ZAA Zanon Architetti Associati - H-Farm Campus: symbiosis between environment and human life
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H-Farm Campus: symbiosis between environment and human life

ZAA Zanon Architetti Associati

Education  /  Completed
ZAA Zanon Architetti Associati
H-FARM CAMPUS is an ambitious project: a high education campus in the countryside of Treviso, set in an isolated but at the same time international location thanks to its proximity to Venice airport. The challenge launched by H-FARM involves the construction of buildings for education and services in a 30 ha area along the river Sile, close to the headquarters of the promoting company, with the aim of training young people and children by merging the international school system and the use of technologies at the service of learning. The project, born as an evolution of the principles that have characterized the birth of H-FARM, represents the integration in a rural area of an activity at the antipodes of the autochthonous one, in spaces built with respect for the place.

The buildings are developed on a maximum of two floors respecting the context’s geometries and preventing the rise of physical barriers that would interrupt the overall vision of the surrounding countryside, as an experimentation of the principles of a new rurality. The layout also aims to maintain portions of land for agricultural use, to insert large walls with localized woodland patches and to bring the biodiversity of the place within the landscape project.

Landscape has guided architecture and technical choices, not vice versa.

The project thus lives on the mutual exchange between environment and human life, in a symbiosis linked to an imaginary reconstruction of the apparently compromised relationship between man and nature; a romantic reading key aware of the need for its re-elaboration and updating.

H-FARM CAMPUS project is developed on an area of 30 ha, adjacent to H-FARM headquarter, generating a physical continuum and a coherent expansion of innovative activities, which can here succeed in establishing themselves as a “critical mass”, achieving greater effectiveness not only from the architectural and managerial point of view, but especially from the point of view of relationships between activities and people.

The new intervention is developed in continuity with the existing cores, using volume obtained in part from the demolition of buildings not historically or structurally significant (including some buildings for military use), with the aim of proposing a “zero cubage” initiative. The strategic project, of regional interest for process and size, aims to concentrate the cubature obtained from demolished buildings in a single place, returning to be an active part of the vegetation, therefore returned to the countryside.

The buildings follow one another as if to represent the chronological and formative phases that the students will face: the school as a path of which the route is recognized, the past is contemplated and the future is glimpsed, where those in front can be an example to those who follow. The buildings look at each other, but between them there is space for nature and the environment. The lamination basins, bordered by slight declines so as to be easily accessible and planted with wooded patches, stand out to separate and connect the architecture at the same time. The time required to walk from one building to the next is the time of pause, of maturation, of growth. If the east-west path represents a process of development, the north-south axes involve the relationship with the other: towards north the agricultural plain opens up, apparently extended to the mountains; towards south, other buildings represent the complex relationship with social relations and the role of the individual.

The buildings are characterized by a simple and clear planimetric development capable of supporting the specific functional and distributive programs, making the rigidity of the regulations (especially school regulations) strong points from which to develop the themes at the base of each building. The materials used, the finishes, the colors and the technological solutions are repeated in each volume in order to create a coherent overall image.

The masterplan involves the construction of eight buildings, in addition to some service volumes. The access point to the campus is through the reception (F), a one-storey volume characterized by a projecting pitched roof, located just beyond the intersection between the renewed route of Via Annia (historical archaeology of the place) and the paths coming from the public parking.

Within the belt placed between the central ring and the secondary one, located further north, are three of the school buildings: one building dedicated to elementary school (A), one to secondary education (B) , one to university level courses (C). At the meeting point between the inner and outer ring, near the western border of the area, in addition to the existing nucleus of H-FARM, there is a complex consisting of two buildings for office use (D). On one hand it is a natural continuation of the training path, on the other hand it is a bridge towards a business reality, such as H-FARM, based on continuous innovation in the application of knowledge with the “conscious” use of new technologies. Continuing eastward, separated by another green area, we meet the student residence (E), composed of two buildings intended for student accommodation and a building-ground hosting dining services and a common laundry. A little further on, the circle closes with the sports facilities (H), indoors or outdoors. At the center of this ring, a multipurpose building (G) designed with RSHP – Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners: a reference point for major collective activities such as conferences, library, food, leisure time, the bulding becomes a panoramic bridge from which to observe the entire campus and a physical link between its parts.

Credits

 Roncade
 Italia
 Fondo “Ca’ Tron H-Campus” - Finanziaria Internazionale Investments Società di Gestione del Risparmio S.p.A.
 09/2020
 27.000 mq
 ZAA Zanon Architetti Associati – multipurpose building in collaboration with RSHP – Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners
 Mariano Zanon, Alessio Bolgan, Bruno Ferretti, Marco Barbato, Matteo Barzi, Erika Bettin, Sara Bocus, Cristina Cappellari, Elisa Ioime, Federico Munaretto, Davide Rachello, Cecilia Salmaso, Matteo Scarioli, Nicola Strametto, Matteo Tomasi, Maddalena Vedana
 Carron Cav. Angelo S.p.A.
 Structural engineer: Studio di ingegneria RS S.r.l., Services engineer: Manens-Tifs S.p.A., DBA progetti S.p.A., Landscape: ZAA Zanon Architetti Associati, Environmental Impact Assessment: ALIA ss, Hydraulic Compatibility Assessment: Aequa Engineering S.r.l., Infrastructures: Sinergo S.p.A., Acoustic engineer: Manens-Tifs S.p.A., BIM: DVA DVisionArchitecture
 Marco Zanta, Federico Grego

Curriculum

Zanon Architetti Associati is an award-winning architectural firm based in Treviso and Milan, with almost twenty years of experience. The range of works includes interventions in all fields of design, from architecture to urban planning, from interior design to product design, always developed with a sensitive approach to the existing heritage. Each project starts from an investigation of the environment, to know its limits and qualities, improve its condition and give shape to a reasoned result that stands the test of time.

We value architecture and design as an organic ecosystem, where every part and discipline cooperates for the highest goal of creating the best quality of life in a human-centered environment. We like to pursue the concept of “wellness”: mind and body influence each other, so to improve the quality of life it is necessary to take care of every aspect of it.

https://zanonassociati.com/


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