La Filastrocca Preschool

Building a new public preschool has a significant social, community, and educational significance, especially in a small provincial town in northern Italy. It marks a commitment by town authorities and designers alike to the future of many children and their families. European funds made available for Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan were allocated by Lugo, a town in the province of Ravenna, to build a new, much-needed preschool that had been in the planning stage for years. Alessandro Bucci Architetti was finally given the go-ahead to flesh out the embryonic ideas developed up to that point and realize the new preschool in compliance with the timeframe and criteria set for the release of the European funds. The requirements of the brief were therefore as stringent as they were ambitious: to construct a building of significance for the community, catering to the needs of Lugo’s youngest residents and comply strictly with challenging requirements.

The fairy-tale world conjured up by the name of the new school – La Filastrocca (The Nursery Rhyme) – is reflected in a project design that takes its cue from the concept of the forest as a metaphor for a protected place of discovery and growth. In keeping with all happy-ending fairy tales, the preschool is a warm, welcoming place stimulating curiosity, play, and learning, encouraging its occupants to explore the seamless boundaries between inside and out. The architecture is here a living organism, shielding without isolating, providing a safe communal place from which to observe the world, learn to live together, and become aware of the natural world.

Abutting a public park on one side and an agricultural land on another, the 1,250 sq. m preschool stands in its own green lot of over 4,000 sq. m. Designed for 150 children, forms and materials reference the forest. Tall branched laminated-wood pillars – both internal and external – stand like tall trees...

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