The school as an adventorous city - Text by Daniele Valentino 15

The harshest challenge for designers is to understand which risks can become opportunities for children to learn then children can become protagonist of their own learning path, through exposure to the controlled risks. In my opinion children should be allowed to test their environment without fear and concern for their own safety. The Dynamic Risk Beneft Assessment is a procedure that takes into account risks, especially for children [8]. It provides practical methods for conducting riskbeneft assessments. Some architects who are commissioned to design a school use this procedure, like Assemble Studio for the Baltic Street Adventure Playground in Dalmarnock, East Glasgow [9]. The free, but supervised playground, is a place where children are in close contact with the urban environment and the outside world.

Other architects who work with the risk beneft assessment as a design principle are Sasa Randic & Idis Turato [10]. Although their design is less adventurous, I would like to mention two of their projects in Croatia at the Island of Krk: an Elementary School and a Kindergarten [11]. The Primary School is confgured as a city close to the old city wall. The whole complex refers to the urban matrix of the village; corridors are designed as urban streets and ramps as playgrounds. These spaces-inbetween are the core of the school. Children can use these spaces, with an unlimited freedom for their own activities. The Kindergarten has a similar concept that has a different confguration: it is designed as an enclosed insula. Inside this small town-kindergarten, units-houses are combined with open gardens, placed next to pedestrian routes. Also here, the urban matrix provides small streets ending up in the central square that serves as a location for manifestations, events and celebrations. These two projects represent the concept of the school as a city-like structure and the urban-school elements encourage young children to walk around like a grown up citizen and discover their ‘kindergarten-city’.

The Italian architects Cappai Carlo & Alessandra Segantini (C+S Architects) are widely known for their educational design [12]. For instance, the Ponzano Primary School in Treviso (Italy) is a further elaboration of the approach by Randic & Turato. Here the idea of a city has a social implication: the school constitutes of a new nodemeeting place for the whole community. Part of the building is open to the public after school hours. This idea of a school as a public place for every citizen in the city is refected in the structure of the building. All spaces are gathered around a central square with a reference to the typology of the monastic cloister as a place for multiethnic exchanges and interactions.

All previous projects are based on the idea that the school is not only a place where children learn new things but they also offer opportunities to enhance social behaviour and self-belief. I mentioned some educational approaches more or less experimental or innovative, but still effcient and valid alternatives for childhood education of today. I looked back to my personal experiences in order to refect on them as a solid base for comparison and to ask myself what kind of school and school environment I would like to design for the new generations. If schools, in the eyes of the children, are the “doors of the world”, it is the task of designers to bring the world into the schools instead of creating bubbles where over-protection and restriction are the rules. One of the possible solutions is to confgure schools as small cities, where children can be young citizens and adults are just guides whenever children need help.

FOOTNOTES 1. Article of The Independent, written by Charlie Cooper: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-andfamilies/overly-controlling-parents-cause-their-children-lifelong-psychological-damage-says-study-10485172. html 2. University College London (UCL): https://www.ucl.ac.uk/ 3. Article written by Dr Mai Stafford: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0915/040915-caring-parentshappier-lives 4. Article written by Dr Kyung Hee Kim for the Creativity Research Journal: https://www.nesacenter.org/ uploaded/conferences/SEC/2013/handouts/Kim_Creativity-Crisis_CRJ2011.pdf 5. Loris Malaguzzi is the founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach, the Reggio Children International Centre bears his name: http://www.reggiochildren.it/centro-internazionale-loris-malaguzzi/?lang=en 6. The Hundred Languages concept: http://www.reggiochildren.it/2011/09/2617/notizia-di-provaconsulenza/?lang=en 8. Dynamic Risk Beneft Assessment: https://www.ltl.org.uk/spaces/dynamicriskassesment.php 9. Baltic Street Adventure Playground in Dalmarnock, East Glasgow is realized by Assemble Studio, with other collaborations: http://assemblestudio.co.uk/?page_id=776 10. Architectural offce founded by Sasa Randic & Idis Turato: http://www.randic-turato.hr/ 11. Elementary School Fran Krsto Frankopa, Krk, Croatia: http://www.randic-turato.hr/new/skola%20krk/ SKOLA%20KRKeng.htm Katarina Frankopan Kindergarten: http://randic.hr/?p=321#.WlzN767ibDc 12. C+S Architects: http://web.cipiuesse.it/