The site of the competition of the nursery school was a grass with a artificial hill that hide a big road. Hills are far and what we tought was that a child would have seen better the big artificial hill close to the school than the very hills. So that, we decided to put all the traditional landscape of pianura padana in the assigned site.
We moved the ground 150 metres long as it was 100 kilometres, creating mountains, hills, lakes with different trees. So very small children could expertise landscape with their eyes, 1 metre tall.
This organized the distribution of the main functions in the plan also. Garden, parking, access, pathways, entrance, views, open and close fronts..
Then we divided the school with a triple program: places for children (classes), for adults (offices, kitchen and services) and for all (the piazza).
This one was the core of the school, the passage between the two gardens, the place where it’s possible to do a lot of activities (to play, to eat, to watch the rain in the patio, to meet parents, to have little shows).
A big importance was given to the relations between the inside and the outside. All the classes face the garden and have glass protuberances like huge bow-windows to enlarge the contact with nature. Besides there are small patios in the classes to feel the weather around and give different kinds of light to the space. Two patios are also in the piazza.
During the nightime all these spaces make enlighten the school, giving a vibrant and lively impression to visitors.
DATA
Zooey is at Reggio Emilia, Italy.
It is a competition made by Fondazione Giulia Maramotti.
Built surface is about 1.200 sm.
Francesca Monti collaborated with us.