Spazio, Luce, Architettura_Noèdizioni, Florence
A new volume, modest in size and designed to accommodate the canteen for the young pupils, implants itself in the pavilion system of the nursery school Tagliaferro, situated in San Piero a Sieve in the district of Florence. It lives as a fragment, working by difference towards the existing building although striving to be its own harmonious extension. Assuming the continuity with the logic of the pavilion system composition, the difference in materials between the brick-faced previous building and the plastered surfaces of the new construction, produces a tension intended to reestablish an interrupted dialogue with the site to which this architecture belongs. The stereometry of the diaphanous volumes, serene and austere reflection of the life that, in time, gave form and significance to those lands, aspires to live again in the bare plaster and wood surfaces set to enclosure the geometrical space of the canteen.
The dialogue with the environment is enriched by the suggestions offered by the character of the building for children, triggering an unedited development: the plastered walls, like substance modeled for fun, fold under the action of light set off by the thin steel cornice and, on their smooth and forthcoming surface, measure the passing of time by the changing of shadows into new figures and unexpected profiles.
Matter acquires a duplicity that winks to the playful character of this space intended for the daily life of the young pupils and, inside, strips itself of its heavy appearance turning in a mild substance that constantly changes under the action of light, creating the magic of a fantastic space always different and always identical to itself.
The great curve wall, reacted with the rectangular layout of the plan, is, in the end, the labile threshold that at one time offers the comfort of the sense of protection towards the exterior space but, at the same time, configures itself as a sort of magic veil ready to dissolve itself in the succession of light and shadows, in order to allow the flight of children's imagination.
Nursery School Tagliaferro
San Piero a Sieve (Florence)
2008-2009
project and supervision of works
Fabio Capanni, Claudio Marrocchi, Alessandro Masoni
collaborator
Duccio Ardovini
structures
Lorenzo Mellini
systems
Massimo Tassini
photos
Alessandro Ciampi, © Fabio Capanni