A project that goes beyond architecture to become a driver of a larger and more complex urban development process: these are the guidelines for the Udine University’s new Department of Medicine building, which will be built in Kolbe Square in Udine, in a Cappuccini monks’ former monastery. The idea of openness and dialogue is the cornerstone of the entire design: buildings are designed to enhance the continuity between outside and inside, both in the relations between labs and classrooms and both towards the external context. The complex is conceived to be fully accessible: architecture is open to everyone and without any barrier, just like the ideal of education that this building wants to convey
The project for the new headquarters of the Department of Medical Area - University of Udine is aimed at facilitating the performance of cutting-edge training in an environment designed to be environmentally sustainable and focused on the psycho-physical wellbeing of those who will live and experience it on a daily basis, and which will positively impact on the development of the neighbourhood and the city, contributing to the enhancement of Udine as one of the contexts in which scientific innovation will be produced at the highest European levels.
The buildings are designed to fully meet the most stringent parameters of environmental sustainability and energy efficiency, through the adoption of measures from an architectural and plant engineering point of view. The analysis of the structure's exposure to natural light supported the definition of the envelope, the levels of opacity of the façades and the differentiation of the transparent surfaces. The project is consistent with the guiding principles of the Minimum Environmental Criteria as well as the evaluation criteria of the main environmental certification protocols, confirming that a high level of sustainability can be achieved. The building will be LEED certified according to the ‘Rating System Building Design and Construction for New Construction’ protocol.
The large area constitutes the site on which the new architectural complex is planned to be built, consisting of two distinct main blocks that will relate to the context, creating a campus that meets the needs of students and professors and is versatile enough to be experienced by the entire city community.
The first two-storey building is dedicated to classrooms, the second three-storey building to research laboratories and teachers' offices, overlooking a roof garden. Both buildings are designed according to the InsideOut design principle, from the inside out: starting from the needs of the future users of the spaces, the project is conceived on the basis of the place where it will be built, studying the dynamics of the flow of people, information, energy and ideas, to the point of involving the site's natural elements. The layout of the buildings is designed to make the intervention flexible and modifiable over time.
It is challenging and exciting to work on these new spaces. On the one hand, we have to envisage the highest technological performance of the building and the versatility of the spaces for the numerous educational and research activities that will take place here, both in presence and remotely. On the other, we work on the relationship with the city of Udine, which is transforming and improving to better accommodate young intelligences by supporting a virtuous development of this district.
Progetto CMR is a company specialized in Integrated Design, founded in 1994 with the aim of creating flexible, efficient and sustainable spaces through the application of a method which analyses the client’s needs, while paying particular attention to wellbeing and human-scale design.
Created by professionals with a strong international background in Space Planning and Interior Design, it extended its outreach to different fields, from Building Design to Urban Planning.