Noah's Ark kindergarden stands at the forefront of spatial innovation and sustainability. Innovative use of transparency and intervisibility fosters socialization and creativity among children, teachers, and the surrounding community. ‘Community buildings that build communities’, C+S’ schools have been valued best practices in the new Italian Ministry’s guidelines on school design, fostering the construction of new school models. C+S’ layout concept turns schools into ‘piazzas’ of the sprawl city. The project adopts the topographic principle of retaining wall construction, rooting design in the DNA of the context of the Val Seriana. It integrates a new reinforced concrete wall, pigmented red and deactivated with exposed aggregates, engraved with the famous animal figures designed by Enzo Mari for Danese in 1957, rooting the project in the tradition of Italian design. Flexibility is a key element. The central hall enables the spaces to be used in multiple ways by the community taking ownership of the space. Light inundates the space from the big windows, which alternates with glass mosaic tiles cladding the façades. Shed skylight recall the glorious industrial past of Alzano.
Bio Founded by Cappai and Segantini in 1994, C+S Architects, is an architecture office based in London (UK) and Treviso (IT). Their innovative and inquisitive approach, forward- looking but sensitive —unique in its pursuit of expanding the active role of designers in society, combined with a sensitivity towards heritage, community and the environment— have distinguished them as leading architects of their generation. They name their research TranslationArchitecture in search of Aequilibrium between the built and unbuilt.
Other prizes DNA Paris Award 2025 - Education Sapces Albo d'Oro Ingegneri e Architetti San Marino 2024 Architecture Masterprize - Best Firm 2023 Mies van der Rohe Award, Nominee 2023, 2021, 2009 Italian Architect of the Year Award 2022 BLT Award for Affordable residential towers in Milan, Italy, 2022 The Chicago Atheneum International Architecture Award 2022 German Design Award 2020 BigSEE Architecture Award 2019 Copper Concept Award 2013 Gold Medal of Italian Architecture 2012 InOpera Award 2012 Dedalo Minosse Architecture Award 2011 Faces of Design Award 2010 FarbDesignPreis 2009 Challenge 2009 of the Italian Ministry of Environment Albo d'Onore Architetti Varese 2008 AR+D Award 2008 Oderzo Architecture Award 2004
