Kindergarten, Arcore

Description

The kindergarten in Arcore is conceived as a small, autonomous urban organism rather than a conventional school building. Set on a rectangular site partly enclosed by walls and partly open towards a public park, the project concentrates the built volume along the perimeter, reserving a large central garden as a protected outdoor space for children. The building presents itself outwardly as a compact and measured construction, while its interior reveals a rich spatial sequence based on transparency, light and controlled permeability. All internal functions are organised beneath a single reinforced-concrete roof slab, conceived as a unifying horizontal element. Within this large covered volume, the classrooms are arranged as independent transparent “houses”, each associated with a small open court that brings daylight and air into the centre of the plan. Between these nuclei, generous interstitial spaces accommodate collective activities and informal use, reinforcing the idea of the school as a micro-city composed of individual dwellings and shared streets. The functional layout is deliberately clear and legible. Service spaces—offices, kitchen, laundry and dining facilities—are aligned along one edge of the site, while classrooms and activity areas face the garden and the park. Glass partitions, steel frames and carefully detailed fittings ensure visual continuity and supervision, while maintaining acoustic and functional separation where required. Materials and construction are chosen for durability, tactile quality and long-term maintenance. Exposed concrete, solid brick masonry, industrial concrete floors, laminated safety glass and steel joinery define an architecture that avoids decorative excess and relies instead on precision, proportion and material honesty. The result is a civic building that combines robustness with openness, offering children an environment that is at once protected, readable and adaptable over time.