FORBO FLOORING SYSTEMS HIGHLIGHT:
This section of ArchIdea features a selected project in which the floor is the hero of the issue. It demonstrates how Forbo Flooring Systems can complement the design of a building.
Colours that seep into your memory
WITH A BOLD USE OF COLOUR AND THE ADDITION OF A CIRCLE, THE COMMUNITY CENTRE FOR ART AND MUSIC BYPASSES REASON AND TAPS INTO DEEPER LAYERS OF EMOTION.
Gruppo Fon Architetti must have faced an almost impossible task: there was virtually no budget for the renovation and extension of the Citta dell'Arte e della Musica. What is more, the building had to stand out as a meaningful place for the local community of the northern Italian city of Udine. The architects were helped by donations of most of the building materials - multicoloured pieces of glass for the external emblem, a mosaic of small tiles in the toilets, the acoustic panels and curtains in the classrooms, and beautiful round lamps, to name but a few. They often went to the manufacturers and were free to walk around the factory to see if there was anything they liked, such as a surplus batch or a remnant of fabric. Other materials were cheap. The architects themselves were not paid at first, and only when the project was completed were they paid, albeit modestly.
The task of creating something special without having the means to do so is a recurring theme in the history of the non-profit cultural institution. Almost a century ago, in 1930, the Citta dell'Arte e della Musica was founded by Luigi Bon, who believed that the economy would benefit from the cultural development of the city's inhabitants and that the region could only develop economically if people gained skills in the arts. It was built by volunteers, at weekends, because even then there was little money.
There was a theatre, a music hall and a technical drawing school, no doubt with an eye to the construction that would take place in the wake of the desired economic revival. When the technical school was replaced by a music school in the 1960s, the whole building was used for music and theatre. A few years later, part of it had to be rebuilt after a major earthquake. As there was no music education for very young children, it was decided in 2017 to open a kindergarten there. The education, inspired on the alternative pedagogy of Reggio Children, focuses on musical and artistic development.
COSMOS
Gruppo Fon Architetti went ahead with both the music school and the kindergarten, with only the music hall remaining as it was. In the near future, however, a cubic rehearsal space, also designed by the Venice-based architectural firm, will be built next to that hall. That extra rehearsal space is important partly because famous musicians who have gigs in Italy like to rehearse or perform right there, in the Citta della Musica, partly out of sympathy for what the Udinese community has achieved there, and partly to play through the programmed music one last time in the fine hall.
In the kindergarten, the architects removed the corridors and turned small rooms into a couple of large classrooms. They also ensured a generous entry of daylight on the south side, so that the classrooms are not only large but also bright and cheerful. Marmoleum was used throughout the building because of its acoustic damping, durability and hygiene. Soft, calm colours were chosen, except in the bright orange stairwell that gives access to the offices.
What is striking about the renovation and extension is how the architecture firm managed to enrich the building's original architecture. As a correction to the straight lines and rectangular spaces, Gruppo Fon Architetti has introduced the circle. The straight line, which is usually all-important in architecture, does not occur in nature. Just take the landscape of the Venetian Lagoon, which serves as an important inspiration for the firm: all whimsical curves and branching. That is why the architects thought it made sense to add the curve: a circle has been laid over the floor plan of the kindergarten, which also partly protrudes outside, both at the front and at the back, where the playground, designed like a garden, is located.
Inside, that circle is reflected in the pattern in the marmoleum flooring. The idea of the large circle and many smaller circles in the playground is that of the planetary system with the sun at its centre, or rather the place where you keep yourself. In a playful, unobtrusive way, that circle thus gives the children an impression of their position in the space that surrounds them and in which they are, as it were, cast down: the cosmos.
RIGHT HEMISPHERE
What catches the eye even more than the circle are the vibrant colours deployed by Gruppo Fon Architetti to enrich the original architecture protected by its recognized status. These colours recur everywhere and enliven the building in surprising ways every time.
Take the coloured upper windows in the corridor along the music rooms: because your attention is drawn irresistibly to the windows and the colourful reflections on the wall opposite, just walking by has something festive about it. You are in a different, lighthearted mood, and passing along the corridor is suddenly much more than a pragmatic movement from one place to another. A similar response arises from the tile tableau on the wall of the toilets; it gives you a momentary visual boost that helps you continue the music lesson with fresh determination. A range of colours can also be found in the signage and the musical scale graphics indicating the various classrooms. Because no unambiguous system is evident in the use of colour, reason is put out of action. The architects create this confusion on purpose. This gives free rein to the right cerebral hemisphere, which maintains our emotional relationship with the world.
That the use of colour according to Gruppo Fon Architetti is the ideal way to influence the subconscious mind, is also apparent here in the Citta dell' Arte e della Musica. The colours of the toddler’s toilets, with tiles in vivid shades of blue and green and a low window, deliberately evoke associations with the colours of the Venetian lagoon and the soft green of the rivers nearby. Again, the children's awareness is fostered by their environment, by the characteristic natural surroundings.
The architects go even further with the eye-catching screens for blocking direct sunlight, installed around the large windows on the south side of the kindergarten section. The warm, intense colours are inspired by the 1960s cult book, The Lessons of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda. In the book, the shaman Don Juan speaks of colours you cannot see although they are there, of the colours of our inner being. Harmony can be found in those tones, so when choosing colours for the screens, the architects took them as a starting point. They are yet richer than the other colours in the building, if that is possible, and you can well imagine that they will settle deep in the children's memories.
That is also what Gruppo Fon Architetti speculates on: when the children grow up, they will be inspired by those colours again when they recall their early years.
ARCHITECT: GRUPPO FON ARCHITETTI
Photos: Archivio Documentale FON
With an eye for detail and a commitment to quality, Gruppo Fon Architetti enhances interiors with Marmoleum Concrete Linoleum and Surestep Decibel. With Forbo products, they have transformed their project into an attractive visual and tactile flooring solution. Their intuition not only adds subtle colour variations to the environment, but also introduces a calming serenity that brings the interior to life. The choice of products goes beyond aesthetics by recognising the importance of acoustics. That's why they have chosen Surestep Decibel to significantly improve acoustics. By incorporating this solution, they have added value to the areas and created spaces that not only look beautiful, but also evoke tranquillity.
For information on Forbo Flooring's vast range of products, visit www.forbo-flooring.com