Bronze Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2026
Factory City To Education City Multifunctional Theater
- A' Design Award 2026 Bronze Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Awarded April 15, 2026
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 5,801
- Verification code 13893C83D2 · Verify this award
About Factory City To Education City Multifunctional Theater
This project reimagines Ivrea's industrial heritage as a contemporary educational and cultural campus. Through the adaptive reuse of existing concrete structures and the insertion of new modular steel buildings, the design transforms a former production environment into a connected framework for learning, performance, and public life. A theatre, multifunctional spaces, and an open circulation spine together create a flexible civic landscape where industrial memory evolves into a living architecture of knowledge.
Ying Bi's Factory City To Education City Multifunctional Theater emerges within contemporary discourse surrounding architecture's role in signifying institutional transformation and civic renewal, the design demonstrating sophisticated engagement with parametric modeling techniques and digital fabrication possibilities that characterize early twenty-first-century architectural innovation. The compositional achievement here resides in the masterful orchestration of crystalline geometric volumes that simultaneously project bold sculptural presence and maintain approachable human scale, the faceted white envelope creating visual drama through angular complexity while the strategic sectional exposure reveals warm timber-lined interior spaces that promise intimate gathering and cultural exchange. The chromatic restraint proves particularly effective, limiting the palette essentially to pristine white membrane surfaces, warm honey-toned wood paneling, neutral gray hardscape, and soft atmospheric greens, this economy of color allowing geometric form and spatial relationship to command primary attention while the golden timber provides essential emotional warmth against the cool abstraction of the exterior volumes. The technical facility evident in both architectural conception and visualization methodology demonstrates command of contemporary digital design workflows, the rendering achieving luminous material clarity and atmospheric subtlety that enhances rather than obscures the spatial proposition, the soft diffused lighting creating gentle shadow play across faceted surfaces that reveals volumetric complexity through nuanced tonal gradation. The sectional cut-away operates as particularly successful formal device, transforming what might read as opaque geometric sculpture into legible architectural proposition by exposing the building's internal spatial organization across three visible levels, the horizontal balconies and vertical timber paneling establishing clear rhythm and proportion while small-scale human figures activate these spaces with suggested occupation and social dimension. This work appears to explore architecture's capacity to embody cultural aspiration through formal boldness tempered by material warmth and functional transparency, the crystalline white volumes perhaps suggesting intellectual clarity, creative innovation, and institutional purpose while the revealed timber interiors intimate human gathering, acoustic performance, and communal experience. The environmental integration demonstrates sensitivity to context, mature trees framing the architectural intervention and softening its geometric assertiveness, suggesting dialogue between built and natural realms, between cultural artifact and living landscape. The design seems to engage with traditions of civic monumentality while avoiding historical pastiche or intimidating scale, instead proposing a contemporary monumentality achieved through geometric complexity and material purity rather than mass or ornamental elaboration, the faceted forms creating visual interest and spatial dynamism that rewards extended observation and changing viewpoints. One might observe how the building's formal language negotiates between sculpture and shelter, between iconic object and functional container, inviting consideration of how contemporary cultural institutions can project both distinctive identity and welcoming accessibility, how architecture can signify transformation while remaining grounded in human scale and sensory warmth, and how geometric abstraction and material tactility might combine to create spaces that inspire both intellectual engagement and emotional connection, suggesting that the most compelling contemporary civic architecture perhaps resides not in stylistic assertion but in the thoughtful integration of formal innovation, material authenticity, functional clarity, and environmental responsiveness.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The project transforms an industrial social-services complex into a modular educational campus. Existing concrete buildings are reactivated through light interventions, while new steel structures house a theatre and multifunctional spaces. A connecting public spine integrates learning, culture, landscape, and civic life, turning industrial heritage into a flexible framework for knowledge production.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Approximate site area: 8,000 sq.m. The project consists of a theatre volume and a multifunctional educational building connected by semi open circulation. The theatre is approximately 15 m x 23 m x 16 m, using a long span steel roof structure. The multifunctional building is organized on three levels with modular structural bays. Main materials include existing reinforced concrete, steel framing, metal roof decking, insulation, waterproofing membrane, glazing, and perforated metal cladding.
- Tags
- adaptive reuse, industrial heritage, educational campus, modular steel structure, theatre design, multifunctional building, public space, civic architecture, Olivetti, Ivrea
- Production Technology
- The project is realized through a hybrid system of adaptive reuse and lightweight steel construction. Existing concrete structures are preserved and reactivated with minimal intervention, while new volumes use a modular steel frame, long span roof trusses, metal roof decking, insulated build-up roofing, and perforated metal cladding. The theatre integrates acoustic wall lining, suspended acoustic reflectors, lighting grids, sprinkler coordination, and mechanical ducts within a clear structural logic.
- Design Challenge
- The main challenge was to transform a historically industrial site into a contemporary educational and cultural campus without losing its original spatial identity. The design had to balance preservation and intervention, integrating existing concrete structures with new modular steel construction. Another key challenge was to create a clear relationship between theatre, learning spaces, and public circulation while maintaining flexibility, technical performance, and a strong civic character.
- Project Duration
- The project was developed in 2026 as an architectural competition proposal for the Olivetti Theatre site in Ivrea, Italy. It explores the transformation of the former industrial context into a contemporary educational and cultural campus through adaptive reuse, modular construction, and public space integration.
- Operation Flow
- The project operates as a connected campus where learning, performance, and public life are brought together through a clear spatial sequence. Visitors move through open pathways, landscape platforms, and shared gathering spaces that link the existing buildings with the new theatre and multifunctional programs. This flow encourages informal interaction, flexible use, and a continuous relationship between education, culture, and civic activity.
- Research
- The research investigates how industrial heritage can be transformed into a contemporary educational environment. It combines site analysis, historical study of Ivrea and the Olivetti legacy, program development, and architectural prototyping. The project studies adaptive reuse, modular steel construction, and spatial connectivity as strategies to integrate learning, performance, and public life within an existing industrial fabric.
- Inspiration
- The project is inspired by Ivrea's industrial legacy and the social vision of the Olivetti factory city. Rather than preserving the site as a static monument, the design explores how industrial structures can support contemporary education, culture, and public life. It draws from adaptive reuse, modular construction, and the transformation of production into knowledge.
- Image Credits
- Ying Bi, Siyu Bai
- Patents
- Copyrights belong to Siyu Bai, Ying Bi, 2026.
Colors of Factory City To Education City Multifunctional Theater
Grand Interview about Factory City To Education City Multifunctional Theater
The single most meaningful design decision was to make connection the core of the project: the connection among the three main architectural components, and the connection between the buildings and the site.For the existing industrial building, we chose to open its façade and introduce a greater sense of permeability. This was not simply a formal gesture, but a way to let the old structure breathe again. By bringing in light, air, and movement, the former factory is no longer perceived as a closed monument of the past, but as an active vessel for new knowledge, exchange, and public life.At the same time, the two new buildings were designed to feel as if they emerge from the site. Rather than standing apart as isolated objects, they extend the logic of the ground, create new paths, and improve the accessibility of the entire area. Once a site becomes accessible, it also begins to create a reason and a desire for people to arrive. This desire to reach, enter, and participate is what brings vitality back to both the architecture and the urban ground.The thinking behind this choice was that industrial memory should not only be preserved visually; it should be reactivated through use, movement, and human presence. By making the project more open, connected, and breathable, we wanted the site to transform from a place of former production into a living educational environment where memory, knowledge, and public life can continuously interact.
The project creates a new spatial identity by treating the character of the Olivetti site as a foundation rather than something to be erased.We preserved the legibility of the existing industrial building through its scale, rhythm, material presence, and spatial atmosphere, while carefully opening it up to new light, air, movement, and public use. This gives the old structure a new sense of breath without turning it into a neutral container.At the same time, the two new buildings introduce a contemporary identity to the site. They are designed to feel as if they grow from the ground, extending circulation and improving accessibility rather than standing apart as isolated objects. Their role is to activate the site and connect its different parts, not to compete with the existing architecture.In this sense, the project does not erase the Olivetti site’s industrial memory. It transforms that memory into a living educational environment, where the past remains visible but is continuously renewed through new programs, movement, and human presence.
The hybrid structural strategy of steel framing and long-span trusses was chosen because it allowed us to meet the complex functional needs of the project while intervening in the existing fabric with restraint.The multifunctional theater requires large, open, and flexible spaces that can accommodate performances, lectures, exhibitions, and public gatherings. A steel structure with long-span trusses makes this possible by reducing the need for dense columns and allowing the interior to remain adaptable over time. This flexibility is important because an educational and cultural building should be able to support changing forms of use rather than being fixed to one single program.At the same time, the strategy reflects our understanding of sustainable intervention. Instead of demolishing or heavily altering the existing industrial structure, the new system works as a complementary layer. It introduces new structural capacity and spatial openness while allowing the original building to remain visible and meaningful. In this way, the existing built fabric is not erased, but given the ability to support a new public life.For us, responsible activation means extending the life of the existing architecture through careful and precise intervention. The steel frame and long-span trusses are therefore not only technical solutions; they are also a way to balance preservation, adaptability, and contemporary use. Through this hybrid logic, the Olivetti site can continue to carry its industrial memory while being transformed into a flexible environment for knowledge, culture, and community.
Receiving the Bronze A’ Design Award positions the project as part of a broader conversation about how architecture can take responsibility in post-industrial urban transformation. For us, the recognition is meaningful not only because it acknowledges the project’s spatial, material, and technical qualities, but because it supports the idea that adaptive reuse can also be a civic act.The project tries to show that former industrial sites should not simply be erased, replaced, or frozen as monuments. They carry memories of labor, production, and collective urban history. Through careful intervention, these existing structures can be reactivated to support new forms of education, culture, and public life.In this sense, the transformation from a factory city to an education city is not only a programmatic shift, but a redefinition of the site’s civic role. By increasing accessibility, openness, and connection, the project allows the old industrial fabric to become part of contemporary urban life again.What we hope this awarded project communicates is that architecture should mediate between memory and change. In post-industrial renewal, the responsibility of architecture is not only to create new space, but to preserve continuity, reduce unnecessary demolition, and generate public value for the city and its communities.
The most defining obstacle was how to introduce a fully operational theater and educational campus into the Olivetti site without allowing the new programs to erase the identity of the existing industrial fabric.The original structures carried a strong spatial memory, but the new functions required openness, accessibility, flexible large-span spaces, and clear circulation. The challenge was therefore not only technical, but conceptual: how could the old and new coexist without one becoming subordinate to the other?This challenge ultimately reshaped the project from an object-based design into a relationship-based design. We began to focus on how the three main parts of the project connect with one another, and how the architecture reconnects with the site. The existing building was opened to bring in light, air, and movement, while the new buildings were designed to feel as if they grow from the ground, extending circulation and creating new reasons for people to enter and stay.In this sense, the obstacle became the main generator of the project. It pushed us to develop a strategy of connection, breathability, and responsible activation. The final direction was not to preserve the industrial site as a static memory, nor to replace it with a completely new identity, but to allow the old and new to form a living educational and cultural environment together.
The open circulation spine was designed as the civic backbone of the project. Its purpose is not only to connect different functions, but to transform the former industrial site into an accessible and active public environment.The spatial sequence was shaped by the need to connect the three main parts of the campus while also responding to the existing landscape and industrial fabric. Rather than organizing the project as separate buildings with isolated entrances, we wanted to create a continuous route where people could arrive, move, pause, gather, and discover different programs along the way.This strategy reflects a shift from the logic of industrial production to the logic of education and public life. The original site was defined by enclosure and function-specific movement, while the new campus requires openness, permeability, and informal interaction. The circulation spine creates this transition by linking architecture, landscape, and public activity into one continuous experience.Informal movement and encounter are essential to the civic ambition of the project. Education and culture do not only happen inside classrooms or theaters; they also happen through casual conversations, shared observations, and unexpected meetings. By allowing people to move freely and stay naturally, the spine creates a public ground where social life can emerge.In this way, the circulation spine helps the campus become more than a collection of programs. It becomes a living urban framework that reconnects the Olivetti site with people, memory, and community.
To reinterpret the philosophical foundation of the Olivetti model, we first had to rethink the meaning of education in a contemporary context. Education today is no longer only the transmission of knowledge. Its scope has expanded to include the ability to understand complexity, respond to uncertainty, embrace change and diversity, and develop empathy toward others.This understanding is closely connected to the original spirit of the Olivetti factory city. Olivetti was not only a model of industrial production, but also a social vision in which labor, learning, culture, and community life were deeply connected. Our project translates this idea into a contemporary education city, where the production of goods is replaced by the production of knowledge, dialogue, creativity, and social connection.Because we believe the core of education is the ability to face change, the campus is designed as an open and flexible environment. The theater, educational spaces, landscape, and public circulation spine allow different forms of learning to overlap: formal teaching, performance, exhibition, informal encounter, and everyday movement. Education is therefore not confined to classrooms, but unfolds across the entire site.We hope future users will experience the historical dialogue of the project through this openness. The industrial memory of the Olivetti site remains present through its scale, structure, and atmosphere, while the new interventions invite curiosity, participation, and exchange. In this way, the project does not freeze history or replace it, but allows the past and present to coexist as part of a living educational environment.
This project has reinforced our belief that underutilized or historically significant industrial environments should not be approached as empty sites waiting for new programs, but as existing frameworks with memory, structure, and civic potential.In future projects, we would continue to think about adaptive reuse through connection, openness, and flexibility. The goal is not simply to preserve industrial heritage as a visual object, but to reactivate it through new movement, public access, and programs that respond to contemporary life.The project also taught us that spatial and programmatic strategies must work together. New functions should not be inserted mechanically; they should create new reasons for people to enter, gather, learn, and return. For us, this is the broader lesson of the project: urban renewal becomes meaningful when architecture can transform existing fabric into a living public environment.
The combination of perforated metal and glazing was chosen to express the dialogue between industrial memory and contemporary openness, while also shaping the quality of light within the building.The perforated metal panels respond to the material language of the industrial site. Their texture, rhythm, and sense of fabrication recall the precision, repetition, and technical character of factory production. At the same time, perforation gives the metal a certain lightness. It is not a solid industrial wall, but a porous surface that allows light, shadow, and airiness to enter the architectural expression.Light was an important consideration in this material strategy. The large areas of glazing bring transparency and openness to the educational and public spaces, allowing activities inside the building to become visually connected to the campus. The perforated metal works together with the glass as a filtering layer, softening direct sunlight, creating changing patterns of shadow, and giving the interior a more nuanced and breathable atmosphere.In this way, the façade is not only symbolic, but also experiential. It mediates between exposure and enclosure, brightness and shading, solidity and transparency. The perforated metal preserves a sense of industrial heritage, while the glazing opens the building toward public life. Together, they allow the new volumes to communicate both the memory of the factory and the openness required for a contemporary place of learning and gathering.
The theatre required a careful balance between technical precision and respect for the adaptive reuse context. Acoustics, lighting, mechanical systems, and structure could not be treated as separate problems; they had to be coordinated as one integrated spatial system.The long-span steel structure gave the theatre the openness needed for performance and public assembly, while also allowing acoustic wall linings, suspended reflectors, lighting grids, and mechanical systems to be organized with clarity. This structural strategy helped us create a flexible, high-performance interior without overloading the space with unnecessary supports or visual interruptions.At the same time, we were careful that the technical requirements of the theatre did not erase the character of the existing industrial site. The new systems were introduced as precise contemporary interventions, while the broader architectural language continued to respond to the memory, scale, and material presence of the original fabric.For us, the most valuable lesson is that heritage and high-performance architecture should not be seen as opposites. An existing building is not only a constraint; it can become the beginning of the design. Its limits encourage more thoughtful decisions about structure, material, program, and public life.What we would hope to share with emerging designers is that innovation does not need to replace history. New technologies and technical systems can reactivate old buildings when they are used with care and purpose. True adaptive reuse is not about reproducing the past, but about allowing history to continue through new forms of use, performance, and civic life.