Centro Anck’io in Villafranca
The new Centro Anck’io in Villafranca, Verona, completed in 2022, is a civic building designed to establish a close relationship with both its urban and natural surroundings. The 330 sqm building is unified beneath a single laminated timber roof, which brings together a series of flexible interior spaces: an entrance hall with movable partitions, an office, two multipurpose classrooms for educational and community activities, a library, and a service core. The entrance hall can be combined with one of the classrooms to create a conference hall of more than 120 sqm.
The project replaces a former 1960s building while preserving its role as a community landmark. Conceived as a single-storey structure, the building is organised around a generous roof canopy sheltering a series of modular spaces, including the entrance hall, office, classrooms, library, and ancillary facilities. The entrance hall and teaching spaces can be reconfigured through movable partitions to accommodate larger gatherings and a variety of public events. A covered outdoor area extends the programme beyond the enclosed building, allowing activities to take place in the open air throughout the year.
The community centre forms part of the wider regeneration strategy for the area surrounding the former peach market, improving accessibility and strengthening the relationship between the building and the adjacent public park. The project also envisages the partial reuse of the existing market canopy, with the potential integration of a photovoltaic system. The building is articulated as a sequence of interconnected volumes linked by internal circulation routes and oriented towards landscaped outdoor spaces. A continuous roof unifies the composition, introducing generous daylight through strategically positioned skylights while accommodating the photovoltaic installation. The classrooms and shared spaces are designed to support multiple configurations through movable partitions and flexible furnishings, ensuring the building can respond to changing community needs. Covered outdoor areas further expand the range of possible activities, increasing the overall versatility of the centre. The structural system consists of reinforced concrete walls supporting a coffered laminated timber roof. The project was conceived to combine spatial flexibility with environmental sustainability. Transformable interiors and sheltered outdoor spaces encourage year-round use, while the building operates as a nearly Zero Energy Building (nZEB) through the integration of a photovoltaic system and passive design strategies that optimise natural daylight and ventilation. The modular coffered timber roof, designed for future disassembly and reuse, constitutes the project's defining architectural feature.
The project received the Wood Architecture Prize 2025, with the jury stating that it was awarded "for successfully bringing together a wide range of community-oriented public functions within a modular building that ensures exceptional flexibility of use, including its covered outdoor spaces. The entire complex is unified by the clear and restrained architectural gesture of the coffered timber roof slab, whose modular components can be dismantled and reused at the end of the building's life cycle.
