Moncalieri, Turin 2019
INTERIOR DESIGN

In 2018, the professional training agency “Immaginazione e Lavoro” converted the school Istituto Sant’Anna in Moncalieri, on the outskirts of the city of Turin, into a professional training centre for graphic designers and electronic technicians.

This abandoned school building needed urgent repair. To juggle budget constraints, the project decided to focus on preserving the parts which were still structurally sound, thus reducing construction work to a minimum and relying instead on décor, graphics and communication.

With a series of cosmetic repairs, this project intends to restore the dignity and identity of the building, focusing on communicating and presenting ideas with graphics and colour. In this instance, graphics are an extraordinary architectural tool as they help to add character to the different spaces.

The doors and walls of classrooms become vehicles for communication: all the rooms are differentiated by accents in a signature colour painted on walls, splashed on entrance doors and part of the ceiling too. Classrooms are identified by a number but most importantly, you can recognise them by their distinctive colour scheme, which marks doors as well as all adjacent vertical and horizontal surfaces. The colour of every door serves as a base for painting sections of the adjacent wall and parts of the ceiling in the same shade; for this reason the entire graphic design had to be planned in three dimensions. As a result, the chosen shade transforms “colour” into an identification tool. The painted sections also feature graphic patterns inspired by the subjects taught: numerical series for the computer room, integrated electronic circuits for the technical maintenance room, printed typefaces for the graphics room. On the wall facing every stair and lift landing, there is a list with directions to all the services provided in this two-story building, including the basement.

Here, colour-coding adds character to the entire project and creates a frame for standard furniture, softening the impact of mass–produced series.

Dimensions: 1000 sqm
Località: Moncalieri (TO) – Italy

Construction company: DEL SEDIME S.p.a.