Design: 1989
Execution: 1989-1994
Text: Claudio Baldisserri, from “Casa protetta e centro diurno a Russi”, Umberto Sala editore, 1995 Foto/Photos: Luigi Ghirri, reproduction from Teprin archive prints
In 1989 we were asked to build onto a Nursing-Home we’d designed in 1979, adding a Day Centre for elderly people. The building had to be accessible from outside, independently of the nursing-home, but at the same time directly connected to it. We thought of a compact building on three floors, very open towards the grounds overlooked by the spaces that would be occupied. It is connected to the nursing-home by walkways on the ground and first floors which join up with the existing ones at the point of the conservatory, the heart of the previous intervention. The bedrooms are set at the sides, off a central corridor that receives light from four small internal courtyards along which the bathrooms are located. On the ground floor these courtyards are covered by skylights and constitute in turn a place to rest and converse, the entrance to the gym and the kitchenette. They are also the organising element, in an architectonic and geometric sense, of the ground floor which is of course the actual Day Centre. In fact around them are set the great portico, which is also the entrance, the sitting room, the rest room, the gym, the bathrooms and the chapel. The three floors are served by a lift and by a spiral staircase, illuminated from above. This is fixed orthogonally to the building at the ground and first floors and obliquely at the second. The chapel is located at the rear and is the only subdivided architectonic element. It is an extensively glazed cylinder to which a fire escape is interlocked in a deliberately stated manner. This reaches the roof of the chapel which at that point becomes a terrace. A completely closed prism is set on the terrace, illuminated from above, adding to the body of the main building. The fire escape is within this further volume. The materials and colours are those of the pre-existent house.
Committente: Opera Pia A. Baccarini di Russi
Progetto architettonico: arch. Claudio Baldisserri, ing. Lorenzo Sarti, arch. Aldo Aymonino, arch. Emilio Rambelli (Teprin Associati).
Impresa: ACC Adriatica Costruzioni Cervese
Impianti: Consorzio Elettricisti Installatori Ravennati
