Deconstructive Genoa

2021

The redevelopment of Genoa’s old school site’s primary goal is to improve the community’s social fluidity, increase social intercourse between the town’s community, its relationship with surrounding regions and visitors from urban centres. The overarching design principle is to mix the activities for adults and children, combining play and the passing of knowledge to promote a shared experience of discovery. The new proposal projects and magnifies Genoa town hall’s sentimental significance to the old school site by borrowing the town hall’s various spatial and formal elements. The overall form of the new development manifested through dissecting the volume, form, and structure of Genoa’s town hall, generating a playful landscape while producing facilities such as an archive, exhibition, and fire shed. The project embodies the deconstructive language of destabilising the prior system of construction and the synthesis of chaotic fragments into new pluralistic spaces. The design follows a narrative of first extracting volume of the town hall (the bridge), to the breaking down of Genoa town hall and the separation between building’s surfaces and structures (the playscape) and concluded with the re-arrangement of its elements into new forms and functions (the archive, exhibition and fire shed). As the new landmark for the princess highway, it provides a unique and malleable experience to draw visitors from surrounding areas, transforming Genoa into a destination town.