La scuola come infrastruttura civica: strategie di soglia per la città di prossimità

The research investigates the heritage of Italian school buildings, understood as a widespread civic infrastructure, against a multidisciplinary background at the crossroads of architecture, urban planning, and public policy. Starting from a diachronic and territorial reading, the work interprets the school not exclusively as a functional container intended for education, but as social fixed capital extensively distributed across the territory and potentially capable of generating new urban forms and practices of collective life. The investigation begins with the historical and regulatory reconstruction of school buildings, highlighting the tensions that have historically arisen between typological standardization and the progressive reduction of the school's urban role. In this framework, the established demographic shift is considered not solely as a critical factor, but as a possible condition capable of triggering a design reflection oriented toward the potential reactivation of the existing heritage and the public space in which it is embedded. Through a multiscalar approach that integrates quantitative analyses, morpho-typological readings, the study of institutional geographies, and the identification of exemplary case studies, the research investigates the transformative potential of school spaces and their thresholds. These are understood as liminal spaces tasked with connecting the building and the city. What emerges is an interpretive perspective in which the school can be read as a civic device capable of contributing to urban and social regeneration processes, extending its scope beyond the traditional educational function. The work concludes with the definition of operational guidelines—conceived not as a neo-functionalist tool, but as a flexible and contextual interpretive model—aimed at supporting designers and public administrations in the construction of integrated strategies to enhance the school as a potential catalyst for public and social space.