After winning the international competition “Torino Fa Scuola” launched in 2016, the renovation of Enrico Fermi School in Turin by BDR bureau has been completed in September 2019. The initiative, promoted by the Compagnia di San Paolo and Fondazione Agnelli, aimed to reflect on pedagogical and architectural issues of Italian schools.

Trying to define a new idea of educational building to serve as a model for future requalifications of schools, the renovated Fermi building, originally from the 1960s, is open to students and community, pursuing inclusion and a change in the traditional educational methods. Entrances and external spaces have been reorganized, arranging the main entrance on the back, adding green spaces and providing areas for the community outside – in a direct dialogue with the urban context – and inside, through services such as the gym, the library, the auditorium and the cafeteria.

The building is distributed on three levels where classrooms, laboratories and spaces for educational activities – organized in clusters – are set. On the ground floor, the atrium is connected to the garden, where educational and recreational activities take place, and to the upper floors by a red main staircase recalling the external grid structure. Added on the facade, this is an important part of the renovation: steel frames envelop the original walls, adding terraces to the classrooms and a connection with the exterior thanks to the transparent texture. The facade of the old building is finished with a multigrain plaster creating depth variations.