The Ravenna Campus of the University of Bologna is expanding thanks to the close collaboration between the Municipality of Ravenna and the Alma Mater. In fact, the spaces of the former church of San Nicolò will be allocated to the Campus, which until some time ago housed the Tamo Museum, whose collections have been allocated to the Classis Museum to make it a unique center for the valorisation of ancient mosaics. The acquisition of this building is part of a plan by the Alma Mater for the Ravenna Campus which includes both the strengthening of spaces for students and spaces for teaching and research with new acquisitions, as well as the rationalization and optimization of existing spaces. A new study room with library facilities will be built in the former Church of San Niccolò, with a total surface area of approximately 950 square metres. To this will be added other spaces present in the internal courtyards – for approximately a further 350 square meters – to be used as laboratories and classrooms for study courses in Restoration. Finally, a refreshment point will be created to which large covered spaces in the cloisters will be connected. “The University has developed an important plan to expand and rationalize the spaces on the Ravenna Campus”, declares the Rector Giovanni Molari. “This plan, which involves a total investment of approximately 10 million euros, concerns a series of building interventions already underway, aimed at completing the Environmental Sciences headquarters in Sant’Alberto, the maintenance and refunctionalization of Palazzo Corradini and Casa Traversari and the arrangement of the spaces of the former Physiotherapy for the needs of the medical area courses. Furthermore, an expansion of the spaces of the headquarters in via Tombesi dall’Ova is planned, which will also include a new study room. Added to these initiatives is the former Tamo space at the church of San Nicolò, made available by the municipal administration, which I thank for the sensitivity and collaboration shown. The plan will be completed when it will be possible to take possession of a new building to be used mainly for classrooms and laboratories for teaching, which will allow us to complete the offer of teaching spaces and student services on the Ravenna Campus, making it fully suitable for consolidation and future development of university offerings in the city”. For a complete consolidation of the Ravenna Campus it will be necessary to acquire a further new building of approximately 3000 square meters to be used as classrooms for teaching activities integrated with teaching and research laboratories. Furthermore, the buildings existing today will be the subject of a general redevelopment of both construction and systems – which has already begun and is underway in some buildings on the Campus – also pursuing a rationalization of the use of internal spaces aimed both at increasing the service facilities for students, for example by providing study rooms and refreshment points in each building, and to improve the flexibility of use of classrooms and laboratories by reducing their dimensions to those most necessary for the teaching activity of the Campus. “We are extremely proud and grateful – declare the mayor Michele de Pascale and the university councilor Fabio Sbaraglia – for the investment that the Alma Mater Studiorum is making on our Campus in order to expand and consolidate the courses present in Ravenna and we experience the growing trend in registrations in Ravenna at the same time as a great opportunity and an important responsibility. We are increasingly convinced of the decisive contribution that the University’s presence can offer to our entire territory. We are therefore in full agreement in identifying as an absolute priority the need to expand and qualify the availability of spaces to be made available on the Campus, both for teaching activities and for services dedicated to students who choose Ravenna for this very important period of studies. It is an effort on which this Municipality has never failed to offer the maximum possible contribution and even in this phase we will not fail to do this which seems to us to be a duty towards what over time has been structured as a very important asset for our city from many points of view. For this reason we have welcomed the request for the spaces of the San Nicolò complex with the utmost availability and we will work to ensure that they are made available to the University as quickly as possible. And we are obviously available to think about the possibility of granting other spaces too.”
