Venezia insegna

Thinking about the famous words on space as a third teacher by Giuseppe Malaguzzi, Italian pedagogist founder of the Reggio Emilia Approach, it is of seminal importance to propose a reflection on the mutual relationship that education and space of the city entertain in Venice. A relationship that is not resolved exclusively within a classroom or building, but which involves campi, calli, fondamenta. This makes Venice happily liveable, or, to use a current word, sustainable. Malagutti’s theory based his pedagogical approach on the belief that school space was one of the educational tools available to teaching, with the same value as the knowledge transmitted in the single disciplines. Currently, it is the belief of the whole international educational avant-garde that the design of new architectures should be based on this pedagogical idea. But the Italian school heritage is mainly composed of schools that occupy buildings born for other purpose. And Venice is no exception. The city that for the whole world is the ancient city par excellence, whose foundation is linked to a myth, demonstrates, among many difficulties, how it is possible to use an extraordinary context to build a normal life and how specificity should and can be an added value.