New Youth Center
The work regards the refurbishment of an abandoned Youth Center (Centro di Aggregazione Giovanile CAG)
The condition of marginality faced by the CAG depends mainly to its desertion and not from the physical distance to the center. In fact, the plot has already been absorbed by subsequent expansions of the city and is already an urban artifact. The site insists in a mixed use settlement, characterized by large production sectors and smaller private construction. From the urban point of view, it has a huge potential, because of the proximity to important infrastructures (the Mediterranean motorway and the Calabrie National Road) that make it barycentric respect to the consolidated fabric.
The proposal takes into account the cost-analysis elaborated by the Municipality and is configured to be open to future uses. The project dialogues with the ordinariness of the place, and acts to find a balance between the its specificity and the autonomy of the new form, via a coherent morpho- typological layout.
Once inside the area, the central decumanus -crinale of the distributive device- connects and systematizes the archipelago of structures and functions, defining the hierarchy of the spaces.
In sequence, from west to east, we find: playground area, outdoor tennis/futsal field; the pavilions that contain the CAG; outdoor field for basket/volleyball. The pavilions are partially closed and climatized with outdoor ares, of which the main one in common. The south pavilion, result of the extension of an existing structure, has a quadrangular profile measuring 10x13.5x3 meters. Inside, the wing of services (with offices and changing rooms) faces the larger media hall for meetings and cultural activities. An open but covered pronaos opens to the external green areas. The north pavilion consists of two main areas: a large porch and the bar of 9x3.8x3 meters. The first one is an open but protected loggia which serves as an extension of the dining space. The two pavilions are built with a very simple technology, based on precast exposed concrete elements and concrete bricks. The use of pre-finished pieces comes from the closest cement factories, where those modules are produced and soon transported to the construction site, where are finally assembled. That approach allows a quick and safe construction, future modification and extension, replacements of parts, containment of polluting emissions, shortening of the production chain, use of local labor and cost cutting.
Location: Mangone, Cosenza, Calabria, Italy
Client: Municipality of Mangone, MIBACT (Ministero dei beni e delle attività culturali e del turismo)
Designer: fondaco architettura (Leonardo Chironi, Marco Diana, Giacomo Panico, Stefano Passamonti)
Year: 2017
Cost: 388.000,00 Euros
Scale: 1900 m2
