Transmission, construction, interruption. Towards a critique of contemporary school architecture.

In recent decades, the production of a large number of new reforms, guidelines, and school buildings highlights a renewed attention towards the relationship between education and space. The multiplication of paradigms and theories converging in school environments led to architectural results that can no longer be traced back to a specific formal typology. This production and the consequent fragmentation pose a series of questions concerning the principles underlying the processes of continuous innovation aimed at the construction of a progressive learning efficiency. In this scenario, the research takes a step aside and questions the neutrality of current rhetoric on innovation, aiming at renewing the discourse on school architecture rather than implementing a repertoire of good practices. The research addresses historical and contemporary case studies within the gap of compulsory schooling, through the lens of the theories of education. It is structured through a triple perspective based on three different paradigms of conceptualising schooling –transmission, construction, and interruption– without, however, suggesting a dialectical reading. One of the most widespread contemporary rhetoric describing “space as the third teacher” becomes a critical tool to investigate the actual relationships between spaces, educational theories, and schooling processes. As a result, the research proposes a series of potential questions to address design reasons more than developing solutions, that could help to discuss the role of architecture also outside of the school environment.