The House of Cultures is a multifunctional building dedicated to interculturality; it’s located along the southwest side of the Roma Termini station, along via Giolitti, in an urban block built only by half. The building is a center where regular migrants resident in Italy can, on the one hand, receive a service and be assisted in their first steps in a country other than their own; on the other, they can give service to the city of Rome through a self-managed professional and cultural offer.
Currently, the front along Termini station is occuped by a low body, one floor, hosting a host of catering facilities. The project envisages demolition.
Rome Termini, the largest trading hub in Italy. Every day, about 480.000 people travel. Termini are for many people a place of waiting, for others a meeting point; i see it as a place lived at the same time by two parallel existance, almost never met: the Italian citizen and the immigrant. The project consists of a building that becomes a gateway to Rome, facilitating the integration of the immigrant through training at work and allowing the encounter of different cultures. The House of Cultures is part of the urban context by completing the isolated front Termini gallery. The building can be schematized by two parallelepipeds, parallel to them, connected by a horizontal plane that allows to have wide common spaces.
The spaces are divided into three main areas: the reception area is located in the basament, it has a direct connection to the Termini metro station and includes the hall, an internet point and an orientation center for immigrants. The public area, the pulsating heart of the building, comprises on the ground floor a hipostyle square, opened on all fronts and connected to the main roads, while at the first and second level there are teaching classrooms and open spaces for laboratory activities. The administrative area is on the last floor.
