Dolf Schnebli began his career as an architect by winning important design competitions of schools in Switzerland in the 1960s. In those years, educational architecture was at the center of the architectural debate. Influential doctors and pedagogues supported the idea that the quality and specific features of the school environment can affect the children’s health, their learning skills, and the development of their creativity. These theoretical considerations triggered extensive concrete experimentation in coeval Swiss architecture and in Dolf Schnebli architectural production. The Swiss School in Naples designed by Schnebli between 1964 and 1967 testifies to this research, presenting spatial and constructive qualities linked to the architect's training and cultural background and to the particular context of the place. Set on a hilly site overlooking the Gulf of Naples, the school is organized in several buildings and terraces that follow the slope and gradually opens towards the landscape. Despite the changes that occurred over time which partially erased important architectural features, the school still retains its original qualities. On the one hand, the current use coinciding with its original function has guaranteed its conservation over time, on the other hand, regulatory and functional modifications – which are constantly realized – risk to permanently compromise the quality of this architecture if conducted without an overview and careful respect of the architecture specific characters. The School of Naples becomes representative of the fragility of the Modern architecture heritage. The analysis of the physical body of the existing architecture and of the project documentation with reference to pedagogical intentions, to spatiality and landscape, and to the materiality, leads to read the architectural qualities and features and therefore to recognize those elements, spatial relationships, and materials which, identifying the work, require to be preserved for the purposes of conservation and contemporary uses.
LA SCUOLA SVIZZERA DI NAPOLI DI DOLF SCHNEBLI: LETTURA DEI CARATTERI PER LA TUTELA DEL MODERNO
ALESSANDRA COMO
;LUISA SMERAGLIUOLO PERROTTA
2021-01-01
Abstract
Dolf Schnebli began his career as an architect by winning important design competitions of schools in Switzerland in the 1960s. In those years, educational architecture was at the center of the architectural debate. Influential doctors and pedagogues supported the idea that the quality and specific features of the school environment can affect the children’s health, their learning skills, and the development of their creativity. These theoretical considerations triggered extensive concrete experimentation in coeval Swiss architecture and in Dolf Schnebli architectural production. The Swiss School in Naples designed by Schnebli between 1964 and 1967 testifies to this research, presenting spatial and constructive qualities linked to the architect's training and cultural background and to the particular context of the place. Set on a hilly site overlooking the Gulf of Naples, the school is organized in several buildings and terraces that follow the slope and gradually opens towards the landscape. Despite the changes that occurred over time which partially erased important architectural features, the school still retains its original qualities. On the one hand, the current use coinciding with its original function has guaranteed its conservation over time, on the other hand, regulatory and functional modifications – which are constantly realized – risk to permanently compromise the quality of this architecture if conducted without an overview and careful respect of the architecture specific characters. The School of Naples becomes representative of the fragility of the Modern architecture heritage. The analysis of the physical body of the existing architecture and of the project documentation with reference to pedagogical intentions, to spatiality and landscape, and to the materiality, leads to read the architectural qualities and features and therefore to recognize those elements, spatial relationships, and materials which, identifying the work, require to be preserved for the purposes of conservation and contemporary uses.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
