University of Milan - Faculty of Veterinary of Lodi - Turin Architects | Magazine

University of Milan – Faculty of Veterinary of Lodi

University Campus which makes of the valorization of the natural features of the surrounding agricultural landscape its strength.

The Faculty is located in the south-western district of Lodi, context of intense agricultural activities. The prerogative of the site refers to its natural features, such as the crops and the waterway networks, which have been preserved and valorized through the design by enhancing a connection between architecture and context.
The project aim was to detect new references and develop identity, a news space that students and professors can utilize as a symbol of the new seat without regretting the previous location in Milano.
The main block, opened to the natural landscape, becomes a unique entity with the surrounding context whose fields, vegetation and water flows represent primary elements. The Bertonica roggia, which transversely crosses the area, and the pond, define the center of a 28.000 sqm campus and its relation with the territory. Therefore, water becomes an element which organizes the outdoor space and opens to the rural landscape of the town.
Many families of different social classes lived inside the court farmhouse. It was the typical representation of an urban model whereas the collective shared space promoted social relations, control, uses and work organization.
Therefore, the historically consolidated archetypes of the context, re-interpreted in a contemporary design, have become the steam of the functional and morphological organization of the Campus.
The raw north American red cedar wooden slats façade is rhythmed by the ledges in light grey concrete that mark the perimeter of the building with their thin borders and confers elegance and refinement to the envelope. The plants on the roof are covered by a steel structure finished with a metal sheet.
The bright metal structure of the portico, together with the wooden shakes sunblind, integrates the bus stop with a coverage which hosts and protects students and visitors, by connecting the road to the court that faces the main didactical and departmental functions.
Even if the building is constituted by high-tech technologies, wide openings allow nature to penetrate the interiors giving the feeling of a total merge.
The main atrium facing the infopoint, the thesis room, the bar, the canteen and library represents the core of the Campus. It is something close to a “living room” of the University, an inner, large, bright and double height square that hosts and directs people inside the faculty. The project philosophy was to transform the connective space into something more than a simple path: it becomes a place of social interaction and communication, where the architectural conditions themselves encourage interactions.
The stratigraphy of the envelope has been designed to obtain consistent energetic gains and thermal, acoustic and environmental comfort. Part of the energy of the building is generated by renewable resources (photovoltaic, solar, groundwater). The mechanical, electric and special plants are managed through a building automation software which allows to program all the functions through remote control.
All the furniture was customized to match with both functional and aesthetical needs. The rooms host the most modern didactical multimedia systems and the labs allow scientific experimentation in the safest environment.