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location:

size:

status:

year:

credits:



Prato, Italy

500m2

competition entry

2008

John Karahalios

George Tsolakis

The central idea of the project is the primary shape of the circle. The choice of this figure is due to its symbolism in pedagogical procedure. The students sit in a circle spontaneously to follow the lesson and listen to the teacher talking. The circle is the shape that reinforces the sense of the whole, sociability and collaboration.



Based on these ideas, the proposal for the kindergarten is organized around the composition of the circular patterns. Each principal function is formed within a circular shape. A circle describes each teaching unit as well, within which other lower circles are contained. The same pattern is applied to the rest areas, the toilets as well as for the canteen.Each unit works with pedagogical autonomy but at the same time participates in a system of relations, both between individual classes, as well as between classes and the free activity space.



An important factor for the project was the way it addresses the park around it. Thus, the school is embedded in the landscape having a relationship of continuity with the environment. Patios are created wherever there are groups of trees, reinforcing the sense of interweaving of the natural with the artificial.

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