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Architects: Iñaki Bergera, Iñigo Beguiristain, Javier Larraz
- Area: 1 m²
- Year: 2012
Text description provided by the architects. According to Louis I. Kahn the first school began under a tree, when a man who knew he was a teacher began to discuss what he had learned with others who did not know they were students. Like those students, children under 3 years old learn intuitively and unconsciously. Drawing a parallel with the story of Kahn, one might wonder about the role that tree, that is, architecture, plays in the practice of teaching. We strongly believe in the pedagogical value of architecture and, in the case of a nursery school, its actual capacity to create opportunities that help children to develop suggestive, attractive and safely this stage of their life. The nursery school in Berriozar is established according to a model inherited from the Italian municipal schools of Reggio Emilia, where childcare facilities are primarily organized around a main 'square' that serves as interaction and meeting point and as a space meant for the common activities of the school. Given the distinctive longitudinal proportion of the plot, the square had to be placed in a central position along with two separate courtyards at the ends. Thus, the classrooms and facilities moved into an intermediate position, directly connected to both the central square –illuminated and understood as an outer space– and the playgrounds, treated as an extension of the physical and visual interior spaces.
