Acqui Terme schools

These two buildings house the first straw-bale schools of Italy. A glued laminated timber skeleton has been integrated with prefab timber and straw-bale panels, Pablok, to construct the walls and roof.

These two symmetrical buildings host the secondary schools of the municipality of Acqui Terme, in Alessandria province, Italy. They are the first straw-bale educational buildings of Italy.

Straw was selected as main material due to its excellent insulating properties and also because of the political administration’s will to use natural materials, without any chemical additives.

In order to optimize the construction site and duration, and obtain certified insulation performance, the decision was to pre-assemble timber framed walls and roofing, filled with compressed straw-bales. After the concrete foundations and the main glued laminated timber structure were built, the pre-assembled panels were placed along the perimeter and on the roofing. During the last phase of the construction the mechanics and the finishing were realized.

The central hexagonal courtyard is covered by a “diamond” timber roof, that stands on a circular concrete column. The platform-framed walls are braced with 45° nailed timber boards, while the roofing elements are covered with oriented strand board (OSB) panels to achieve almost rigid diaphragm behavior, making the whole building seismic-resistant.

Under previous employment at Cming, Francesco Verzura worked on the structural design and analysis, building engineering and detailing.

Architect, geotechnical engineering and site supervision
GP Project

Timber engineering
Cming

Contractor
Seli – Manutenzioni Generali