An enterprise school for the professionals of tomorrow

The Ikaros Foundation’s new school in Calcio in the province of Bergamo has a futuristic approach to education. Its functional, latest generation classrooms, workshops and common areas are characterised by neutral colours chosen to enhance the concentration of teachers and students throughout the day.
The Ikaros Foundation has been active in the province of Lombardy for over ten years and has three accredited schools for students intent on acquiring a profession. This particular school caters for youngsters between the ages of 14 and 19. The foundation describes itself as «a bridge between school and work: an enterprise school». The foundation’s Calcio school trains IT technicians, electricians, logistic and administrative specialists, cooks, beauticians and hairdressers.
The school boasts a level of equipment normally only found in modern research institutes and high-tech businesses: connectivity is excellent and all the latest technologies are on hand. The classrooms and workshops are all fitted with video, wireless cloud connectivity, tablets and notebooks to encourage students to interact and innovate in a way that caters for the needs of today’s service sector.
The floor coverings are an integral part of this learning environment. The 6000-plus square metres of floor, skirting and stairs are covered in a single colour, a medium grey that provides the perfect complement for the wall cupboards, seating, monitors and large windows. The architects of Studio Gaifami and Trombino, who handled the project for Ikaros, chose large, 30×60 cm Polvere 08 colour porcelain tile from Refin’s Cromie collection for the entrance hall, stairs and corridors, classrooms, offices and toilets. Polvere tiles come in various shades of grey — neutral and intense — mixed with small amounts of blue and red. The tiled floor forms a chromatic common denominator for the entire school, with the sole exception of the large auditorium where the ceramic floor is partly replaced by natural wood. In this large hall, warm-coloured wood flooring frames large sections of tiled floor beneath the seats, giving the room excellent acoustic insulation.
Refin’s Cromie collection offers a choice of 33 colour variants arranged in four colour families. The collection uses NCS (Natural Color System®©) to classify and describe colours on the basis of perception, with each colour defined in terms of hue, blackness and chromaticness. As Refin explains, «This interpretation of colour lets us identify different shades with great precision and offers architects and interior designers a far more accurate way to choose the right finish.» Thanks to the possibility of making such accurate colour matches, ceramic surfaces can play a more integral role in interior design and chromatic choice, in equilibrium and in dialogue with other aspects of the project, such as fabrics, complements, surfaces and furnishings.