FOUR FLOORS DEDICATED TO SPORTS, WITH SWIMMING POOLS, A FITNESS CLUB, A MULTIPURPOSE GYM FOR BASKETBALL, VOLLEYBALL, 5ASIDE SOCCER AND AN INDOOR RUNNING TRACK: THE NEW BOCCONI SPORT CENTER OPENS ITS DOORS AND COMPLETES THE UNIVERSITY'S URBAN CAMPUS PROJECT. EXACTLY 80 YEARS AFTER THE INAUGURATION OF THE FIRST BUILDING IN VIA SARFATTI 25 DESIGNED BY PAGANO

It has two state-of-the-art swimming pools, one 50-meter Olympic-size pool and one 25-meter pool, a fitness club, a large multipurpose gym for basketball, volleyball and 5-a-side soccer and an indoor running track. With over 17,000 square meters and four main floors, the new Bocconi Sport Center, inaugurated today, is the new home for the sports DNA of the University, completing the Bocconi urban campus project. A campus open to Milan and its residents who can work out in the Bocconi Sport Center and walk through the park surrounding it.

The inauguration was opened by an exhibition of Le Farfalle, the national rhythmic gymnastics team, bronze medalists at the Tokyo Olympics, with Valentina Vezzali, Prime Minister’s Undersecretary Delegate for Sport, Giuseppe Sala, Mayor of Milan, Giovanni Malagò, President of CONI and Luca Pancalli, President of the Italian Paralympic Committee speaking. Many athletes took part in the ceremony: basketball players Danilo and Vittorio Gallinari (the latter a Bocconi alumnus) who, along with the captains of the Bocconi basketball teams, inaugurated the Bocconi sport facility with a three-pointer, the Paralympic champion Ambra Sabatini (gold in the women's 100m T63), Michela Moioli (Olympic snowboard cross champion at the PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Games), Filippo Magnini, swimming champion, and, Javier Zanetti, Vice President Inter FC.

The Bocconi Sport Center
The pools - There are two swimming pools that make up the first basement floor of the Bocconi Sport Center: a 50-meter Olympic-size pool, which has 10 lanes and a grandstand with 574 seats, and a 25-meter pool with 5 lanes. The pools, managed through an agreement with Aquamore, are equipped with the most advanced international technologies. These include special underwater drowning prevention cameras that film swimmers and send an alert to the lifeguard in case of prolonged stops or abrupt movements, and a LED strip on the bottom, with adjustable speed, which progressively lights up to guide anyone who may be training. In addition, in the Olympic-size pool there is a special system of bridges that allows the pool to be quickly divided into two 25-meter areas. On the sustainability front, a Chlorinsitu system allows a low chlorate hypochlorite solution to be produced on site, with salt and electricity. This process results in the reduction of the concentration of disinfection waste elements usually present in swimming pools.

The Fitness club - Managed through an agreement with Virgin Active, the new fitness area is located on the first floor and is spread over 3,500 square meters. It is equipped with the latest generation equipment for cardio and functional training, rooms for courses and a wellness area.

Bocconi Sport Arena, the home of Bocconi teams - On the second floor is the Bocconi Sport Arena, the area in which the Bocconi Sport teams will practice and play matches. The arena, with a 400-seat electric retractable grandstand overlooking it, is multifunctional and can host basketball, volleyball and five-a-side soccer matches. In addition, thanks to a special screen, the area can be divided into two parts to allow different sports to be played at the same time.

The running track - On the third floor there is a 220-meter, two-lane indoor running track, which goes around (and overlooks) the courts below. The track is also managed thanks to an agreement with Virgin Active.

"The inauguration of the new Bocconi Sport Center is an important step for our University," explains the Rector Gianmario Verona. "Sport is deeply rooted in the soul of Bocconi and emerges not only from the commitment of the Bocconi teams, but also through the daily work of research and teaching. In addition to specific Bocconi Masters of Science tracks, examples of this are the activities of the Sport Knowledge Center at SDA Bocconi School of Management, with the FIFA Master - International Master (MA) in Management, Law and Humanities of Sport and the IBA, International Business Academy, developed in partnership with the National Basketball Players Association in the US, as well as the most recent collaboration with the FIGC Technical Sector."

"The construction of the Bocconi Sport Center represents the last piece of the Bocconi urban campus project," underlines Riccardo Taranto, Managing Director of the University. "Our international campus is also open to the city’s residents and schools thanks to the Bocconi Sport Center and the park surrounding it, next to the SDA Bocconi headquarters and our latest university residence hall, which brings our housing offer to approximately 2,100 spots."

Bocconi's urban campus
With the inauguration of the Bocconi Sport Center, the architectural design created by the Japanese studio SANAA in Via Sarfatti 10 is complete and – exactly 80 years after the inauguration of the building at Via Sarfatti 25 in 1941, built by architect Giuseppe Pagano – the Bocconi University urban campus itself is now complete.

To date, the entire Bocconi campus covers 90,000 square meters of the city, 30,000 of which are green areas, and the approximately 340,000 square meters of construction are divided into 13 buildings (the one on Via Röntgen, designed by Yvonne Farrelle Shelley McNamara, won the World Building of the Year in 2008) and 8 university residence halls. The latter host 2,062 students.

There are a total of 99 classrooms at the University, plus the 38 classrooms in the SDA Bocconi School of Management. There are two auditoriums (at Via Röntgen and Via Gobbi) for a total of 1,290 seats, and two conference rooms at SDA Bocconi, for a total of 450 seats. The University has 1,700 study places available to students, while SDA Bocconi has 780.

In parallel with the expansion and innovation of the facilities, over the years particular focus has been placed on the safety and sustainability of the entire University.
Confirming the results in the sustainability process launched by Bocconi University, this year it achieved the LEED Platinum certification (which concerns the entire life cycle of a building, from design to construction) for the new SDA Bocconi headquarters and the renewal of the ISO 50001 Energy Management certification, thanks to the policies adopted by the university for the continuous improvement of energy efficiency on campus. This latest certification was obtained for the first time in 2017. A solar panel system also guarantees the self-production of 1.2MW of electricity.

On the safety front, the experience gained in the last 18 months has also allowed the university to obtain the Biosafety Trust Certification, which is the first certification scheme created to provide a set of best practices to minimize the risks of spreading epidemics in public and private gathering places.