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The site is an open foothill landscape, currently characterized by uncultivated grassland. This context offers the opportunity to create an educational landscape—a space capable of establishing a dialogue with the natural environment while restoring public value to the territory.
The design concept is rooted in a sensitive interpretation of the foothill terrain.
The building is conceived less as a traditional architectural volume and more as an environmental infrastructure.
The composition is defined by retaining walls that function both as green enclosures and terraces. Beneath these elements lie the educational spaces, in harmony with the surrounding natural context.
Open areas become extensions of the learning environment, enabling forms of active and experiential education.
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The overall design establishes a dialogue with the surrounding agricultural landscape and hillside slopes through a restrained, context-sensitive language. The built volumes relinquish their urban identity, transforming into territorial infrastructures—green terraces that accommodate wedges of landscape.
The façades are modulated to follow the natural topography and to frame open views toward the hills. Outdoor spaces are conceived as an integral part of the educational framework: vegetable gardens, learning gardens, informal pathways, and threshold zones between interior and exterior extend the classroom environment into the natural landscape.
The project adopts an integrated approach to sustainability, addressing construction, systems, and landscape design. The building, classified as nZEB and powered exclusively by locally sourced renewable electricity, reduces the urban heat island effect through green roofs and permeable surfaces. Indoor comfort is ensured by passive design strategies, controlled ventilation, natural lighting, and high-performance materials with EPD certification. The project includes rainwater harvesting systems and the use of recyclable and disassemblable components, minimizing the building’s life cycle ecological footprint. Real-time energy performance data will be displayed on a screen accessible to all, turning building monitoring into an educational tool to raise environmental awareness among pupils.
The architectural layout is organized into two main volumes—the school and the gymnasium—arranged according to principles of volumetric balance and visual permeability. The plan unfolds on a single level, in a courtyard configuration that encloses a central green space accessible to students.
The educational spaces are designed to be inclusive, flexible, and interconnected. Classrooms and laboratories open onto shared areas and green spaces. Thematic ateliers and a reading space enrich the learning experience, while the inner courtyard becomes the vibrant heart of the project: an open yet protected space, educational yet informal. A built environment that is permeable to the landscape, offering the community a space that is alive, welcoming, and generative.
The vertical walls that define the classroom spaces emerge to underscore their infrastructural character, extending to contain the central terraced courtyard in a seamless transition between building and landscape. The green roof over the classrooms fosters a direct dialogue between architecture and nature, contributing to visual mitigation and morphological integration with the natural surroundings.
Interior common spaces echo the green ceiling concept, bringing nature into the heart of the school. Classrooms become shafts of light opening onto the landscape. The generous openings along the main corridors act as visual corridors, drawing the surrounding landscape into the interior.
“We have always believed that the level of a country’s civilization is also reflected in the attention it devotes to its schools. This refers not only to the quality of educational activities, but also to school buildings—the physical spaces where our children and young people spend such a significant part of their day. These spaces must be beautiful, entirely safe, and environmentally sustainable.” (Francesco Tosi, Former Mayor of Fiorano Modenese)
TECO+partners is an architectural firm based in Bologna, founded by six partners and supported by a multidisciplinary team of 30 collaborators, including architects, engineers, and designers.
Environmental quality lies at the heart of their design philosophy, supported by extensive research and hands-on experience with renewable energy systems, bio-architectural techniques, biocompatible materials, and passive climate control strategies.
The firm operates in Italy and internationally, designing educational and sports facilities, residential complexes, office buildings, and industrial structures.
TECO+partners has designed 47 schools, each tailored to diverse educational needs. Their portfolio includes kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, vocational institutes, and university campuses, architectures as a companion in the growth of children—guiding them through the discovery of self and others, of inside and outside, of the intimate and the vast.
