Textures e cromie: riflessioni per la costruzione di uno spazio aulico.

La costruzione di uno "spazio aulico" nasce da un'intuizione poetica e insieme dalla profonda conoscenza delle cromie originali dell'architettura sabauda. Nella volontà del progetto, che si rafforza nella consapevolo conoscenza degli "strati" del "palinsesto" architettonico emerge una scelta primaria: mantenere in secondo piano l'edificio antico, che recita un ruolo sommetto e pregnante. Per contro, si evince la volontà di aggiungere alle sedimentazioni della storia il gesto chiaro, assertivo della contemporaneità. Non è solo la forma a reclamare un proprio promato spaziale, ma un concerto intessuto di intense emozioni sensoriali, uditive,tattili, immaginate come Gesamtkunstwerk.The construction of the noble space stems from a poetic intuition and a deep knowledge of the original colour shades of the Savoy architecture. The primary choice of the project, reinforced by a conscious knowledge of the layers of the architectural palimpsest, was to keep the ancient edifice in the background, with its unpretentious and weighty role. In contrast, the determination to add an assertive and clear gesture of contemporaneity to the sedimentations of history is inferred. Not only does the form claim its spatial record: it is also a concert, interwoven with intense sensorial emotions – auditory, tactile – imagined as a Gesamtkunstwerk. First, after having crossed the archway, there is the reception space of the 19th-century triangle, which allows the anomalous axiality of the old riding school to deviate, in order to burst into the alienating space of the shipyard. The walls are painted with Pompeian red, in contrast to the dark grey shades of the windows and doors and the light ones of the flooring. In fact, this is a symphony of greys that rolls along the fluid old wall ribbon; these are shades variously modulated and designed to vibrate with natural light and the imperfections and speckling of the ancient walls. It is a non-colour that comes alive with environmental glares when it is swiped by the sabre cuts of spotlights. Tenuously dove-coloured pearl greys change into buttery white lead shades as they open into the large, arch-vaulted hall. On the other hand, they take on exasperated greenish glares in the earthly shades of the toilets, gates and doors that occlude the entrances to the old stables and square windows. The evocation of the original use of the edifice acts as a counterpoint to the stunning vermeil inside the hall. The wall surface is an unexpected prize, almost a royal stage that enhances the vitality of the institution’s body. One’s thought runs to the primal force of the heraldic symbols, which represent the reality of the students, a young, active, controversial, creative audience…The flow that runs through the cavea and shines in the foyer ignites the austere military spatiality and again counterposes itself to academic firmitas: the elegant sequence of seats reserved for lecturers is lead grey. The atavistic symbol of the construction, the warm and natural glare of the wooden shell, the slats that simulate the hull’s planking and the blond shininess of the oak floors stand between these extremes of austere military formality and firmitas. These are elements that give serenity and ease in a continuous search for balance and rationality. The black and white colours are either the absolute limits that hide functional elements, secret doors and structural curbing corners, or which reveal and enhance spaces, accesses and services for the audience. Similarly, categories of perception -smooth vs rough, opaque as opposed to shiny- allow us to recognize and walk through, in a similarly tactile way, a cognitive iter inside the Hall. Surfaces, metaphorically speaking, reclaim and take on the complexity of our age, made of textures and human colours. A few steps away from the Teatro Regio designed by Mollino are the poetic licences taken by Agostino Magnaghi, a pupil of that peculiar master, and which he narrates through a child’s eyes, with astonishment and exuberance, play, velocity and derringdo. Youth, a season of life that eternally succeeds to itself and renovates