CR² Sinapsi

The CR² Sinapsi healthcare facility is nestled within Morbasco Park in the historic city of Cremona. Designed with a focus on wellbeing and sustainability, the centre was developed by the charity Occhi Azzurri Onlus to support children with neurological conditions. It offers expansive spaces for rehabilitation, recreational activities, and entertainment, while also providing resources for caregivers, families, and healthcare professionals.

Inaugurated in late September 2024, the state-of-the-art centre is now open to patients. Among several project partners, ROCKWOOL played a key role, contributing its expertise in sustainable and innovative building solutions to bring the CR² Sinapsi vision to life.

Comfort, well-being and sustainability

The aim of the CR² Sinapsi Centre is to provide care and therapy for children with neurodevelopmental disorders and rare genetic conditions. It will also support carers, families and healthcare professionals.

The 1,564 m² building contains a polyclinical medical centre including a dentist room, play and multimedia rooms, a 270 m² pool with four different sections for different care purposes, an auditorium, a canteen, training spaces and workshops, as well as therapeutic horticulture in its grounds.

A family-centered vision for healing

Filippo Ruvioli, President of the Fondazione Occhi Azzuri Impresa Sociale association, said:

“My wife Silvia and I envisioned the CR² Sinapsi project as a response to a lack of structures that met the needs of our son Orlando, who is affected by a rare genetic disease. We also focus on integrating, if possible, the entire family into the centre to maximise the child’s wellbeing as they are surrounded by siblings and loved ones. Currently, we can accommodate up to 40 children at the same time.“

“By designing the building for comfort and wellbeing, the architect has created a space that will achieve good therapeutic outcomes while conserving energy. In practice, this means that natural light, temperature and ventilation, and acoustic comfort are important.”

High-performance meets sustainability

Sustainability was a top priority for the project. During the design phase, careful consideration was given to creating a space capable of achieving good therapeutic results while saving energy, favouring dry construction techniques to minimize the building’s environmental footprint. The auditorium and workshops benefit from excellent acoustic performance. Play and care areas are visually soothing and blend with the natural environment, while the pool and canteens maintain a comfortable indoor temperature.

The order comprised 3,500 m² of ROCKWOOL insulation for partition and internal walls. It included 600 m² of Rockfon acoustic ceiling panels. Additionally, there were 1,000 m² of Rockpanel panels with wooden façade finishings.

A total of 2,500 m² of stone wool cores for sandwich panels from ROCKWOOL Core Solutions were utilized for the roof and façades, the finishing counter-walls, and the internal partitions, offering excellent thermal and acoustic insulation, humidity control, fire resilience, and mechanical durability.

The building is based on a light steel frame. This supports a façade system that uses sandwich panels with stone wool insulation at their core. These form a protective shell, inside which a polyethylene membrane provides waterproofing. Corrugations on the outer side of the sandwich panels support brackets that hold decorative exterior cladding in place. These cladding boards are made from high-density stone wool Rockpanel boards in a wood effect finish.

Efficient construction with modular steel and stone wool

Inside the waterproof layer, the steel frame is completed with a counterwall structure made from modular steel profiles. Gaps between the profiles are filled with medium-density uncoated stone wool, specifically Acoustic 225 Plus N and Panel 211 N.

This provides a combination of thermal and acoustic insulation performance, as well as fire safety. Being water vapor-permeable, it also avoids build-up of humidity inside the centre. This inner stone wool layer is covered with drywall, which is also permeable to support good air quality.

Noise is effectively absorbed thanks to Rockfon Color-all and Pacific, and a decorative inner finishing layer completes the envelope.

This kind of modular and dry construction technology has the advantage of straightforward construction and assembly. This cuts project risk and reduces waste by minimising offcuts and an excess usage of materials.

A building with a natural aesthetic

An important goal for the centre was a need to fit into the natural environment of the Po and Morbasco Park with an attractive decorative finish that is also durable and long-lasting. This is achieved with a ventilated façade with wood-effect exterior cladding.

The cladding used is based on a compressed basaltic rock fibre. Visually and architecturally effective, quick to install, and durable, it combines the workability of wood with the robustness and fire-resistant properties of rock.

Green roof system

The green roof helps the centre fit into the park visually while providing protection against heat gain and preventing urban heat island effect. Like the facades, the green roof is based on a multi-layered dry construction system. Inside the light steel frame of the building is a galvanised steel frame for a false ceiling. As with the facades, the gaps in the frame are filled with sandwich panels with ROCKWOOL stone wool core. An inner finishing layer completes the interior ceiling, formed of acoustically absorbent panels from Rockpanel.

The outer layers start with sandwich panels supported on top of the steel frame.

Stone wool insulation inside these panels provides thermal insulation and fire performance. An outer PVC mantle lends protection and durability to the panels. A distilled bitumen layer on top of the sandwich panels acts as a waterproofing and anti-root layer. On top of this, green roofing elements in sintered expanded polystyrene are installed to provide drainage and water storage. A polypropylene fibre layer provides filtering and protection for these.

The culture and plant layer are then placed on the very top. Several species of sedum have been planted to provide year-round, low-maintenance planting.

Strategic Partnership and Philosophy

The Sinapsi CR² centre aligns with Active House principles, emphasizing sustainability, energy efficiency, and comfort. It has attracted key partners, including the Municipality of Cremona, the Politecnico di Milano’s VeluxLAB, and ROCKWOOL. The name “Sinapsi” stands for “Sustainable Innovation Neural Architecture of Poli Synesthetic Interaction,” a philosophy that guided every aspect of the centre’s design and construction.

Together, the project partners aimed to create a building that combines innovative construction technologies with safe, sustainable materials, reflecting the centre’s commitment to care and meaningful community impact.

The project also received a significant boost with a non-repayable grant of 1 million euros from Fondazione Cariplo.

Project Data