Carlo Cappai Maria and Alessandra Segantini

Abstract

The school is the first and most important building that is imprinted on a community’s memory. It is the first place we visit outside our homes and where we first feel as members of a group. The school building should therefore be designed as a place that is able to listen. Listen to the landscape, in which it is incorporated, then read it and rewrite it in a contemporary way. The school is there to listen to the child, understand the child’s needs and provide a functional environment that the little being will be able to understand and modify. The building has to listen to the surroundings and reflect their elements: the colours, scents or the fluctuation of light — which should all become objects of the child’s observation. Furthermore, the school is there to listen to the local history and its evocative capacities. Lastly, it is there to listen to the building materials and the details that have to be combined into a harmonized whole.