2' min read
2' min read
A modern and functional project, which serves to create new spaces for educational activities and workshops and at the same time is an educational tool for young people, to show them how architecture can be made by reusing existing building stock well.
We are in the new spaces opened in Turin by Ied, the European Institute of Design, which operates in Italy, Spain and Brazil and trains 1,100 young people a year under the Mole with specialisations in design, communication, visual arts, fashion, arts and restoration.
The need for the new premises - which adds to the historical one in the former convent at 18 Via San Quintino and is part of a transformation process that has also involved other cities - stems from the need to expand the laboratories, an asset of an institute that aims to translate theory into practice.
"This is how Via Nizza 18 was born,' says the director, Paola Zini, 'which in the last few weeks has been bursting with activity. In just six months, we renovated the building, which once housed the Region's offices and is next to the Ires headquarters. In all, 3 thousand square metres near Porta Nuova, three metro stops from Via San Quintino, with 13 classrooms, two fashion laboratories, a jewellery and accessories design laboratory, a visual arts laboratory, a library, two common areas and two gardens'.
The architectural project was developed by Studio Marcante-Testa, professors at Ied, with work supervision and technical coordination by architect Valter Carmagna. "The first step," recount Adelaide Testa and Andrea Marcante, "was the re-functioning in terms of plant engineering, spatial organisation and responseto the current fire prevention regulations of the spaces. Having completed the necessary steps to ensure the safety of the school, we made a radical choice of field, that is to conserve what can be conserved, overcoming prejudices and merely aesthetic evaluations, to give life to a model of reuse of the existing. That adapts, without wasting. It cuts costs, time, demolition, waste".
