Unveiled their latest project, a new student housing concept designed as a gathering place and landmark with low ecological impact, a protagonist of urban redevelopment.
Just a 15-minute walk from the university district, Open Project signs the new Laude Living Bologna, the student residence managed by the Beyoo group, designed and built from a concept developed together with TP Bennett, undergoing LEED® Gold certification.
The student residence, which is spread over 16 floors above ground and a basement, for a total area of 20.000 sqm, accommodates more than 500 beds and is a completely new case in the student housing scene, since it provides mini-apartments equipped with individual bathrooms and kitchens, as well as large common spaces for socializing, studying, sports, and recreation.
The structure of the building
Open Project's project involved the redevelopment of an existing area, with the inclusion of newly created elements.
The façade with pure lines, with a regular rhythm marked by the alternation between windowed parts, in correspondence of the rooms, and blind parts is counterpointed by a chromatic choice under the banner of a refined simplicity, with a palette of neutral tones that, inspired by the urban landscape of Bologna, allows the large building to fit harmoniously into the surrounding environment.
A low trapezoidal-shaped building, rising to the third floor, forms the basis of the residence, which features a courtyard in the center, the common heart of the student residence, where versatility, sociability and the sharing of everyday life take shape.
Great attention has been paid precisely to the common areas, included in the basement, ground floor and top floor of the studentate, spaces open to all, which have been designed so that they represent true places of gathering and community.
The ground floor overlooks on one side the Parco del Dopolavoro Ferroviario and on the other side the large park of the Detailed Plan that the building complements, the Giardino Gustavo Trombetti. Space for greenery also in the interior courtyard, which, thanks to the potted and planted trees and sculptural furnishings, becomes a place for exchange, relaxation, and study as well as facilitating gentle mobility, with the many racks used for bicycle parking, right near the building's entrance.
Also in the interior of the ground floor we find many spaces open to students, such as the cafeteria-bar, lounge, study room, service areas, reception and a mail room, where residents can receive packages and correspondence.
Starting from the fourth floor, a 15-story tower rises, in which both private housing and common spaces are located. The accommodations, with their special structure of mini-apartments, are fully self-contained and equipped with every service, particularly those located in the west and south wings are set back from the façade line, thanks to a corridor that acts as an acoustic buffer, ensuring a quiet environment. In the tower block, on the other hand, the corridor opens onto the stairwells and the rooms face outward.
«Laude Living Bologna is an innovative concept - explains Maurizio Piolanti partner together with Francesco Conserva and president of Open Project - since alongside the many shared spaces it features mini-apartments with individual kitchens and bathrooms, so we thought of a place that would guarantee privacy and security for the girls and boys, where everyone could carve out an individual and creative space, a place where the individual could find the freedom to express himself.»
On the 15th floor, the view from the balconies that run throughout the building overlooks the valley and allows one's gaze to sweep over the green hills of Bologna. On this level are the communal kitchens, yoga room, library, a large study room and more intimate spaces for concentration and relaxation.
The basement level features a gym with equipment, a cinema room, laundry facilities, a lounge, a study corner and recreation spaces furnished with table soccer and pool tables, as well as parking for cars and bicycles.
The mini-apartments, study rooms and private dining areas are powered by eco-friendly heating systems and highly efficient intelligent energy-saving systems that can be controlled remotely via BMS; in fact, the building is scheduled for LEED® Gold certification.
The interior design
The linear, almost graphic, and neutral-toned style of the exteriors is matched in the interiors by a vitaminic explosion of pop colors, starting from the bright hues of the walls and custom furnishings, to the bright notes of the tailor-made wallpapers made to a design by TP Bennett with a graffiti effect, to restore environments that are different from each other but with common chromatic notes.
The interior design is in full industrial style, with extensive use of metal elements, the systems completely exposed with a total absence of false ceilings, an element that, in addition to representing a precise choice of style is also a tribute to the history of the building, which before the redevelopment carried out by Open Project was a production plant for railroad cars.
Intense yellow and blue colors connect versatile, multipurpose spaces that encourage sharing, study, creativity and are capable of inspiring a new multi-ethnic community of students, from all parts of the world.
Great attention has been paid to the furniture, made by Roversi based on a design by Open Project, which succeeds in the dual intent of optimizing the spaces to make them functional and comfortable, and of adapting the furniture to very large shared spaces, without making them appear bare or dispersive.
The Bolognina, rebirth of the working-class neighborhood
The student residence is located in the Bolognina neighborhood, in an area close to the historic center of the Emilia-Romagna chief town, bounded to the south by the central train station and just minutes from the university district.
It is a historically working-class neighborhood, which is now being reborn thanks to the presence of the studentate, a true urban landmark, capable of fitting within a path of regeneration of the building fabric and tying in with the urban greenery of the Parco del Dopolavoro Ferroviario, which borders Laude Living Bologna.
«The student residence is the fertile environment of ideas par excellence - says Francesco Conserva, partner together with Maurizio Piolanti and vice president of Open Project - we have conceived and designed it around the needs of the individual, to create a creative hub where they can experiment with new connections, looking at the importance of relationships, of sociality; at the same time it is a gathering point for the neighborhood, an opportunity to put the local community at the center and reconnect it with the university district and the many stimuli it generates, a place that manages to be an inspiration for the international student reality that lives in and transits through Bologna.»
PROJECT CREDITS
Client: Stonehill
Location: Bologna
Technical Design, General Coordination and Construction Supervision: Open Project on Concept Design by TP Bennett
Project Management: Drees & Sommer Italia
Main Contractor: CMB
Common Spaces Interior Contractor: Cesare Roversi
Manager: Beyoo
Photographs: Giacomo Albo, Ingrid Taro
Objects in the styling of the kitchens: Kolshi plates, glasses and jug in glazed earthenware, designed by Studio Lunik
Press Office: Sign Press