Rondò dei Talenti in Cuneo is an education and training hub, a meeting place for local residents and visitors alike, a window onto the town and the world. The redevelopment of what used to be premises to a bank bears the signature of cm2 Associati: this design office won the ideas competition held by Fondazione CRC, sponsor for the conversion, in conjunction with the Italian Order of Architects.

The design proposal from the studio helmed by Marco Oriani reveals a concrete building with minimal lines where its shape completes a circle, underscoring its identity and a 360° view of the town and the surrounding alpine landscape. It is a sustainable and innovative renovation combining the desire to create a space for the local community with that of enhancing the edifice in urban and architectural terms, recognising its exceptional and strategic position within its physical context.

Rondò dei Talenti ‒ a transparent and permeable edifice

Four floors for learning, acquiring knowledge, experimenting and sharing in a permeable transparent building. The glass extension on the Rondò Garibaldi side is clear and light, ensuring visual continuity between the town and the interiors. These latter are arranged around a full-height foyer, while the compact and substantial clinker-clad brick façade wraps around ‒ and in a certain sense 'protects' ‒ the areas for the Fondazione CRC educational and cultural activities.

The building's roof now hosts a new floor, and this provides a multi-purpose space for events, conferences and exhibitions: it is open to the public and gives access to a panoramic terrace looking out over the town and the mountains.

Instead, the designers devised a fully permeable space blending indoors with the outside for the ground floor, streamlining the connection with the surrounding area. Pedestrianization of the service lane to the Viale Angeli avenue and the removal of perimeter fencing have enabled creation of a new pedestrian area, where a pattern of concentric lozenges accentuates the building's central position in the public space.

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A LEED-certified sustainable and innovative hub

The renovation included an overhaul of the edifice shell and systems, enabling Rondò dei Talenti to gain LEED certification. In fact, the building's energy performance has improved not only thanks to new door and window casings and façade and roof insulation but also through the roof-installed photovoltaic system and the centralized primary-air and fan-coil heating and cooling system.

Thermal comfort in the indoor settings is ensured in winter by a new heat exchanger fed by the town's district heating network, while the system for generating heat-transfer fluid for summer cooling is made up of a new high-efficiency water-air refrigeration block.

Lastly, the whole edifice is served by a fully programmable building management system to maximize the active energy efficiency of the technologies installed, so that these adapt to the external environmental conditions and to the different usage and occupancy profiles in the various spaces.

>>> Renovation of Frédéric Joliot-Curie High School: sustainability education through architecture. Explore the project by ateliers o-s architectes