Camerino, Italy

Alvisi Kirimoto with Studio Harcome has devised an ethereal solution for the new Academy of Music in Camerino, Italy that during the day blurs not with the land, but with the sky and one that glows as a lantern in the night.

Realized with the support of the Andrea Bocelli Foundation, as part of the reconstruction following the 2016 earthquake, the Academy hosts an office, nine classrooms, and an auditorium.

Through a full-height glazed wall, the latter overlooks Camerino’s historic center, on the opposite side of a gently sloping valley, thus providing a contemporary reinterpretation of the connection between an extra moenia monument and the fortified town, typical of Italian villages of ancient origins.

The project not only returns the local Academy of Music to Camerino, aimed at welcoming over 160 students and the many cultural initiatives of the community, but also gives the university city a new architectural identity.

With clean and elegant lines, the building, which is spread over two levels for a total of 600 square metres, stands out for its ethereal skin in white sheet metal panels with perforations of varying size.

Inspired by the rarefaction and dynamism of clouds, the inclined volume, lying on the slope of the ground and on a glass curtain marked by grey pillars, dissolves into the context.

The north façade, visible from the street and from the upper garden, presents the volume as a box, with the panels suspended a few tens of centimeters from the ground.

The two side elevations, on the other hand, show the inclination and slope of the land.

To the south, the skin that envelops the volume is interrupted, revealing the glazed ground floor behind which the auditorium, overlooking the historic centre of Camerino, is hidden.

The dichromatism of the façade, offered by the dark grey of the external structure, the fixtures and the white of the sheet metal cladding, outlines a graceful but resolute volume, perfectly integrated into the context and at the same time iconic in the city skyline.

A shady garden and the lower square constitute new open spaces available to the whole
community.

“The beauty of this project is that it is the result of a choral creative process, which saw us collaborate with the Andrea Bocelli Foundation, the young architect Andrea Gianfelici from Harcome, the Engineer Paolo Bianchi and the local community, to create a unique project,” states architect Massimo Alvisi.

“The idea that guided the design was to create a volume that amazed, not only up close, but also from afar. The skin, impalpable, is inspired by the material of the clouds, and gives a broad look towards the sky from the inside.”

The auditorium, on the other hand, is a perfect box, which works energetically as a music laboratory.”

The back wall, entirely transparent, connects the auditorium directly with the foyer, expanding the perception of space.

In the foyer, rectangular wooden slats stand out from the back wall to the false ceiling, which slopes towards the entrance façade, following the tension defined by the position of the volume created by the external white skin.

To connect the building vertically, in addition to the elevator, an orange resin staircase brings great liveliness and energy to the environment.

A note of vigorous colour that also expands upstairs, from the floor of the connective space, to the access doors to the classrooms and to one of the walls inside them.

In the classrooms, in addition to the necessary furnishings and musical instruments, mirrors and wooden panels invite students to personalize them with scores or musical compositions.

The two larger classrooms at the back-house recording studios and electronic music lesson concerts.

In contrast to their counterparts, they are dark grey in color and have special micro-perforated wooden panels on the walls that optimize their acoustic performance.

In all the rooms on the upper floor, the circular windows positioned at two different heights welcome in the light that filters through the multiple perforations of the panels.

Project: Music Academy of Camerino “Franco Corelli” – Andrea Bocelli Foundation
Architects: Alvisi Kirimoto with Studio Harcome
Design Team Alvisi Kirimoto: Massimo Alvisi, Junko Kirimoto, and Silvia Rinalduzzi
Design Team Harcome: Andrea Gianfelici
Construction Management: Studio Tecnico Ing. Paolo Bianchi
Client: Andrea Bocelli Foundation
Photographer: Marco Cappelletti