An archeology of the school device

Abstract

Taking as the starting point the historical period in which the characteristics and dimensions of the school device were defined, i.e., between the 19^th and 20^th centuries, a series of examples is proposed to verify the way in which these definitions affect the experience of inhabiting. In order to do so, general architectural cases and those dealing with school design are addressed.   

The article attempts to establish the relationship between the useful lifespan (and the survival) of buildings, norms (their emission and validation) and actions (institutional, pedagogical, educational, social, and collective ones). Furthermore, it poses as a hypothesis that the greatest difficulties when thinking about another way of inhabiting schools are originated in the norms and actions rather than in the forcefulness of the material device (the buildings and their outdoor areas) which has shown a remarkable adaptability capacity throughout history. Finally, it defines the task of reviewing the norms and multiplying the ways of hosting the actions taking into account two objectives of architectural incidence: the recovery of the (long-lived and recent) school campus and the return to school inhabiting in the context of the pandemic.