Palestra polivalente TDP
The construction of the new gymnasium for the school becomes an opportunity to create a gathering place, a landmark along the Melezza River floodplain park that is in fact the main public space of the three villages recently aggregated into one municipality. It is not just a gymnasium but a covered space, a theater, a hall in the middle of the woods, a rooftop in the clearing. The forest becomes the main façade and theatrical backdrop of the building, filtering the passage of light by regulating the radiation in both winter and summer months, and actually defining the depth of the interior space. The main southern entrance faces the direction of the Melezza River, and leads directly to the upper balcony, the basement changing rooms, and the kitchen.
The entire basement, which can be used as civil defense shelters, hosts the gym’s services, multipurpose rooms, locker rooms, archives and storage rooms, so that the main hall is brought to the ground floor. The basement lobby connects staircase and elevator with the locker rooms, kitchen, public restrooms and shelters, and allows easy management of public activities that can be held in the
school gymnasium. The plan has a square shape of 30 meters per side. It is a mixed structure, the underground part in reinforced concrete and the above-ground part in steel.
In harmony with the square plan of the building and with the aim of achieving a light and slender appearance, the roof structure was designed from the outset as a lattice composed of beams parallel to the facade spaced 5 meters apart. Following the principle that “light is what can be quickly disassembled and reassembled,” the lattice was divided into 36 crosses with joints placed at the midpoints between the lattice nodes. This choice influenced the static calculations, detail design, fabrication and assembly of the entire construction. Viewed as a whole, the entire construction recalls the principle of the Meccano game, in which similar elements are connected by pins. When analyzing more closely, it can be seen that the number of flanges for each node varies. This feature allows observers to visually perceive the intensity of the forces acting on the structure. The structure is a project within a project; it has to meet the static requirements, assembly conditions, transport limits of the prefabricated elements, and the airtightness requirements of the envelope for the Minergie-P and Minergie-A standard. In this particular case, the structure also had to absorb the horizontal thrusts of the facades, allow for the passage of ventilation systems and power lines, allow for the installation of sports equipment, collect roof water in the perimeter beam, and allow for the attachment of downspouts. Like an engine, each element of the structure is indispensable and everything works in a coherent and rational whole.
