Sant'Elia Asylum

Giuseppe Terragni – Sant'Elia Asylum, Como Italy, 1936-1937

Sant'Elia Nursery, officially Kindergarten “Antonio Sant'Elia” is a nursery school in Como, located in via dei Mille, on the corner with via Andrea Alciato. It is a building in rationalist style designed in 1935 and built in 1936-1937 by Giuseppe Terragni.

The work has a certain affinity with the Casa del Fascio in Como, but unlike this, it is developed on a single floor. The presence of large windows that develop the concept of an open-air school, the carefully distributed spaces and the very refined furnishings make this work exceptional.

Built in masonry on a reinforced concrete structural cage, the nursery is characterized by large and distinct areas: full, without any concession to protrusions from the façade plane; empty, with large glass surfaces that guarantee bright environments and transparency, direct communication between the internal space and the garden. 
Frames, canopies, and light elements emerge from the facades, intentionally detached to dialogue with the volumes. On Via Alciato, the glass window at the entrance is set back, overtaken by a veranda; the canopy, lowered and distant, lets the light pour in. Slender pillars on the sides support the cantilevered shelves.
Towards the garden, the classroom space can be extended outdoors, under the awnings stretched between the building and the beams divided by pillars and a wall partition. Opposite this, a canopy is inserted with a strong overhang, extending beyond the internal courtyard, up to the opposite building body.
The line of the earth, the horizontal perception, dominates absolutely, thanks to the limited height, partly developed on two levels, and the length of the fronts. The internal height is 4 and a half meters, the building does not exceed 5 meters.