Palympsest

Rodari school renewal, Bari | ongoing

Schools play a fundamental role in cities, not only for being the place where the future generation are educated, but also because they are expected to welcome public activities beyond the usual  schools hours and become places where the surrounding community can gather.

Commissioned to redesign and improve the entrance spaces and the gym of the Rodari middle school, ma0 has proposed to improve the reception capacity and quality not only for the students’ parents, but also for the visitors that could potentially use the sports facilites beyond school’s schedule.
The entrance to the school becomes with this occasion a collective reference non only for its activities, but also for what could represent symbolically.

The project, beyond improving the functionality of the interior spaces, reshapes the ground of the entrance court with a continuous ramp and a series of steps to access the new gym entrance and modifies deeply the interface between inside and outside.

A  new portico works as a communicative infrastructure to be used and appropriated both by the school and the students.

This palympsest can accomodate different medias and objects that can be replaced  during the year, and trigger a playful interaction with its users that can sit in, hide behind and peek trough its various openings.

Plan of the new intervention with the redesign of the access ramps the gym interiors and the new portico.

The access to the school before and after the renewal.

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Palympsest | Rodari middle school renewal

Client: Comune di Bari
design team:
ma0 studio d’architettura
Ing. Maurizio Franco

with Roberto Vincenzo Iossa