Pratogrande Sports Center. Garlate, LC Italy

The idea for this thesis came from a project developed during the Conservation and Refurbishment course ministered by professors Elisabetta Rosina and Ezio Riva. The context used, for the development of the above mentioned course, was a Study Case Award called “Paolo Milani”. It is an architectural competition about the renovation of a zone in the town of Garlate, a municipality located in the province of Lecco, about 40 km northeast of Milan, and a refurbishment project for the Sports Center Pratogrande s.r.l. located in that area. The project presented here was awarded the second prize in that competition. As it was so pleasant and interesting to work on it, part of the competitors’ team decided to develop it as a thesis topic. The Pratogrande Sports Center is a sports structure that belongs to Pratogrande s.r.l. It is placed at the Shore of Garlate Lake, in a privileged zone of the city, immersed in a large green park with a view of the surrounding mountains. It provides many sports activities to the citizens of Garlate and the close towns around. The sport activities included in the Center are: swimming, five-a-side football, gym and hydro-gym, and others. The main intention of the competition, which can also be considered the matter of this thesis, is to offer a better service and a better structure for sports, leisure and wellness to the users of the center, by improving the conditions in which the amenities are serving, and enlarging and updating these facilities in order to give service to more users, without compromising space. The reasons for the above requirements from the Pratogrande Center are: 1. The structure of the Sports complex, which is outdated and already damaged in some parts, once it was built in the early 70’s; 2. It has become small for the increasing number of clients and it does not attend their needs any more. Together with the refurbishment of the Pratogrande Center, it was also required by the competition the upgrade of an urban zone in Garlate where the Sports Center is placed, in order to enhance the public facilities offered by the Town of Garlate in that area, and to improve the relationship between the Pratogrande Center and those public facilities, creating a whole sports and leisure complex. This was required by Garlate Administration because part of this area is already used for this purpose, thanks to a Public Gym that was built some decades ago, but now is in very poor conditions; and also to some other sports and leisure activities that are carried along the lake, but don’t have appropriate structures for their development. In an attempt to solve these problems, it was proposed an enlargement and refurbishment of the existing Public Gym and the insertion of new sports and leisure facilities around that area, creating a new Leisure and Sports Public Complex placed in a large green park. In general, this project was studied in the areas of urban design, architectural design and conservation techniques, to come up with specific solutions for each of those needs. In addition to that, and in order to fulfill the requirements for this Master’s thesis, it was also necessary to solve some of the technological and structural problems, generated during the conception of the project.