Inauguration of the new Rectorate Office in Caserta. New spaces for students and a cafeteria in viale Ellittico

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Over two thousand eight hundred square meters, 3 classrooms for over 400 seats, two large rooms for meetings or conferences, a refreshment point with a cafeteria, one floor dedicated to the Rector's Offices and one for those of the General Management. The new seat of the Rectorate of the Vanvitelli University was inaugurated on 12 October 2020, in Viale Ellittico in Caserta.

The Rector Giuseppe Paolisso declared "I really wanted to complete these works and give this destination for that building - he said - We wanted a seat of the Rectorate and the General Management of the University in Caserta that could better represent and testify the presence of this University in this area to keep one of the promises that I had made before the election. I hope that both the city of Caserta and the whole Vanvitelli can benefit from this choice ".

The University Complex of Viale Ellittico, built in the late 1980s to house the headquarters of the Provincial Directorate of The Postal and Telecommunications Offices of Caserta, was acquired by the Vanvitelli University in 2005. The Departments of Psychology and Political Science "Jean Monnet" as well as some administrative offices are located in one of the two buildings, while the renovation works for the other building have just been completed, coordinated by Professor Gianfranco De Matteis, full professor of construction techniques of the Department of Architecture.

rettorato vanvitelliThe scientific coordination of architectural design was instead of Professor Cherubino Gambardella, full professor of Composition at the Department of Architecture.

"Thinking about how I could design the new Rectorate of Caserta - explained Gambardella - I found myself faced with two choices: the more conventional one to do it all over again,

demolishing the existing building, or the one, certainly more economical and ecologically correct, to save the post office hangar to adapt it to a small city of knowledge. The second choice prevailed: our territory, already tormented by toxic spills and abuse, must be preserved and protected. This is why we have recovered this building, making sure that it would be architecturally beautiful, capable of comparing itself with dignity to the Royal Palace, which is right in front. An almost surgical operation, but with a strong symbolic meaning ".

The new seat of the Rectorate of Caserta provides an entire area for teaching with three classrooms with about 400 seats, equipped with advanced audio-visual equipment and a control room for simultaneous translation.

On the first floor is the cafeteria for professors, technical administrative staff and students serving the entire complex of Viale Ellittico.

On the ground floor there is a room for institutional meetings with 50 seats, with audio-visual equipment and a conference system, the Rector's Office, the Rector's Offices, the Office of the Deputy Rector, the Office of the functional Pro-Rector, a meeting room with 22 seats and some offices of the central administration. The offices of the Director and the General Management are on the first floor.

"The design choice was focused on architectural quality as a guiding element of the recovery operation - explained Gianfranco De Matteis - without proceeding with the demolition of the existing structure, but with its remodelling with a substantial rearrangement of the facades. A logic linked to the great tradition of modern Campania has been adopted”.

The aim of the intervention was, therefore, that of a landscape restoration and an integration of the structure in the area that fits in well with the presence of the Royal Palace of Caserta.