RE—OPEN

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RE—OPEN PROJECT Giancarlo De Carlo designed student colleges (Collegi) in Urbino with a vision of architecture intended for spontaneous socialization, rich in transcending space, which is to create opportunities for meetings and participation. In this spatial conformation the idea of architecture as a participatory project transpires, in which the final product is less and less the representation of who designs it and more and more the representation of who uses it. The Collegi of Urbino retain a profound social dimension within them, rooted in the constant dialectical relationship between design idea and users. As a matter of fact, De Carlo’s work is not simply a space for residential purposes, but qualifies as a place, or as a framework of social interaction, a structure of feeling, and a center of socially constructed meanings. Over time, however, not all the spaces in the colleges have been used by the students as planned, in fact some remained unused and abandoned. One of these misalignments is related to the external amphitheatre located at Aquilone College.

The Aquilone amphitheatre, located in the central part of the college, was conceived by De Carlo as a space for aggregation and socialization, designed for screening films in the open air.
The goal was to create situations that would facilitate meetings between students and citizens in a friendly and open atmosphere.

We have attempted to refresh and renew this almost deserted area in order to 're-open' it and suggest new possible uses and functions, to finally recreate and implement its original destinations. Our intention was to re-appropriate and improve an environment that was for long time under-exploited but full of possibilities of interaction and participation.