The new “Ugo Foscolo” High School in Canicattì (Italy) establishes a radical relationship with the surrounding landscape: a perfect square, a metaphor for architecture as the ultimate human artifice, rests on a steep slope covered by wild Mediterranean vegetation.

The defining feature of the design is undoubtedly the large terrace on the first floor: it provides a public space for students and the Canicattì community, offering a breathtaking view of the surrounding hilly landscape. The respect for the pre-existing landscape and nature is absolute: the new architecture gently rests upon it and the school’s surroundings remain untreated, deliberately preserving the existing vegetation. This vegetation is incorporated within the school’s perimeter, shaping the central courtyard.

The ground floor houses the public functions: the agora with the library, the laboratories, the gymnasium, and the auditorium with 670 seats. The classrooms are housed in a volume with a bridge-like structure, elevated on two structural elements that house the vertical circulation systems (staircases and elevators), restrooms, and technical rooms.

The materiality of the building, a reddish concrete, aims to evoke the image of a stone embedded in the hill.

The project was awarded second place.