The Fortezza Girifalco is in plans to be updated and renovated into an Academy for Image Designers. Beacon was a partner effort to design and program the fortezza and give it the essential spaces needed for this kind of academy. We chose to focus on creating the academy as a beacon of creation, innovation and experimentation for the community and internationally. We did this by creating unique spaces and intuitive circulation to provide visitors and artists alike with a comprehensive experience of what the academy has to offer.

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The main learning spaces are housed in the central palazzo, by entering a tunnel that cuts through the bottom floor of this palazzo, visitors pass by a public cafe, a lounge, stairs that bring visitors up to the piazza and finally the tunnel leads to an exhibition space that can feature student or professional artist work that incorporates two bastions at the back of the fortezza. By having the main learning and collaborative spaces at the centre of the fortezza and letting those affect the exhibition and additional programming in the rest of the fortezza, you get this effect of the work emanating out of the academy like a beacon.