Lazzaretto Meal Production Centre

Meal Production Centre for school catering

The “Lazzaretto” facility in Bologna was built as a centralised kitchen for the production of takeaway meals for school catering, with a production capacity of more than 8000 meals per day.

The project covered urban planning, building and systems design, and the internal architectural layout, including the organisation of equipment. The building was developed using dry construction technologies with a high level of prefabrication, integrating construction solutions and materials suited to the facility’s hygiene, production and performance requirements.

Functional organisation and sustainability

The internal layout was designed to support the production process based on the “fresh-hot” delivery principle, with meals mainly packaged in multi-portion format.

The flooring in the production area was made with high-thickness technical porcelain stoneware with antibacterial properties, while the envelope solutions ensure appropriate thermal insulation.

The external areas include staff parking, loading and unloading zones, a waste collection area, a van washing area and green spaces irrigated through rainwater recovery. From a building systems perspective, the facility integrates heat pumps, high-efficiency air handling units, an extraction system with heat recovery and a rooftop photovoltaic system of more than 90 kW.

Photos: Tommaso Cabassi