Kinder Rain Nursery School

The Kinder Rain project was developed within the framework of Italy’s “Scuola Futura” scheme – financed by the country’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR) – to build innovative, sustainable schools that also reflect the architecture and culture of the area. The submission by architecture firm Atelier Architettura Chinello Morandi (AACM) stood out among the many other contenders for its compositional rigor, vernacular character, and pedagogical pertinence. Recently completed, the new nursery school is not only the result of a forward-thinking competition choice; it is also a test bed for all future public-school construction in Italy to be based on quality architecture, social responsibility, and sustainability. It is also an invitation to recenter our profession’s ethical approach.

The kindergarten by AACM is a small village for children. The series of abstract pyramidal volumes references the archetypical Veneto casone: rural dwellings with distinctively shaped thatched roofs traditionally inhabited by local farmers and fishermen. Not just a mere citational exercise, however, this historical typology has been given an essential, contemporary architectural form to reassert a local identity. The result is a compact yet articulated complex whose three main volumes (the classrooms), emerge as plastic exceptions in a continuum of terracotta shingle cladding, this too, a revival of the region’s centuries-old brick and tile building tradition.

The floor plan is organized around a central agora, a communal space visually and functionally connected to the three internal classrooms and their adjacent outdoor learning areas – a layout indicative of an informal teaching approach based on relationships and permeability. The three classrooms and their outdoor patio give onto the institute’s garden, further extending the child’s learning experience. The result is a dynamic,...

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