PROSA (PROtotipi di Scuole da Abitare – PROtotyes of Schools to be Lived) is a research project that focuses on school architecture. Funded as part of the PRIN Programme (Progetti di Ricerca di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale – Research Projects of Relevant National Interest), it was launched in September 2019.

The project stemmed from the partnership between INDIRE and:

• Università IUAV di Venezia
• Politecnico di Milano
• Università degli Studi della Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”
• Università degli Studi di Sassari
• Università Politecnica delle Marche

The interdisciplinary research project is based on the idea that improving the architectural quality of educational establishments across the country is closely related to improving the quality of the education offered and the school experience itself, across the board. Redeveloping educational spaces and environments can, in fact, give new impetus not only to schools, but to the entire urban fabric surrounding them.

In order to achieve this transformation, research brings together different skills to establish strong interdisciplinary links between pedagogical sciences, architecture and urban studies.

The PROSA research objectives are:

• to define new quality standards to improve schools across the country architecturally, in a comparable way without ignoring the differences exhibited by the various contextual settings, based on the comparison of data acquired by the various institutions and associations and research centres;
• to establish design strategies to add urban value to school buildings by developing master plans and layouts of case studies identified through significant sampling in the four research regions of reference (Lombardy, Veneto, the Marches and Sardinia), plus one that is particularly significant for the number and importance of school complexes (Campania, for example);
• to create innovative visual communication prototypes and digital and product teaching tools, taking into account the need to build and renovate schools as “landscapes of widespread learning”;
• to draw up spatial models capable of conveying morphologically and volumetrically, both in regeneration as well as in new construction, performance needs in terms of structure and energy saving.

INDIRE’S ROLE

INDIRE’s contribution to the PRIN PROSA project involves:

1. creating an Atlas of Innovative Schools, which documents actual experiences of innovative spaces and settings in support of student-centred teaching;
2. drafting Guidelines for the construction/redevelopment of schools that apply the model in the “4+1” Manifesto, based on a flexible design of spaces making them adaptable to the educational and organisational needs of a constantly changing school.

The project is due to conclude by September 2022.