Over 469 years after the construction of the first Brazilian school—built in Salvador, Bahia, by Jesuits who taught reading, writing, arithmetic, and Catholic doctrine—school architecture remains indistinguishable within the urban fabric of most Brazilian cities. Characterless and rigid buildings, unable to connect with their surroundings due to enclosing walls, were once described by architect Mayumi Souza Lima as "structures [that] could just as easily be meant for children, bags of beans, or cars, since they are merely covered areas, with a ceiling and a floor."
Seeking to change this reality, the Environment-Education Group (GAE) has spent the last decade researching ways to improve the quality of early childhood education environments, producing content on pedagogical spaces, school architecture, and their connection to public spaces. The group is based at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism (FAU) of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
Reversing the confinement of children and designing schools that foster interaction with the community and the territory have been the driving themes behind the group's latest publications. In May of this year, architects Giselle Arteiro, Vera Tângari, and Paulo Alfonso Rheingantz released the publication From School Space to Educational Territory: The place of architecture in the dialogue between the full-time school and the city.
