Abstract
Learning from the past, collecting data on the Italian condition of school buildings, our R&D work aimed to question the design process of school buildings in Italy introducing an innovative model of school, which turned the conventional and isolated, mono-functional and rigid school buildings into interior urban public spaces and porous community hubs to empower the communities around them and to become manifestos of sustainability. Through some built examples of school buildings designed in Italy, the paper discusses the outputs and impact of the introduction of new design layouts, participation projects with different stakeholders and sustainability. The research has guided the introduction of the new Italian guide-lines for school building design, approved in 2013. A future perspective to be explored is the reconsideration of exporting the strategy in different contexts and to design reconsider other public infrastructures turning the mono-functional use of public buildings into hybrid and multifunctional ones.
Highlights
It can be argued that to design a school is usually to cope with very restrictive requirements, a constrained budget and a very specific functional brief
A future perspective to be explored is the reconsideration of exporting the strategy in different contexts and to design reconsider other public infrastructures turning the mono-functional use of public buildings into hybrid and multifunctional ones
We have looked at the role of public buildings as a potential to be exploited to engage in a resilient shift and regain public space for communities
Summary
It can be argued that to design a school is usually to cope with very restrictive requirements, a constrained budget and a very specific functional brief. In the early 19th century, both in Europe and in the United States, school buildings, changing under the demands and advocacy for better and healthier spaces for children and based on the principle of equality among individuals, became an expression of democratic ideals, while improving the standard condition of living. Both European and American architects explored ways in which they could combine concerns for health and security together with new pedagogical approaches. Since architectural history and contemporary production is filled with instructive examples, it is the intention to make a selection of the major exemplary school buildings to reflect id some of their values are still important in contemporary
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