The area on which the building stands belongs to the original complex of the former psychiatric hospital that was erected on the slopes of Mount San Martino in the early 20th century.
Part of the area was sold in the 1960s to build the Technical Institute of the Silk Mill compound.
In 1988, the AsScUn association (Association for the institution and organization of university schools with special purposes in the provincial area) was created in Como. 
This association gathers local organizations and trade associations for the support and development of the university activity in Como.
The special-purpose school, where postgraduate training courses are held, is established in Villa Olmo.
In 1991 the decision was taken to create teaching spaces to be destined for the Como University pole that is new.
The original project of making an independent university as a sprout of the Università Statale di Milano and the Politecnico di Milano has been replaced by the establishment of the Università dell’Insubria with premises in Como and Varese and the creation of the Como territorial pole of the Politecnico di Milano. The building was originally proportioned according to the requirements of future university courses in information engineering, management engineering, chemistry and physics, which should be the bases of the new autonomous university, and adjusted to the different requirements of the two universities that exist side-by-side in it with the addition of the fourth lot consisting of the underground ring of teaching and research spaces.
The layout and configuration of the building of the Como University pole, which is currently being finished, is indissolubly linked with the elements that characterize this particular Como context.
This area is physically adjacent to the walled town, yet much less capable to propose the fabric of relationships amongst the parts of heavily built-up areas typical of the old town.
The 20th-century growth and the construction of new institutional buildings as the psychiatric hospital, the barracks and the separation between industrial and residential areas have actually underlined a character of division that can still be perceived in this area.
The Institute of the Silk Mill itself, like many other institutes, defines an impenetrable relationship with the context.
The new university building, together with the connecting square that has now been proposed, is reserved for teaching and research functions that are essential for the new Como University Pole, thus becomes a chance to try and give a different order to the area, going against the fatal attitude of an expansion of the town by building isolated and non-communicating parts.
The project uses the university function’s opening features to define a different image of permeability of the building.
The aspect of the new building arising from these premises is characterized by the relationship established with the buildings of the Silk Mill, which house some of the teaching and directional functions of the University and with the exterior through the elements surrounding the settlement: the large public green areas, the residential buildings along the road, the slopes of the hill on which two low buildings of the psychiatric hospital complex stand.
A single, compact building gathers all the functions foreseen in the organizing plan: this makes it possible, on one hand to define a new interior model of relationships, through the centrally-based structure, that are also clearly visible from outside, on the other to maintain the volume of the building united and limited, avoiding its expansion on the entire area.
The sharing of some functions that are currently present and that will remain in the Silk Mill also after the undertaking (Great Hall, canteen) has suggested the location of the building along the Silk Mill complex, enhancing the set of relationships through the construction of a public square as a connecting unit, an expansion with a crown of underground teaching spaces and, as an additional request, working for the completion of the Institute of the Silk Mill more than for the proposal of a new and different-looking building opposite the Institute.
So, the intention was to keep the area of the operation mostly free, protecting its destination as a green area with facilities and creating the premises for a closer relationship of this area with the community’s needs.
The facade of the building that faces this space is characterized by a long curve, aimed at avoiding the confrontation and/or the confirmation of pre-existing alignments and suggesting the opportunity of a larger involvement of the vegetation system in the plan of this part of the town.
On this front, two large openings (coincident with the separating area among the three teaching blocks) identify as many accesses to the building. Then, the public may cross the building and reach the inner square, which is overlooked on one side by the front of the faculties’ offices and on the other side by the sloping front of the unit that houses the Silk Mill classrooms.
How to get there: By car: State Road to Lecco
By train: From the FFS Como San Giovanni station, bus 7; from the FNM Como Borghi station, continue on foot
Public opening hours: 9.00 a.m. - 6.00 p.m.
Useful information: Telephone: 031.2386001 Fax: 031.2386009
Sources: AA.VV., Rapporto 1990, Centro di Cultura Scientifica A. Volta, Como 1990
E. Pizzi, G. Valenti, Nuovo Polo Universitario a Como, in Zodiac n. 7, 1992
|
