New agricultural building: it is Antonio Segni's day

SASSARI. The new teaching building of the Agriculture department of the University of Sassari has been named after the President Emeritus of the Republic Antonio Segni. The very well attended ceremony took place this morning in Viale Italia in the presence of his son Mariotto. After the blessing of the entrance to the building by Archbishop Monsignor Gianfranco Saba, the Magnificent Rector Gavino Mariotti, the director of the department Ignazio Floris, the Mayor of Sassari Giuseppe Mascia and Mariotto Segni unveiled the plaque.

The ribbon cutting, with the participation of Prefect Grazia La Fauci, kicked off the inaugural tour inside the building: two floors plus two basements, 4 classrooms, two student classrooms with 30 seats, a lecture hall for 330 places for a total of 4,500 square meters contribute to designing the face of a university that focuses on the modernization of spaces and technologies to build a learning environment that is in step with the times, inclusive and accessible to people with disabilities. Particular attention was paid to energy saving.

The event continued in the main hall of the building with the speech of the Rector: "Like Medicine, which is important for the protection of people's health, Veterinary and Agriculture also have a particularity that must be safeguarded in a region like Sardinia where the agro-pastoral sector is a very important part of our economy”, declared Mariotti. “We feel gratitude for those who, like Antonio Segni, have worked in such a way as to allow us to be here today”. The Mayor Giuseppe Mascia, the director Ignazio Floris, the vice-rector for Teaching Pietro Pulina, the representative of the students Sara Masala, the engineer Simone Loddo and the vice-rector for Research Giuseppe Pulina, who gave a report, subsequently spoke. entitled “Higher education in agriculture in Italy: from unification to the foundation of the Faculty of Sassari”. In closing, Mario Segni, who received the university seal from the rector, expressed "emotion and gratitude" on the part of his entire family. “I remember that the dominant impulse of all his political action was this: to redeem the labor force, to raise the quality of life of farmers in the South who found themselves in conditions of extraordinary poverty,” said Mariotto Segni. The former Minister of the Interior Giuseppe Pisanu was also present.

To quote Pietro Pulina, the choice for the naming of the building fell on the statesman Segni not so much as a necessary act, but precisely as a "spontaneous" impulse given the great work done with the Agrarian reform when he was Undersecretary and Minister of Agriculture and in continuation of his long political career. Without forgetting that Antonio Segni, former rector of the University of Sassari, laid the foundation stone of the current building of the Faculty of Agriculture in 1963.

The building is made of reinforced concrete and a laminated wood roof, with an external skin made of a mixed stoneware coat and aluminum metal panels, with a total surface area of ​​approximately 4,500 m2.

2 underground floors were built for parking for a total of 50 spaces and spaces for storing books with an inert gas fire extinguishing system. On the ground floor there is the Central Agricultural Library with 56 study places. Free study spaces have been created for 32 workstations with setups and furnishings designed to encourage student socialization.

On the first floor there are 4 classrooms for a total of 270 seats equipped with wifi and multimedia equipment for distance learning, each classroom space is equipped with electricity. On the second floor there is the great hall with a total of 330 seats with a laser video projection system, the room is equipped with a station for simultaneous translation and can be used for both lessons and important conferences.

The building's systems are designed for advanced integrated energy saving, the air conditioning system uses a geothermal heat exchange system with the ground beneath the building. As a further contribution to saving the building's consumption, there is a series of photovoltaic panels on the roof, connected to the larger photovoltaic park created to cover the other buildings of the Agriculture Department. The lighting of the rooms is entirely done with LED lights and automatic switch-off systems using sensors.