This is an intervention among the trees of a large green area. There is a single parterre within which are four spaces which hold the sports field, the children’s’ playground and the tree-lined courtyards of the school. The project is articulated by large horizontal planes, and the structure with openings that define, on the exterior, the patios and terraces, and on the exterior, the nuclei of the different sections, interpreting the school as an installation in the park.

Inside, a system of proportions was needed which suited the needs of children. The parts are composed to generate reciprocal visual relationships in order to promote a sense of community and to help the children with orientation and a sense of place and of “taking part”.

The courtyards and terraces become the meeting point of this section. The garden is not around the building but inside, and the space is organized beginning from the outside. The sections delineate, together with the courtyards, an irregular geometry, in which dilating space defines the atmosphere.

The project proposes a “circular” system of internal and external routes which connect the inside and outside without resolution of continuity, removing the need for thresholds and allowing for communication between the sections.

The theme of greenery inside the school unfolds in a double way, the “spontaneous” nature of the patios and the “designed” nature of the green of the terraces, the geometry of the green spaces, gardens and the nature within the greenhouses.

If, on one hand, the introduction of the fence defines the edge of the school activities, guaranteeing the necessary protection, on the other hand it becomes a flexible apparatus. The opening of some modules allows, with relation to the multipurpose hall, a linking of the internal courtyards with the public areas, allowing for usage at times when the school is closed.

The protection/connection relationship between the school building and the city, which the fence and the patios establish, happens through the idea of “carpets” which involve both the space belonging to the school and the adjacent public space. Regarding the different areas of the school complex, the carpets act as functions, materials, vegetation, colour and diverse themes. They give a distinct identity to each one, in a playful mode, and constitute a system of orientation and legibility of the space for the small children. They also remain as places open to invention and modification for spontaneous games and educational activities, either of the school or of the neighbourhood.

The choice of wood as structural material expresses the concept of “fenced area”, and at the same time allows for the maximum off-site prefabrication of the individual units of construction. This reduces construction time and is compatible with the carrying out of existing educational activities.

The structure is based on the use of modular elements and consists of a regular grid of pilasters, alternating in groups of seven, and of the fence, also load-bearing, connected by the planes of the roof and the pergole.