Centro Studi FLA Learning Centre

Built in the 2012 after Giuseppe Marinoni’s design had won an international competition, the Learning Centre FLA (Lombardy Foundation for the Environment) at Seveso looks on the outside like a primary volume, divided up by vertical fissures and sectioned by the glass front: a wing of the square and proscenium opening onto the town. The rigorous elliptical layout of the plan is in fact a collage of irregular forms suited to a variety of uses: conference rooms, exhibition spaces, offices, a media library. The architectural conception exploits natural light as a means of creating mutable environmental qualities. The artificial lighting, on the other hand, draws attention to the spaces generated inside, visible outside at night as two-dimensional figures projected onto the glass screen of the façade.
Competition - In 2005 the foundation held an international competition for the design of an FLA Learning Centre at Seveso. The site chosen was an interspace used for parking between the Town Hall and the railway station.
The terms of the competition called for a building of 2000 square metres on three levels. The uses were: spaces for conferences, displays and exhibitions on the ground floor; the branch offices of local authorities and the foundation on the first floor; a library and a media library on the second floor. In 2006, out of forty participants coming from a number of European countries, the jury named Giuseppe Marinoni the winner.
Exterior - On the outside the building presents the appearance of a primary elliptical volume, divided up by vertical fissures and sectioned by the sharp line of the glass front: a wing of the square and proscenium opening onto the town. The interior on the other hand is an assembly of irregular spaces reorganised into an elliptical shape. This principle of collage makes it possible to compose diverse spaces into a recognizable icon, making the complexity of the interior interact with the simplicity of the exterior.
Interior - The vertical and horizontal accumulation of different forms generates internal interspaces, revealed by the clefts that run through the unified elliptical shell from ground to sky. The stratification is laid bare by irregular staggering of the floors and accentuated by the different colours of glass that distinguish the storeys.
The fissures allow light to filter through in different ways over the course of the day, letting the levels interact functionally and visually and relating the uses to the different storeys.
Environment - Elements of symbolic and spatial unification, the vertical fissures are also systems of direct gain: means of capturing the heat of the sun and flues of natural ventilation. They allow light and sunshine to enter in different ways at different times of day and seasons of the year and help to obtain optimal conditions of environmental, thermal and visual comfort.
Flexibility - Criteria of flexibility have oriented the conception of the architecture towards a free plan and the use of lightweight and dry-mounted elements of subdivision. In the offices, for a greater adaptability, a principle of subdivision of the workspaces with elements of furnishing and movable walls has been adopted.
But the ground floor in particular shows a high level of performance in use. With the versatility of a theatrical stage, mobile walls, panes of glass and curtains can be manoeuvred to make genuine scene changes, allowing adaptation to the multiple uses required.
Lighting -  The conception of the lighting design is oriented towards enhancing particular sensorial properties, in close relationship with the architectural conception, which uses natural light as a means of creating mutable environmental qualities over the course of the day. Reacting with the architectural, spatial and material elements, the light takes on numerous autonomous, specific and shifting forms, capable of mixing up continually with reflections and chromatic refractions like in a kaleidoscope.
At night, the spatial values generated inside are projected in two-dimensional figures on the outside, on the glass screen of the façade.

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