Designing schools in innovation scenarios

Abstract

Architects are being asked nowadays to interpret the expectation of school innovation. Ample room for research and further knowledge and skills is possible, starting from the evidence of the many errors made in the past in the oversight of building performance and referring to a large number of recent projects at an international level. All this, however, is not enough unless it is accompanied by openness to dialogue with the educational scholars and, above all, with the “inhabitants” of schools. This article presents a scenario on the transdisciplinary and participatory approach in the research and design of new learning environments and questions the potential and limits of innovation in school design.