CASA VIRTUS ALFASIGMA
This project was born out of VIRTUS Pallacanestro Bologna’s desire to create a campus for its athletes, future promises and current athletes alike, and consolidate the sense of belonging that athletes feel towards their team.
For this reason, the building currently hosts the management activities and the Virtus Foundation.
This project was born out of VIRTUS Pallacanestro Bologna’s desire to create a campus for its athletes, future promises and current athletes alike, and consolidate the sense of belonging that athletes feel towards their team.
The grounds on which the whole operation was undertaken is property of the Municipality of Bologna which surrendered its rights of use of space to VIRTUS, the city’s pride in the field of international basketball. The operation was funded by ARCO CAMPUS, a company that is part of the IGD SIIQ Spa group, which then assigned the planning of the whole project to Antonio Iascone & Partners and its team.
The Iascone firm has elaborated the project on the overall volume dictated by the Municipality of Bologna after a thorough dialogue with the client in order to identify, in detail, the functional objective to reach, the aesthetic criteria to centre the proposition around, the values and icons of the historical team to uphold ad the budget to respect, which goes without saying.
Next to the historical Porelli gym, opened in the late 70s, which has always been the headquarters for the training of the first team, VIRTUS envisioned the construction of a building that would act as a guesthouse for the main team athletes and young athletes. This initial project then evolved with the decision to house the team’s offices in another site.
The aim of this decision was to have a strong presence surrounding the VIRTUS foundation and management on the ground floor of the building, thus concentrating operational synergies and favouring more opportunities for exchange between the players and an immersive experience into the history of the team, mainly on behalf of the young athletes that are still training.
The iconographic references of the team, the V, black and white colours, the geometry of the rhombi which for the net of the hoop, have been used to create the distinctive features of the project, not only the details but the entire DNA of the building.
All the way from the colours used in the exterior and interior, the materials, the layout of the lighting to the shielding made of painted tubes arranged to form a diamond pattern resembling that of a basketball net which, together with the black background of the building, make up the name of the team, the reference to the VIRTUS brand is strong throughout, just as strong as the honour of belonging to such a team should be.
Next to this newly inaugurated building, there remains the gym within which all the training sessions are held. This building has been subject to the realisation of an identical tubular shielding structure on the north facade and, in the near future, an extension of this shielding on the three remaining sides beyond the refurbishment of a few of its areas.
