Centro Nazionale di Osimo della Lega del Filo d’Oro. Architecture for the Care of People with Disabilities

Not-for-profit foundation Lega del Filo d’Oro ONLUS is committed to providing clinical and general care that recognizes the uniqueness of every individual. It works with people with severe disabilities to improve their and their family’s quality of life. To carry out its mission more effectively, the foundation made the decision to bring together in the one place all its activities, which were previously scattered around various locations in the town of Osimo, in the Italian province of Ancona. The result was the Centro Nazionale di Osimo della Lega del Filo d’Oro, a highly specialized center dedicated to people with deafblindness and psychosensory disorders. The facility was designed by Guidarini & Salvadeo Architetti Associati in collaboration with engineering firm Termostudi srl (structures and services) and Zengiarodesign (interiors). This is a state-of-the-art complex in which everything is designed for optimum performance but also – and in particular – to be a beautiful, comfortable place to live.

Published by THE PLAN Editions – Gruppo Maggioli Group, the book Centro Nazionale di Osimo della Lega del Filo d’Oro. Architecture for the Care of People with Disabilities examines the project in detail. The book is edited by Stefano Guidarini, cofounder of Guidarini & Salvadeo Architetti Associati, and Maria Raffaella Tamburi, technical director of engineering firm termostudi srl. The text (in Italian with English on facing pages) reveals the multiplicity of skills that needed to come together to create the project, including contributions from the Lega del Filo d’Oro foundation through its president, Rossano Bartoli, and technical-scientific director Patrizia Ceccarani, as well as the architects themselves. The book also includes a chapter by Marco Biraghi, architecture historian at Politecnico di Milano, that examines the project from the perspective of contemporary Italian architecture.

The value of beauty

“Put simply, it is important to say that the facility is beautiful. This is hardly trivial: sadly, all too often facilities purpose-built for people with disabilities or designed for the elderly are melancholy and unattractive; beauty is an important value. First and foremost, we worked on these spaces to foster user well-being, safety and pleasant environments to be in. Coloring plays a key role, along with fitting into the landscape, large, comfortable spaces, and outdoor play and sharing areas. We made enormous investments to put the Lega del Filo d’Oro’s goals at the heart of everything we do, while at the same time strengthening relationships with our host territory.”

Text from the chapter Cinquant’Anni di Vita a Fianco della Lega del Filo d’Oro, by Rossano Bartoli, president of Fondazione Lega del Filo d’Oro ONLUS

Il Centro Nazionale di Osimo della Lega del Filo d’Oro

Active in ten Italian regions, since 1964 Lega del Filo d’Oro has been the country’s leading provider of assistance, education, rehabilitation, and social inclusion services for people with deafblindness and psychosensory disorders. The national center in Osimo, the first section of which was inaugurated in 2017 and the second in 2023, is the foundation’s chief center nationally for initial diagnosis, educational rehabilitation, and temporary hospital care. The new structure includes a rehabilitation center, offices, guest and family accommodation, local services, and facilities available to outside groups, such as a documentation center, research center, and conference center. The outdoor spaces, with children’s play areas and bowling greens for the elderly, are open to the community.

A collective work …

“What we built at Osimo was actually our second project. We talked through an initial solution but found that it failed to fully meet Lega del Filo d’Oro’s needs, and yet it was the flaws in the first design that signposted the solution that wound up being approved and built. At this point, a second characteristic of the project emerges: it is a collective work, or as Filarete put it, the client is the ‘father’ and the designers the ‘mother.’ A design project needs them both. It also needs dialogue, in this case, debate among the designers, the principal and staff at Lega del Filo d’Oro.”

Text from the chapter Architettura per le Fragilità, fra Teoria e Pratica, by Stefano Guidarini, cofounder of Guidarini & Salvadeo Architetti Associati

… designed to create general wellbeing

“In specific environments, architectural space and furnishings play a key role in the complex management of physical and mental disability. . . . The strength and enthusiasm that, as an architect and furniture designer, inspires me to take on such complex research projects has evolved alongside my awareness of the fundamental importance of space, quality of the environment, the ensemble of furnishings and objects, and consequently people’s daily living space – all elements that decisively influence not just guests’ but staff and relatives’ living conditions. Quality interior spaces, furnishings and equipment help generate a condition of general well-being, in turn creating more helpful and cooperative human attitudes and relationships.”

Text from the chapter Architettura per le Fragilità, fra Teoria e Pratica, by Alfredo Zengiaro, founder of Zengiarodesign

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Centro Nazionale di Osimo della Lega del Filo d’Oro

Centro Nazionale di Osimo della Lega del Filo d’Oro

Centro Nazionale di Osimo della Lega del Filo d’Oro

Centro Nazionale di Osimo della Lega del Filo d’Oro

Centro Nazionale di Osimo della Lega del Filo d’Oro

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