The Space of Childhood by Carla Rinaldi

Designing the space of an infant-toddler center or preschool-or perhaps we could just say designing a school-is a highly creative event not only in terms of pedagogy and architecture but more generally in social, cultural and political terms.


The scholastic institution, in fact, can play a very special role in cultural development and real socio-political experimentation, to the extent that this moment (designing) and this place (the school) can be experienced not as a time and space for reproducing and transmitting established knowledge but as a place of true creativity.

Ours is a time of transition, and our generation is transient. Our task is to live a "season of design" in which it is impossible to use the old pedagogical, architectural, ethical, social and educational parameters and values, and in which it thus becomes essential to venture into the new and lay plans for real futures.


Though it is certainly a time of potential disorientation and confusion, of widespread uncertainties and contradictions, it is also an exciting time, rich in possibilities.

Architect T. Zinni