The Milan-based Scandurra Studio, founded in 2001 by architect Alessandro Scandurra, won this year’s ‘Best of the Best’ award at the Iconic Awards 2024 Innovative Architecture for the Spiga26 project and the ‘Winner’ award for the Roma lamp.
Spiga26 is a regeneration project involving the construction of a new urban front on Via della Spiga, in the heart of Milan’s Quadrilatero della Moda (Fashion Quadrilateral). To characterise it and create an iconic and recognisable front, the studio chose to evoke the memory of the historic Palazzo Pertusati, which stood in that very area and was unfortunately destroyed during World War II. It therefore created a material texture in glazed terracotta, which recalls its neoclassical taste and is a unique case of application in Italy.
A similar approach was chosen for Roma, this time on the product scale, this being a lamp designed for Panzeri. In this case, the historical reference is expressed with a groove, a sort of blurred boundary between natural and artificial light, between day and night, a symbolic trace that uses the reference to the past to overcome the very concept of time.
Returning to Spiga26, a project that for the Studio was a true “moment of research combined with experimentation”, we asked Architect Scandurra to tell us about their approach in maintaining the delicate balance between past and present. “In this case”, he says, “we wanted to create an urban façade that would create a sense of belonging, a reminder of an identity, which we achieved with a vibrant surface of undulating modules, recalling the atmosphere of the sculptural decoration of Palazzo Pertusati, made of drapery and fluid forms. Our method is both logical and artistic: on the one hand it immerses itself in the traces of history and absorbs its meanings, on the other hand it rigorously applies a persistent search for evolution, towards new techniques and applications that can build a new language, which in turn becomes a memory for the future”.
This year the Studio won another important award from the international competition, the ‘Future School for Ukraine’ for the project concept NEW – Neighbourhood for Educational Wonder. This is a prototype designed to be replicable, allowing school buildings destroyed by the war to be rebuilt, making them welcoming places where learning goes hand in hand with protecting and supporting students.
The competition required an adaptable, replicable and sustainable design for the reconstruction of schools in Ukraine. At the heart of Scandurra Studio’s proposal is the idea of an educational space that combines traditional learning with empirical experience. The fulcrum of the project idea is the creation of a series of internal courtyards, inspired by the hortus conclusus of convent architecture, overlooked by classrooms, collective spaces, an auditorium and a library, and which together form a Garden of Knowledge, capable of creating community and a sense of belonging in and around the school.
Just a few days ago, the firm presented the project in Vilnius together with the Lithuanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other international institutions interested in its development. “We are proud to have the opportunity to offer an effective model for the future of educational architecture”, says the Founder. “The project uses prefabricated modules, which can be quickly assembled, disassembled, transported and reassembled. To ensure its maximum applicability, we carried out a test of adaptability on two different sites in addition to the one assigned by the competition, proving that it can respond to the needs of any context, from the size of a single classroom to more complex master plans. The emptiness of the courtyards around which the learning environments are developed becomes a resource: a place that invites wonder, discovery and sharing. Furthermore, the green facades will integrate recycled and recovered mineral aggregates, symbolising not only the project’s circular economy approach, but also the desire to preserve and transform the ruins of the conflict into a valuable memory to build a better future”.
For more information visit www.scandurrastudio.com.
Photo credit: Filippo Romano
