configurations

corridors integrating extra-didactic spaces and overlooking the terraced landscape