Urban Strategy
The project reconnects fragmented green spaces surrounding the site — including the Fornace Capra garden and Giardini di Padre Pio — through a new tree-lined cycle-pedestrian path, created by shifting the adjacent middle school's athletics track 3 metres inward. This simple gesture links a nursery, bilingual school, care home, and both public schools into a cohesive Parco delle Generazioni. Via Locatelli is calmed to 30 km/h through raised table junctions, extending the public realm safely to pedestrians and cyclists.

Volumetric Composition
Four interconnected volumes, each capable of independent operation, resolve the brief. The three-storey main school block runs parallel to Via Locatelli, dividing the site into a private garden to the north and the public park to the south. Three secondary volumes articulate perpendicularly: gymnasium and library face the square to the south; the canteen anchors the north. Their placement along the eastern edge buffers the public spaces from the car park while streamlining service logistics.

School Building
The entrance opens onto the square into a double-height atrium — the school's agorà — with a tiered stair doubling as an auditorium. The ground floor accommodates administration, flexible laboratories, and a reading room connected to the library. Upper floors house classrooms around open corridor zones for informal learning, with visual connections across double-height voids. A helical steel staircase on the north façade provides direct garden access.

Gymnasium
The sports hall is set 3.7 m below grade, reducing the above-ground volume to a neighbourhood scale while achieving the 8 m clear height required for multi-sport use (FISR-certified, 40×20 m). The semi-buried section brings spectator seating flush with the entrance level. The gymnasium operates fully independently, with its own entrance from the square, catering, changing rooms, and accessible vertical circulation.

Structure & Sustainability
The four volumes are structurally independent for phased construction and seismic performance. A reinforced concrete podium supports a glulam timber superstructure for the upper floors, delivering structural efficiency, acoustic comfort, and a warm material presence. Façades are infilled with profiled metal sheet; south-east elevations feature horizontal louvre screens. Canteen and library roofs are extensive green roofs; the school roof carries photovoltaic panels powering a geothermal heat pump system.