Bvlgari once more partners with Save the Children in a concrete initiative to tackle poverty, school dropout rates and social exclusion through education.

In art, jewellery and architecture a “punto luce” is a design concept, a bright point of light that sparkles. With the aim of shedding light on the future of more than 1.200.000 children living in conditions of extreme poverty and lacking the opportunity to receive an education, Save the Children has created 24 “Punto Luce” centres – safe spaces in the midst of the most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in cities across Italy.

With the knowledge that creativity and the arts are powerful means to build children’s self-confidence and self-expression, Bvlgari once more partners with Save the Children in a concrete initiative to tackle poverty, school dropout rates and social exclusion through education.

The first “Punto Luce delle Arti by Bvlgari and Save the Children” created within an abandoned school in Ostia, a coastal suburb of Rome, joins the existing Save the Children network of programmes in the area.

This has now become a hub for social activities, academic support and free education, aimed at the development of talent and skills, the teaching of arts and crafts, and the improvement of prospects for these young people to have a better future.

Is estimates that it will involve as many as 1.000 children and teenagers, aged 6-18, every year, through educational and artistic activities, with a particular focus on working with students between 13 and18 years old.

The formative offering is divided between 3 main areas, each one of which will grant the students the opportunity to build knowledge and skill, to improve their analytical thinking and team-working ability, and to collaborate on innovative projects. A course focused on Cinema, in Photography, Social Design and “Mani Intelligenti”.

Each course focuses on the practice of “learning-by-doing”, which allows the young people to challenge their abilities consistently while working on activities, in which they have interest.

Each one involves the supervision of experts, artists and teachers, with the fundamental participation of the individual’s community (parents, schools and social workers) which will be involved in their growth and progress.

THE RENOVATION

In order to achieve the significant urban redevelopment to host all the activities of the new educational hub, Bvlgari involved its in-house Interior Design team on the realisation of the “Punto Luce delle Arti”. Bvlgari’s professionals turned the building’s 1.300 square metres into a state-of-the-art multifunctional, safe environment, inspired by the convergence of light, points and lines in Bauhaus architecture and Kandinsky’s pictorial research.

Entering “Punto Luce delle Arti” in Ostia one begins a journey, starting with the light of a lamp – the logo of “Punto Luce by Bvlgari and Save the Children” – above the building’s entrance through a 3D effect, turning into a lighthouse, a bright guide light towards a safe harbour.

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A red door leads to a spacious hall welcoming incoming visitors, under the inscription “Scuola di Arti e Mestieri” (Arts and Crafts School) carved out of many different materials, symbolic of the many different learning and development opportunities offered by the centre.

Red is one of the leitmotifs of the space: red lines on the floor act as guides, metaphorically to the discovery of the students’ talent and physically to 4 multifunctional laboratories, music lab and computer lab, which are each surrounded by a deep sunshine yellow colour.

The hallway inside “Punto Luce delle Arti” then continues through a Gallery with 97 white canvases waiting to be painted by the students’ “Mani Intelligenti”, and reaches the relaxing Reading Room, in which students are invited to focus and share their discoveries.

The hallway ends with the Great Hall, a multipurpose space and theatre for students’ talent. The Great Hall’s stage was built from wooden planks donated by Bvlgari boutiques. The Listone Giordano‘s hardwood flooring was selected for the gathering areas which helps the rooms warmer and more inviting.

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There are no corridors but halls equipped with digital media for sharing; there are no typical classrooms but laboratories with a dynamic setup and adjustable lighting: spaces to be modified according to the activity or mood of the day.

It is an environment where the red colour of Save the Children and the sunshine yellow of the walls combine to form the orange, that is iconic and unmistakeable Bvlgari’s saffron colour.

The path ends outside the building, amid nature: newly planted trees and an urban vegetable garden for the students remind the visitor that every seed being nurtured, protected and lit is going to grow and bloom into new life.

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There are places that seem destined to remain in the shadow of taller buildings, forgotten suburbs consuming the lives of their inhabitants. Down these roads, however, the light, when it eventually arrives, has the power to flood every corner and reveal a beauty that no one believed could exist.