The settlement area of the new social welfare structure is located in the Santa Rita district in the southwest quadrant of Turin, between Via Caprera and Via Monfalcone.

The new nursing home (RSA) will welcome elderly people who are not self-sufficient and who present dementia syndromes, for a total of about 200 beds. In addition to these 200 places, another 20 beds for the disabled are planned in a special separate nucleus with its own outdoor area. The structure is divided into several buildings connected and articulated so as to form several courtyards in sequence.

In the central part of the building, there are large areas common to the various room clusters on every floor with a common living room, an activity room, a doctor’s office, a kitchen, a wheelchair depot, and bathrooms for the public. Each story is equipped with outdoor terraces as well. The main facade (north elevation) located on Via Caprera is characterized by a plinth in reinforced concrete, colored and striped, surmounted by an evergreen, flowery and continuous wall which has an acoustic and shading function. The crowning consists of projecting photovoltaic panels arranged to protect the facade. All the elevations are defined by the presence of large floor-to-ceiling windows equipped with a simple parapet made of metal rods. The windows are vertically oriented with the aim to give a more residential and less hospital character to the entire structure. The internal courtyard opens to the garden and will have a large vertical wall in light metal mesh to support the vines and colored pots in colored metal sheets. The large external terraces are also located on this facade.

A tower-like building, rotated 45 degrees in relation to the main structure, surrounds the green courtyard and constitutes a more visible and recognizable sign from the outside. With its “green hat,” it announces the general nature of the intervention and invites to enter. As the crowning point of this building, there will be in fact a large lookout spot protected by a pergola and also characterized by some light metal structures supporting flowering vines. The green courtyard contains a garden open to all users of the structure, adequately equipped with handrails to facilitate walking, benches, and protected paths. The second courtyard located on the south side will instead be divided into two parts: one dedicated to the protected garden for the disabled and another free one available to all users.

The south elevation will be characterized by some metal “visors” to protect the room windows on the ground floor and by a large brick wall that hides the protruding part of the volume and some terraces on the upper floors. This brick wall alludes to the presence (on the side of Via Monfalcone) of the precious brick facades of the Giorgio Rineri building (expansion of the school in Via Monfalcone in 1958). The wall also has the function of interrupting the regularity of the elevation and reducing the visual impact of the large blind wall on the east side of the courtyard. Due to its very large size, the long east elevation has been divided into several floors, each with a different color. At the center of this facade, a sort of bell tower will be placed marking the presence of the church and the sacristy on the ground floor. The “bell tower” also communicates in a direct line of sight with the bell tower of the church located on Via Caprera.

Project team

Architectural project: Derossi Associati (Arch Davide and Paolo Derossi)

Structure: Eng. Mario Alessio, Eng. Giorgio Chiambretto.

Installations: Eng. Flavio Urrai, Eng. Alberto Richiero.

2018

In progress