With all their load of fears and enthusiasm, basically always the same, tomorrow students and teachers (and staff, and managers) set off for the first day of school. What would be the ideal re-entry?
Enlarged classrooms, spaced desks, tests carried out, staggered entrances, improved protocols. A tremendous job was done for the return to school in Italy. And it still feels like a drop in the bucket. What would the ideal post-Covid school look like if we had the time and resources to build it?
The architecture atelier Valentino Gareri presented its proposal for a sustainable and modular school designed to adapt to the post Covid world.
What will the ideal school be like?
The project proposes a new model of a school building in which external and internal spaces blend together, generating a healthy and well-ventilated environment. Furthermore, as the pandemic has encouraged the relocation of people to less dense areas, the school is also being expanded.
By combining different levels (kindergarten, primary and secondary school) and other recreational functions (a square, a cafe, a library), the ideal post-Covid school can become an important civic reference for any community.
The ideal school? Ring
The project proposed by Gareri includes a modular structure that can accommodate all educational phases: nursery school, primary and secondary school. All the required spaces are inserted in two rings: the volumetric joint allows the creation of two courtyards and a further habitable roof.
The classrooms of the ideal post-Covid school are therefore arranged in a circle, connected to the courtyards and the external landscape. Each 55 m20 module is made of cross-laminated wood and corresponds to an ideal classroom of 25/XNUMX students connected by a central corridor.
Airy like a tree house
The building with its various levels and combined exterior and interior spaces is conceived as a tree house, with high flexibility for educational activities.
The main concept behind the ideal post-Covid school is to create a school immersed and integrated into nature, where the relationship with the outdoors is physically and visibly increased.
The facade of the school building is composed of an alternation of solid wood panels and glass panels. The circular perimeter features opaque panels that help block direct sunlight, while a series of transparent panels diffuse light and offer a wide view of the exterior.
How nice and safe would it be to go to class at such a school?
A versatile and sustainable school
Valentino Gareri's proposal highlights the fact that the ideal school is a sustainable and above all self-sufficient school. It adopts various energy saving devices: rainwater collectors, photovoltaic panels and wind turbines located on the highest roof. A small "energy park" that can be visited and observed by students.
In this way sustainability becomes part of the educational experience of children and young people, who are introduced to this theme through the building itself and can even participate in maintenance.
How it is made?
Made with natural materials and low-cost construction techniques, the school proposed by Gareri has a highly flexible design, adaptable to different functions and programs and offers numerous benefits to the whole community.
The modularity of the design allows for a future extension of the school to accommodate different programs, different numbers of classrooms and also be completely different needs.
For example, in addition to the periodic polling station functions for political elections, the ideal post Covid school could serve as a temporary medical center for emergencies or as a temporary residential unit.
There is no doubt that moving in this direction will mean having understood the "lesson" that the pandemic has taught us. We will truly be able to transform the crisis into an opportunity rebuild a better world starting from everyone's needs. Education, nature, sustainability and health are interrelated factors, and this must always be considered, Covid or not.
It will be complex, difficult, not without obstacles and painful moments. However, with everyone's commitment and enthusiasm, it will become a memorable victory.
